Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, has handed over control of the $150 billion firm to a new generation of investors, Bridgewater said on Tuesday. After 12 years of trying, Dalio has given up control of the firm he built into the world’s largest hedge fund, entrusting its future and $150 billion in assets to a younger generation of leaders with their own ideas about investing.

On September 30, he transferred all of his voting rights to the board of directors and stepped down as one of Bridgewater’s three co-chief investment officers. However, he remains a meaningful owner of the $150 billion hedge fund and will have a new title of “founder and CIO mentor,” the firm said.

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Who is Ray Dalio?

Raymond Thomas Dalio is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager. He founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York, and ran it for most of its 47 years. Within ten years, it was infused with a $5 million investment from the World Bank’s retirement fund. Since 1985, he has served as co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates.

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Ray was born on August 8, 1949, in New York City. He is the son of a jazz musician, Marino Dallolio. He graduated with a BS in Finance from Long Island University (CW Post College) in 1971 and earned an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1973. He has been married to Barbara Dalio for more than 40 years. They have four sons and five grandchildren. Their oldest son, Devon, died in a road accident in 2020 at age 42.

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Dalio is regarded as one of the greatest investors in the finance world, having popularized many commonly used practices, such as risk parity, currency overlay, portable alpha, and global inflation-indexed bond management. His investment innovations changed the way global institutions approach investing. He has received several lifetime achievement awards. During his career, he has been a valued macroeconomic advisor to many policymakers around the world.

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According to Forbes, Ray Dalio has a net worth of $19.1 billion as of October 5, 2022.

Dalio is also the New York Times bestselling author of Principles: Life and Work, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises.

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He is an active philanthropist with special interests in ocean exploration and helping to rectify the absence of equal opportunity in education, healthcare, and finance.