David G. Booth was born on 21 November 1946, in Lawrence, Kansas USA, and is a businessman best known to be the co-CEO and co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors. He is also known to have made the largest donation to a business school at $300 million, but all of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is David Booth? As of late-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $5 billion, mostly earned through the success of Dimensional Fund Advisors. Thanks to his large donation, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business was renamed to the University of Chicago Booth School Of Business. All of these ensured the position of his wealth.
David Booth Net Worth $5 billion
After matriculating from Lawrence High School, David attended the University of Kansas, graduating with a degree in economics in 1968. The following year, he secured an MS in business, and then enrolled at the University of Chicago GSB in 1969, and left the school in 1971 with an MBA degree; prior to leaving, he was a research assistant to Eugene Fama and also met Rex Sinquefield.
Booth initially worked at Wells Fargo Bank, which he helped pioneer index fund investing. He then joined Sinquefield in 1981 to create Dimensional Fund Advisors. The type of investments they focus on are “small” low capitalization stocks, “value”, and non-US stocks. The firm would eventually grow to manage over $300 billion, and has affiliates all over the world, including in Singapore, The Netherlands, UK and Japan. As of 2016, Dimensional was reported to have $414 billion in assets; among other celebrities, Arnold Schwarzenegger is known to be an investor. In 2009, the company acquired SmartNest which is software used for retirement planning. The company sells through financial advisors, and have trained professionals all over the United States and internationally.
Along with this success, he has published several academic articles, including “Diversification Returns and Asset Management” which won the 1992 Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence. David also serves on many institutional boards, including being a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome, Trustee of the University of Chicago, and Board of Directors of Georgetown University.
For his personal life, it is known that David married Suzanne Deal Booth in 1988; they have two children, and the family resides in Austin, Texas. He has also become well known for his philanthropic work, namely donating $300 million to his alma mater. The payment to the school is being given over a period of years, hoping to help the school publications and professional development. Other donations include $10 million to construct a new campus building, and $9 million to fund the Booth Family Hall of Athletics at the University of Kansas. He also supports art restoration projects, creating the Friends of Heritage Preservation which restores historical sites and art works. In 2010, David purchased the original 1891 copy of James Naismith’s “rules of basketball” for around $4.3 million. This currently holds the world record for purchase price of an item of sports memorabilia.
