Richest hedge fund manager sets off my A-Dar

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From Wikipedia with my highlights
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"In 1982, Simons founded Renaissance Technologies Corporation, a private investment firm based in New York with over $20 billion under management; Simons is still at the helm, as CEO, of what is now one of the world's most successful hedge funds.[1] Simons earned an estimated $2.5 billion in 2008[1], $2.8 billion in 2007[2], $1.7 billion in 2006,[2] $1.5 billion in 2005,[3] (the largest compensation among hedge fund managers that year[4]) and $670 million in 2004. With an estimated current[update] net worth of around $8.5 billion[5], he is ranked by Forbes as the 55th-richest person in the world [6] and 29th-richest person in America.[5] He was named by the Financial Times in 2006 as the world's "smartest" billionaire.[7]

Simons lives with his wife in Manhattan and Long Island, and is the father of three.

Simons shuns the limelight and rarely gives interviews, citing Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm for explanation: "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies."[8]"

Autism research

The family's charitable foundation has committed $38 million to find the causes related to autism in recent years, and plans to spend another $100 million in what is becoming the largest private investment in the field of autism research, while Simons personally exerts extraordinary control over where and how his money is spent. Simons has provided DNA from his family for study, and has given assistance in helping solve research problems. When MIT asked for brain research funding, he stipulated that the project focus on autism and include scientists of his choosing.

On June 11, 2003, the Simons Foundation hosted its first "Panel on Autism Research" in New York City, a day-long event highlighting research into the causes of autism, the accurate genomic mapping of autism, and in the study of the biochemical mechanisms that occur in people with autism. Attendees included David Amaral, Dr. Eric Courchesne, Dr. Nathaniel Heinz, Tom Insel, MD, Catherine Lord, PhD, Dr. Fred Volkmar and Dr. Paul Greengard. The Simons Foundation recently gave $10 million to two researchers at the Yale University Child Study Center to study genetic influences on autism.
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