An African American billionaire, Robert Smith is sponsoring the education of 24 Chibok schoolgirls in American University, Yola in Adamawa State.
The
identity of the good Samaritan was revealed today by Malam Garba Shehu,
senior special assistant on the media to President Muhammadu Buhari at
an interaction with media men in Abuja.
The
billionaire, Shehu also revealed is offering to take responsibility for
the 21 girls freed in October and all the others who will hopefully be
eventually set free.
Who is Robert Smith?
He
is a 54 year-old businessman, who attended good American colleges such
as Cornell and Columbia universities.At Cornell, he picked a bachelor of
science in chemical engineering and an MBA at Columbia. He lives in
Austin, Texas.
According to a short bio written on
him by Forbes, he was the son of Ph.D holders and was bussed across
town to his school in the early days of desegregation.
“He
later convinced Bell Labs when he was in high school to give him an
internship typically only available to college upperclassman by calling
them weekly for five months.
“Smith quit Goldman Sachs to open his own private equity shop, Vista Equity Partners, in 2000," Forbes reported.
The company is worth over $26 billion, according to wikipedia.
“Neuberger
Berman bought a stake in the $16.9 billion (assets) Austin, Texas firm,
best known for fixing up enterprise software outfits, in July 2015,” Forbes reported.
“That same month, Smith married 2010 Playboy Playmate of the Year Hope Dworaczyk in Italy
Forbes
listed him as the 274th richest man in the United States as at 27
December, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. He is ranked 688th in the
world.Some other reports put his net worth at $3billion.
He is a self-made man, who made his money in private equity investments.
And before then, he struggled early to get what he wanted.
According
to his story, as a junior at Denver’s East High School in the 1970s, he
showed a fascination for the geekiest subject there: Computer science.
The
transistor held particular wonder for him. This small device, a crucial
valve controlling the flow of electrons within a computer, had been
invented at Bell Labs. Bell had a nearby office. Maybe he should work at
Bell, too.
After securing the number, Smith
phoned and inquired about a summer internship. Yes, Bell did have one,
he learned, but only college upperclassmen could apply.
Smith
had straight A’s in math and computer science. Would that count? No,
Bell said, it would not. Undaunted by this initial rejection, Smith
called back every day for two weeks—HR stopped answering after Day 2—and
then cut back on how often he called …to every Monday for five months.
Eventually,
he was rewarded for his doggedness. After an MIT student didn’t show up
in June, Bell called Smith. Could he come in for an interview?
“I
ran my own race. I knew what I wanted, and my persistence paid off, and
I came in and interviewed. They liked me, and I got the internship,” Smith said in a commencement address at American University in 2015.
“In fact, I worked there for the next four years during summer and winter breaks.”
After leaving Cornell, he worked at Kraft General Foods, where he earned two United States and two European patents.
He
then attended Columbia Business School, where he graduated with
honours. From 1994-2000, he joined Goldman Sachs in tech investment
banking, first in New York and then in Silicon Valley.
As
Co-Head of Enterprise Systems and Storage, he executed and advised on
over $50B in merger and acquisition activity with companies such as
Apple, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, eBay and Yahoo.
He was the first person at Goldman Sachs to focus solely on Tech M&A and foreign countries.
In 2000, he set up his own company, Vista Equity Partners.
According
to a Wikipedia post, Vista has exclusively focused on the enterprise
software, data and technology enabled solutions sectors. Among Vista’s
portfolio companies are Misys, TIBCO, Solera, Active Network, Bullhorn,
Omnitracs, and Newscyle.
In January 2015, based on
its performance over the last 10 years, Vista Equity Partners was named
the world’s Number One performing private equity firm, according to the
HEC-Dow Jones annual ranking conducted by Professor Oliver Gottschalg.
Preqin,
a consulting firm that tracks the industry, reported that Vista’s third
fund returned $2.46 for every dollar invested, better than every other
big fund raised between 2006 and 2010, the boom years for private
equity.
In October 2014, Vista closed its Fund V at $5.8 billion, its largest fund to date.
As a successful African-American, Smith has been generous hearted.
In
January this year, he announced a $50 million gift to his alma mater
Cornell University, which renamed its school of chemical and
bio-engineering after him. In June he was named chairman of Carnegie
Hall.
In September, he donated $20million to the
National Museum of African American History and Culture. his private
gift, as reported by Washington Post was the second largest behind Oprah
Winfrey, the richest African-American, who gave $21 million.
Smith
has received the Reginald F. Lewis Achievement Award, the Humanitarian
of the Year Award from the Robert Toigo Foundation, and the Ripple of
Hope Award from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Smith
was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of International Affairs from
American University’s School of International Service.
He
founded Project Realize– termed “Free Market Philanthropy”– in order to
combine the best elements of the American free enterprise system with
the core American ideals of giving back and lifting others up.
No wonder, he is willing to lift the Chibok schoolgirls out of their predicament and give them a dream education.
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