Eddie Lampert is one of the most popular and richest Financier who was born on July 19, 1962 in Roslyn, Roslyn, United States. In April 1988, Lampert left the bank to form ESL Investments, based in Greenwich, Connecticut (the name ESL derives from Lampert’s initials). Richard Rainwater, whom Lampert had met on Nantucket Island, gave him $28 million in seed money and introduced him to clients, such as David Geffen.
In 2003, Lampert was kidnapped from the parking lot of his Greenwich office, but was able to persuade his captors to let him go after two days of captivity.
Lampert’s earnings in 2004 were estimated to be $1.02 billion, making him the first Wall Street financial manager to exceed an income of $1 billion in a single year. In 2006, Lampert was featured on the Time 100 list for most influential people in the world for being one of the “brightest minds on Wall Street” and leading a new class of activist hedge funds. Lampert was the richest person in Connecticut in 2006 with a net worth of $3.8 billion.
Lampert’s father died and his mother took a job as a clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue. His mother would later say: “Eddie really assumed the responsibility, knowing that life had changed and we had to accomplish something by ourselves now.” In order to help support his family, Lampert worked after school and on weekends at various warehouses, stocking shelves and filling orders. Despite working, he earned good grades, played both soccer and basketball, and won the scholar athlete award at his high school. He received financial aid to help pay for college. Lampert graduated from Yale University in 1984 (B.A., economics, summa cum laude), where he was a member of Skull and Bones and Phi Beta Kappa.
In July 1984, Lampert worked as an intern at Goldman Sachs, and then worked in the firm’s risk arbitrage department from March 1985 to February 1988. While there, he worked directly with Robert Rubin. When Lampert decided to go out on his own, Rubin warned him it would be a bad career decision.
In 2001, Lampert married Kinga Keh, an attorney with whom he has three children. They own houses in Indian Creek Village, Florida, in Aspen, Colorado (designed by the interior designer Naomi Leff), and in Greenwich, Connecticut (designed by the architect Michael Dwyer and the interior designer Rose Tarlow). The couple are active members of their local Chabad house.
