Bloomberg Billionaires Index (2024)

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Druckenmiller's fortune is derived from the proceeds he's earned running hedge funds for more than 30 years. Most of his money is managed through Duquesne Family Office, a New York-based investment group he started with $3 billion in 2010.

The billionaire managed about $8.3 billion in assets through his family office in December 2023, based on Bloomberg calculations using investment returns cited in news reports, an analysis of tax returns filed by the Druckenmiller Foundation - a philanthropic entity also managed by Duquesne, and industry averages from RBC's North American Family Office Report.

Druckenmiller also invested $1 billion at the time of the founding of PointState Capital, a hedge fund started in 2011 by former Duquesne money managers. In December 2021, he was estimated to have more about $1.7 billion with PointState and other hedge fund managers, based on a Bloomberg index of hedge fund returns.

He declined to comment on his net worth through spokesman Shawn Pattison in March 2023.

Education: Bowdoin College, University of Michigan

Stanley Freeman Druckenmiller was born in Pittsburgh on June 14, 1953, to Stanley and Anne Druckenmiller. His father was a chemical engineer and a veteran of DuPont Co., and his mother was a golf and stock market enthusiast. His parents separated while he was in elementary school. He has two sisters, Helen and Salley, and a brother, Kurt.

Druckenmiller was an avid Little League pitcher, and excelled at sports including golf, bocce and badminton. After graduating in 1971 from Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia, he attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The six foot five inch student gained a reputation as an expert pool player who could practice because he didn't need to study for classes. He acted in a couple of plays, and graduated magna cum laude in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in English and economics.

He quit two semesters into his coursework for an economics doctorate at the University of Michigan, opting to take a job as a stock analyst at the predecessor to PNC Financial Group. He ascended quickly and was named research director and then head of investments in 1979. He started Duquesne Capital Management in 1981 with $1 million in various separate accounts.

Druckenmiller joined Dreyfus Corp. in 1986 and was soon running its main Dreyfus Fund. That same year while at Dreyfus, he started his first hedge fund at Duquesne. He side-stepped the 1987 crash by selling out the morning of the collapse.

Druckenmiller read "The Alchemy of Finance" by George Soros and recognized they shared the same investment style. Soros hired him to run his biggest hedge fund, Quantum, in 1988. That year Druckenmiller divorced his college sweetheart and married Fiona Biggs, a star analyst at Dreyfus and the niece of famed investor and market prognosticator Barton Biggs.

Druckenmiller bet against the British pound in 1992 on the belief that the Bank of England had insufficient reserves to prop up its currency. Quantum forced a devaluation, earning a profit of more than $1 billion. Several months later, he earned another $1 billion betting against the Swedish krona and later won shorting the Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit.

There were losses too. Druckenmiller lost $2 billion in 1998 on collapsing Russian stocks and bonds, though still posted a gain for the year. Two years later, bets on the expanding technology bubble wracked up losses. He resigned from Soros Fund Management before the end of that year.

He then focused on Duquesne and continued his successes, boasting an annualized 30 percent return for his career when he decided to close the hedge fund in 2010, tired of the stress of managing other people's money. He continues to operate Duquesne as a family office in New York, where he lives with his wife.

Milestones

• 1953 Born in Philadelphia, son of a DuPont labor relations negotiator.

• 1971 Graduates from college preparatory school in Richmond, Virginia.

• 1975 Receives English and economics degree from Bowdoin, magna cum laude.

• 1976 Joins PNC predecessor as stock analyst, later promoted to research chief.

• 1981 Founds Duquesne Capital Management with $1 million in separate accounts.

• 1986 Takes over management of flagship Dreyfus Fund under Howard Stein.

• 1988 Marries Fiona Biggs, niece of Barton Biggs, at home of Jack Dreyfus.

• 1988 Leaves Dreyfus to take reins Soros Fund Management's Quantum fund.

• 1997 Donates $36.5 million to build science center at Bowdoin College.

• 2010 Announces plan to retire after 30 years of investing others money.