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Who

A protégé of George Soros, Stan Druckenmiller heads Duquesne Capital Management, a hedge fund with more than $8 billion under management.

Backstory

Druckenmiller once dreamed of being an English professor. The poor guy never achieved his goal but the nearly $4 billion he has in the bank should serve as some consolation. A self-proclaimed "hick from Virginia," Druckenmiller studied English at Bowdoin before enrolling in a PhD program in economics at the University of Michigan. He ended up dropping out to take a job as a stock analyst for the Pittsburgh National Bank, later leaving to start up Duquesne in 1981 with just $1 million. In the late 1980s, Druckenmiller moved to New York to work at the Dreyfus Fund. (He kept Duquesne in operation although it wasn't his primary focus.) Seven years later, George Soros tapped him to join Soros Fund Management, telling colleagues at the time that he'd "found his clone."

As the Hungarian hedge fund legend turned his attention to philanthropy and various political causes during the '90s, it was the thirty-something Druckenmiller who managed the firm's legendary Quantum Fund, collecting more than a billion dollars in a single day in 1992 when he and Soros bet big against the British pound. In 2000, after tech stock losses gouged the flagship fund, Soros edged Druckenmiller out and installed his sons to manage the fund. These days Druckenmiller tends to Duquesne full-time.

Of note

Druckenmiller could easily have quit the business after leaving Soros, but he focused his energies into building up Duquesne. ("This business is a bit like a drug. When you are doing well, it's hard to quit," Druckenmiller conceded.) He's followed a similar investment strategy to the one he pursued at Quantum—he makes wagers on macroeconomic trends by trading stocks, bonds, and currencies—and has generated annual returns in excess of 25 percent over the past decade. He also manages the Windmill Master Fund, which invests in distressed companies.

Keeping score

Druckenmiller is estimated to have taken home $500 to $600 million in 2007, according to Trader Monthly. Forbes pegged his net worth at $3.5 billion in 2008.

Pet causes

A close pal of Paul Tudor Jones, Druckenmiller is a longtime board member of Jones's Robin Hood Foundation. He's also a major donor to New York University and donated $45 million to the NYU Medical Center in 2008. Other causes close to Druckenmiller's heart: He's on the board of the Children's Scholarship Fund and Memorial Sloan Kettering and serves as chairman of the board of Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone. He's one of Bowdoin's most prolific donors, too. He handed the school a record $30 million in 1997.

Personal

Druckenmiller is married to Fiona Biggs, the niece of former Morgan Stanley strategist Barton Biggs. (They met when they both worked for Pittsburgh National Bank.) It's a second marriage for both. The Druckenmillers have three daughters—Sarah, Tess and Hannah—and live on East 72nd Street. They have a weekend house in Southampton, where Drucknmiller is a founding member of the Sebonack Golf Club. The family also owns an estate in North Palm Beach, Fla., which they purchased for $6 million for in the mid-1990s.

Toys

An auto collector, Druckenmiller keeps more than a dozen cars at his Southampton manse. Like Oprah and Steven Spielberg, Druckenmiller is also the owner of a Bombardier Global Express BD-700 (retail price: $45 million), which he parks at Teterboro airport.

True story

Druckenmiller's friendship with Paul Tudor Jones dates back more than two decades. Jones was the center of attention at Druckenmiller's splashy 41st birthday party, which took place at his Southampton home in the early 1990s. Druckenmiller hired The Pointer Sisters to perform, and an inebriated Jones reportedly tossed his coat at one of the Sisters and later threw a drink at the birthday boy himself.