Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper knows how to skillfully navigate crises, reason enough why he remains one of the most successful and richest hedge fund managers in the world. The Carnegie Mellon grad founded Appaloosa in 1993 with just $57 million. Eight years later in the aftermath of the dot-com crash, he went all in, betting on distressed credit that later rebounded dramatically. That move ultimately put his name on the map and he returned a whopping 61% in 2001. He struck gold again in 2009 during the aftermath and recovery from the Global Financial Crisis, earning an astounding $7 billion by investing in dirt cheap financial stocks and bonds that had bottomed. The billionaire investor closed his fund to new investors soon after it scored hefty returns and he rose to fame. Tepper said in 2019 that he planned to convert Appaloosa into a family office. Nowadays, the 65-year old manager spends much of his time overseeing the Carolina Panthers football team, which he bought for $2.3 billion in July 2018. As of the end of the first quarter, Appaloosa’s top equity holdings included Alphabet , Amazon and Uber.
