Mario Gabelli

Forbes Magazine listed him as #1725 in December 2023 on the list of Billionaires, with a net worth of $1.7 billion US dollars.

Mario Joseph Gabelli (born June 19, 1942) is an American stock investor, investment advisor, and financial analyst.

He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Gabelli Asset Management Company Investors (Gamco Investors), an investment firm headquartered in Rye, New York.

Gabelli, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in The Bronx and went to Fordham Preparatory School, where he graduated in 1961.

He has said he read market reports for fun when he was very young and that he bought his first stock when he was 13 years old.

Created more than a half-century ago at the recommendation of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, The National Judicial College, based in Reno, NV since 1964, remains the only educational institution in the United States that teaches courtroom skills to judges of all types from all over the country, Indian country and abroad.

In February 2023, Gabelli generously established an endowed professorship in finance at the LePenta School of Business.

In addition to this gift, he has also made a pledge to advance strategic initiatives on Iona's new campus in Bronxville, home to the New York-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences.

In April 2022, Gabelli was inducted into Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc., and received the Horatio Alger Award.

The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc., is a nonprofit educational organization honoring the achievements of outstanding individuals and encouraging youth to pursue their dreams through higher education.

For more than 70 years, the Horatio Alger Award has been annually bestowed upon esteemed individuals who have succeeded despite facing adversities, and who have remained committed to higher education and charitable efforts in their communities.

In October 2022, Gabelli made a $2 million contribution to Case Western Reserve University to establish the Mario J. Gabelli Distinguished Professorship in Finance.

Case Western celebrated the inaugural chairholder at a campus ceremony on October 12, 2022.

Gabelli won a scholarship and graduated from Fordham University summa cum laude in 1965.

He received his Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School.

At Columbia, he was taught by Roger Murray, noted value investing professor and co-author of the Fifth Edition of Security Analysis, The Graham & Dodd Value Investing Bible.

Gabelli and his firm later launched the Graham & Dodd, Murray, Greenwald Award for Distinguished Value Investors.

This award is presented yearly at his Annual Client Symposium.

After graduation, Gabelli accepted a position at Loeb, Rhoades & Co. as a security analyst responsible for coverage of farm equipment, auto parts conglomerates and later media and broadcasting.

Gabelli put into practice the theory of value investing he had learned at Columbia.

He rated companies not by earnings but cash flow, analyzing a firm in great detail to calculate what he called private-market value: not the share price at which a stock was selling on an exchange, but the price per share someone would be willing to pay in order to buy the whole company.

In 1976, Gabelli formed Gabelli & Co., an institutional brokerage house, with borrowed funds and money he had accumulated trading his own account.

Soon after Gabelli formed Gabelli Investors (later Gamco Investors) to manage money for clients.

Gabelli's first investment vehicle for the general public, The Gabelli Asset Fund, launched in March 1986 as a no-load fund requiring a minimum of $25,000 to invest.

Later, and today, this fund is available for a minimum investment of $1,000 and accepts IRA investments without a minimum.

The Asset Fund was later followed on by The Gabelli Equity Trust, a closed-end fund, which, at the time, was the largest equity offering on the NYSE.

By the end of 1988, Gabelli's firm had three mutual funds—two run by himself—with combined assets of $650 million.

In 1997, when ten Gabelli equity funds averaged a return of 31.7 percent, the best of any U.S. mutual fund group, Gabelli was honored by Morningstar, Inc. as the domestic equity fund manager of the year.

By 1998, Gabelli Asset Management Inc. was managing $16.3 billion.

In February 1999, the company went public selling 6 million shares, or about twenty percent of the common stock at $17.50 per share.

On January 10, 2000, Gabelli was inducted into the "Barron's All Century Team," their list of the most influential mutual fund industry portfolio managers.

Di Montezemolo's motto was "you make a living by what you do - you make a life by what you give" Gabelli has been on the AICF Board of Directors since 2000.

On September 28, 2023 Gabelli was honored by the National Judicial College with the "Making the World a More Just Place" award.

The Institutional Investor selected Mario Gabelli as 2010 Money Manager of the Year for its second annual U.S. Investment Management Awards.

The award selection was based on performance as well as a survey by U.S. institutions.

Signators of The Giving Pledge, Gabelli and his wife Regina joined the cause in 2017, which is a commitment by the world's wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back.

Mr. Gabelli was named an honorary member of Local 6 and the Hotel Trades Council in December 2019 and formally inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans on April 2–4, 2020, during the Association's 73rd Horatio Alger Award Induction Ceremonies in Washington, D.C.

According to Forbes magazine, Gabelli's net worth was $1.4 billion as of April 2020.

On November 8, 2023 Gabelli was honored with the Alessandro di Montezemolo Lifetime Achievement Award.

Established in honor of Alessandro di Montezemolo, co-founder of the American-Italian Cancer Foundation, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes outstanding individuals that exemplify the highest standards of commitment to philanthropy.