Stanley Druckenmiller

Early life and education

Druckenmiller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Anne and Stanley Thomas Druckenmiller, a chemical engineer. He grew up in a middle-class household in the suburbs of Philadelphia. His parents divorced when he was in elementary school and he went to live with his father in Gibbstown, New Jersey (a section of Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey) and then in Richmond, Virginia (his sisters, Helen and Salley, would stay with their mother in Philadelphia). Druckenmiller is a graduate of Collegiate School, Richmond, Virginia. In 1975, he received a BA in English and economics from Bowdoin College (where he opened a hot dog stand with Lawrence B. Lindsey, who later became economic policy adviser to President George W. Bush). He dropped out of a three-year Ph.D. program in economics at the University of Michigan in the middle of the second semester to accept a position as an oil analyst for Pittsburgh National Bank.

Investment career

Druckenmiller began his financial career in 1977 as a management trainee at Pittsburgh National Bank. He became head of the bank's equity research group after one year. In 1981, he founded his own firm, Duquesne Capital Management.

In 1985, he became a consultant to Dreyfus, splitting his time between Pittsburgh and New York, where he lived two days each week. He moved to Pittsburgh full-time in 1986, when he was named head of the Dreyfus Fund. As part of his agreement with Dreyfus, he also maintained management of Duquesne. In 1988, he was hired by George Soros to replace Victor Niederhoffer at Quantum Fund. He and Soros famously "broke the Bank of England" when they shorted British pound sterling in 1992, reputedly making more than $1 billion in profits. They calculated that the Bank of England did not have enough foreign currency reserves with which to buy enough sterling to prop up the currency and that raising interest rates would be politically unsustainable. He left Soros in 2000 after taking large losses in technology stocks. Since then, he has concentrated full-time on Duquesne Capital. He is profiled in the book The New Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager. According to Bloomberg News, on August 18, 2010, Druckenmiller announced the closing of his hedge fund "telling investors he'd been worn down by the stress of trying to maintain one of the best trading records in the industry while managing an 'enormous amount of capital.'" Duquesne Capital Management posts an average annual return of 30 percent without any money-losing year. His funds were down for about 5 percent when he announced his retirement in August. However, they had since erased the losses and closed with a small gain through successful bets that the market would rally in anticipation that the Federal Reserve would announce further "Quantitative Easing" to assist in reducing unemployment and avoid deflation.

According to the Wall Street Journal, on August 18, 2010 Druckenmiller "told clients that he's returning their money and ending his firm's 30-year run, citing the 'high emotional toll' of not performing up to his own expectations." He indicated it was not easy to make big profits while handling very large sums of money.

Investment philosophy

Druckenmiller is a top-down investor who adopts a similar trading style as George Soros by holding a group of stocks long, a group of stocks short, and uses leverage to trade futures and currency.

Personal life

Druckenmiller has been married twice. In 1976, he married his high school sweetheart; they divorced in 1980. In 1988, Druckenmiller married Fiona Katharine Biggs, niece of investor Barton Biggs, in a Episcopalian ceremony. Druckenmiller has three daughters with Biggs.

Political and economic views

Druckenmiller advocates reducing spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security. Druckenmiller was a major supporter of Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. In 2015, Druckenmiller donated $300,000 total to the presidential candidacies of Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich.

Wealth and philanthropy

In 2009, Druckenmiller was the most charitable man in America, giving $705 million to foundations that support medical research, education, and anti-poverty, including a $100 million gift to found a Neuroscience Institute at NYU School of Medicine.

Druckenmiller is also Chairman of the Board of Harlem Children's Zone, a multi-faceted, community-based project. Harlem Children's Zone was founded by Druckenmiller's college friend and fellow Bowdoin College alumnus Geoffrey Canada. In 2006, Druckenmiller gave $25 million to the organization. In 2013, Druckenmiller and Canada toured college campuses urging reform in taxation, health care, and Social Security to ensure intergenerational equity.

Druckenmiller and his wife are also principal sponsors of the New York City AIDS walk. The Stanley F. Druckenmiller Hall, built in 1997 at Bowdoin College, is named after Druckenmiller's grandfather and was dedicated to Bowdoin by Druckenmiller himself.

Pittsburgh Steelers

In July 2008, Druckenmiller emerged as a potential investor in the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise of the National Football League. The five sons of Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. were working to restructure ownership of the team, and Druckenmiller was contacted by a member or representative of the Rooney family about buying the shares of several of the Rooney brothers. On September 18, Druckenmiller withdrew his bid to purchase the team.

Former Steelers President Dan Rooney stated that he has no ill will toward Druckenmiller, mentioning that he hopes the financier remains a great Steelers fan.