Robert F. Smith: Biography, Net Worth, Vista Equity Partners

Robert F Smith's Net Worth and Biography. 

Who is Robert Smith the billionaire?

Robert Smith is an American businessman, investor, chemical engineer, and philanthropist. He is also the founder, CEO, and chairman of Vista Equity Partners, an investment firm.

Robert Fredrick Smith was born on December 1, 1962, to the family of Dr. William Robert Smith and Dr. Sylvia Myrna Smith in Denver, Colorado. Smith attended the Carson Elementary School and East High School in Denver where he completed both his elementary and high school education.

While at high school, Smith applied for an internship at Bells Labs but was later informed that the program was strictly for college students. Five months later, he was accepted for the internship after so much persistence and the absence of an M.I.T student in the internship. He got accepted for a summer internship and he developed a reliability test that could be used on semiconductors. In 1985, Smith graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. In 1994, he bagged a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University.

How did billionaire Robert Smith make his money?

In his early career life, Smith worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, then later worked at Air Products & Chemicals, before moving to Kraft General Foods where he worked as a chemical engineer and won two European patents. After getting his MBA with a concentration on finance and marketing in 1994, he got a job with Goldman Sachs, working in technology investment banking, until 2000. He first worked in New York City, then Silicon Valley. He played a major role in the merger and acquisition activities of big companies including Apple and Microsoft. Smith has since been recognized for his impactful contributions and innovations in the business world.

What does Robert Smith do for a living?

After leaving Goldman Sachs in 2000, Smith moved on to establish his own private equity and venture capital firm, Vista Equity Partners, where he is the principal founder, chairman, and chief executive.

The private firm has since grown over the years, making waves in the industry. Fourteen years after its founding, Vista Equity Partners closed its Fund V at $5.8 billion. In 2015, the firm was named the best performing private equity firm for the previous 10 years. This was in accordance with the HEC-Dow Jones annual ranking led by professor Oliver Gottschalg. Vista’s results were put together by Preqin, a consulting firm that tracks the industry. According to the firm, Vista’s got a return of $2.46 for every dollar invested in its third fund, far better than other big funds established between 2006 and 2010.

In 2017, it was reported that Vista Equity Partners had $30 billion under management, with its founder Smith named as the Private Equity International’s 2016 Game Changer of the Year. By 2019, Vista had over $46 billion in cumulative capital commitments. In May that same year, the firm put a bid to buy Kantar, a data analytics business owned by WPP.

Vista Equity Partners has largely grown over the years owning over 50 software companies with about 60,000 employees worldwide. It is the largest enterprise software company following Mircosoft, Oracle, and SAP. Exclusively, Vista is focused on enterprise software, data and technology sectors. Listed in Vista’s portfolio are companies such as Lithium, Infoblox, TIBCO, Mediaocean, Finastra, Solera, Datto, Cvent, and EAB.

Personal Life

Smith married his first wife, Suzanne McFyden Smith in 1988. She was his fellow Cornell alum. They were married for 22 years until 2010 when they separated, and their divorce finalized in 2014. Smith has three kids from his first marriage: Zoe, Eliana, and Max (Smith).

In July 2015, Smith married his second wife, Hope Dworaczyk, a fashion editor, healthy living advocate, and a former Playboy playmate. Together they have two sons: Hendrix Robert Smith (age 5), and Legend Robert Smith (age 4).