Robert F. Smith: Who is the billionaire paying off Morehouse graduates' student loans?
"Robert F. Smith changed my life." That's what at least one of the Morehouse College graduates said upon learning that Smith, the richest African-American in America, would eliminate all of the grads' student loan debt.
Smith, 56, was the school's keynote speaker on Sunday and received an honorary degree.
The school said his gift was worth about $40 million. He previously announced a $1.5 million gift to the school.
Smith is worth an estimated $5 billion as the founder of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Forbes reports that Smith also has more than $46 billion in assets and runs one of the best-performing private equity firms.
And yes, his fortune is worth more than Oprah's, though her $2.5 billion is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Smith founded the company in 2000 and invests in technology and software around the world.
But aside from his obvious business acumen, Smith has a long history of generosity and when it comes to musical tastes, just wait until you read who performed at his wedding.
Here's what else we know about the billionaire who just changed a lot of lives.
1. Smith, a Denver native, is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia Business School. After graduation, he landed a gig at Goldman Sachs. But his interest in the tech world may also be credited to good old-fashioned persistence. In high school, he interned at Bell Labs, calling every week for five months until he got the job.
While at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco, he advised other tech giants including Apple and oversaw mergers at Microsoft, Texas Instruments and eBay.
Cornell renamed its school of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering after him when he donated $50 million to the school.
2. Giving back matters. Smith is the largest private donor to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. He was also the first and only African-American business leader to sign "The Giving Pledge," an initiative created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
Under the pledge, wealthy individuals give more than one-half their wealth to causes such as poverty alleviation, disaster relief and global health and education.
3. According to the New York Times, Smith has created programs for music education and minority entrepreneurship in Austin, Texas, where he has a home.
4. Smith is either involved in or at the helm of a number of causes. In 2016, he became the first African-American chairman of the prestigious Carnegie Hall.
He was named chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and is a member of the Leadership Circle for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.
5. Smith married 2010 Playmate of the Year, Hope Dworaczyk, in a lavish ceremony on Italy's Amalfi Coast. Dworaczyk, who hails from Port Lavaca, Texas, and Smith had star-studded nuptials.
Singers John Legend, Seal and Brian McKnight were all there. The stars are even somewhat reflected in his personal life, as one of his sons with Dworaczyk is named Legend. Their other child is named Hendrix, after icon Jimi Hendrix.
Smith has three children from a previous marriage.
His love for music is also expressed in his ties to another icon, Elton John, with Smith owning one of his pianos.
6. You might catch the tech titan fly fishing in his spare time -- if he even has any. In a 2015 profile with Columbia, he said that the activity helps him become "more mindful, more thoughtful."
ORIGINAL STORY: Billionaire pledges to pay Morehouse College class of 2019's student loans
