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This is a corporate biography page for Ray Dalio on the Bridgewater Associates website; it has minimal direct relevance to AI safety research but may appear tangentially in discussions of organizational culture or decision-making principles.
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Summary
This page provides a biographical overview of Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, covering his journey from childhood investing beginnings to building one of the world's largest hedge funds over 47 years. It describes his various leadership roles and transition to mentoring the next generation of leaders.
Key Points
- •Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater in 1975 from a two-bedroom apartment, growing it into a global investment institution over 47 years.
- •Dalio served as CEO, CIO, and Chairman at various points, stepping down from all executive roles by end of 2021.
- •He began investing at age 12 while caddying, making his first stock purchase based on price alone — a formative experience in his investment philosophy.
- •Dalio is now focused on mentoring and passing along the 'principles' he developed to help others succeed.
- •The page frames his career as a life journey narrative, emphasizing the culture and principles that shaped Bridgewater's unique approach.
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| Bridgewater AIA Labs | Organization | 66.0 |
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Our Founder
Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater in 1975 from his two-bedroom apartment and grew it over 47 years into the global institution it is today. Over those years, Ray served in a variety of positions, including Bridgewater’s CEO, CIO, and Chairman, shaping the firm’s innovative approaches to investing and its unique culture. He stepped down from being CEO in 2017, as CIO in the summer of 2020, as Chairman at the end of 2021, and is now focused on mentoring those at Bridgewater and beyond.
Here we tell the story of Ray's life and career journey, from first becoming an investor, then starting and building Bridgewater, to now being in a new phase of his life after he turned the firm over to the next generation of leaders and is primarily focused on passing along the principles he learned to help others succeed.
Ray’s Life Journey
Ray grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood, his father a jazz musician and mother a homemaker. He got hooked on investing at age 12 when caddying at a local golf course at a time when the market was hot and everyone was talking about stocks. He saved up his caddying money to buy his first stock, Northeast Airlines, describing this first investment as "the only company that I ever heard of that was selling for less than $5 a share. This was a stupid rationale of course, but I got lucky as the company was nearing bankruptcy but got bought out, which led it to triple.” That experience set Ray on a path to becoming one of the most successful investors of his time 1 .
In high school, he had no interest in studying but continued to have a passion for "playing the markets." He barely got into CW Post college but, because he was able to pursue his passion and major in finance, he graduated at the top of his class. In 1969, he learned the practice of Transcendental Meditation, to which he attributes much of his success. After graduating college in 1971, he went directly to Harvard Business School where he received an
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