Ira Leon Rennert (born May 31, 1934) is an American billionaire businessman, and the chairman and CEO of Renco Group. Background and education Rennert's parents were immigrants from Poland and Romania. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1954, and earned his master's degree from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1956, where he later was on the Board of Overseers. Early career Rennert started his career as a credit analyst on Wall Street in 1956. He also served as a partner at Rubin, Rennert & Co. before launching his own business, I. L. Rennert & Co., in 1962. At this time he was censured by the National Association of Securities Dealers for operating with insufficient capital. It occurred again in 1963, and as a result, his license was revoked on November 29, 1964, effectively banning him from the securities industry. According to a company spokesman, Jon Goldberg: "Due to market conditions, the firm found itself in violation of the net capital rule and Rennert raised capital and put it into the firm to bring it into compliance. However, the firm once more fell beneath the net-capital requirements and he shut the company down." Junk bond financing Michael Milken—as a bond trader for Drexel Burnham Lambert—was successful in selling high-risk, high-yield bonds issued by struggling or undercapitalized companies. Integrated Resources raised $2 billion in junk bonds financed by Milken but ultimately collapsed amid scandal and defaulted on $1 billion of bond debt in May 1989 (see the 1991 book Den of Thieves about the junk bond scandal). As an outside board member, Rennert was not dragged down by the collapse and began to raise junk bonds on his own behalf to finance acquisitions for the Renco Group. Rennert's strategy for building Renco was to acquire all the shares of struggling companies and to finance the acquisition by issuing junk bonds. Along the way, he paid substantial dividends out of the business to himself. In a series of junk bond issues since 1995, Renco's subsidiaries have borrowed an estimated $1.1 billion and transferred $322 million (29 percent) to Renco Group, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Backed by blue-chip mutual funds and hedge funds such as John Hancock Funds LLC and Putnam Investment Management LLC, Rennert now didn't have to invest much of his own money. His purchase of AM General in 1992 was