david tepper is regarded as a prominent investor and hedge fund manager in 1993 tepper co founded appaloosa management l p 
with a net worth exceeding 16 7 billion david tepper is recognized as one of the world s prominent billionaires 1investopedia julie bangearly life and educationdavid tepper was born in pittsburgh pennsylvania on sept 11 1957 he graduated from the university of pittsburgh in 1978 with a bachelor s degree in economics and earned an mba in 1982 from carnegie mellon university tepper s early career in finance began with positions at equibank republic steel and goldman sachs appaloosa management l p in 1985 david tepper joined goldman sachs as a credit analyst on the high yield debt team in new york as a head trader tepper remained at goldman sachs for seven years a specialist in distressed debt particularly bankruptcies and special debt situations tepper left goldman sachs in 1993 to launch appaloosa management l p with his former colleague jack walton investing in debtas a limited partnership hedge fund appaloosa brought together a small group of wealthy investors appaloosa used high risk methods such as investing with borrowed money to realize large capital gains targeting the debt of companies in distress appaloosa s first investment was in the now bankrupt algoma steel appaloosa would continue to bet and succeed on bond purchases of troubled companies like enron worldcom marconi corp and williams co these companies contributed to a 150 gain in tepper s portfolio position 3at its inception with 57 million in capital appaloosa delivered a 57 return on its assets within six months the fund s worth grew steadily from 300 million in 1994 to 800 million in 1996 and in 2022 appaloosa managed 3 82 billion worth of assets 4the crashdavid tepper s aggressive style and confidence are often seen as his best traits as a hedge fund manager following the 2008 subprime mortgage crash when panicked sellers were driving down the value of financial institutions like bank of america and citigroup tepper was investing in them the hedge fund tycoon purchased nearly 2 billion in face value commercial mortgage backed securities floated by aig when the u s government intervened in the survival of the banks appaloosa profited by 7 billion david tepper s investments following the 2008 market crash are often viewed as some of the greatest market trades ever made 5family officein 2019 david tepper announced that appaloosa would eventually move to a family office continually returning capital to its investors each year at the time appaloosa managed 14 billion worth of assets with 70 of that total belonging to david tepper 6as the fund moves into a family office appaloosa will return all capital balances to every investor who doesn t have a direct familial relationship with tepper this may entail closing the fund or creating a new private entity david tepper would then gain a greater degree of privacy flexibility and control over both his investment assets and personal affairs with which business sectors did appaloosa achieve success david tepper s investment in banks aig energy enron and telecommunications marconi helped define appaloosa s success 7