Appaloosa Management · CC BY-SA 3.0

Founded Appaloosa Management, a hedge fund built on a distinctive strategy of buying distressed corporate debt when other investors judged it worthless — a bet that paid off dramatically during the 2009 financial-crisis recovery. Tepper later became the owner of the NFL's Carolina Panthers and MLS's Charlotte FC, and donated $67 million to Carnegie Mellon, his alma mater, whose business school now carries his name.