G erald J. Ford is a self-made American billionaire with a highly successful career in banking and finance. A lawyer by training, he began his career by buying a series of small banks in Texas and consolidating them. He built this into a major banking enterprise which he later sold to Bank of America for a massive profit.

He has since repeated this successful "buy-and-build" strategy multiple times in the banking industry. His primary investment vehicle is Ford Financial Fund, a private equity firm that specializes in acquiring and turning around distressed financial institutions. One of his most notable deals was the acquisition of the California-based bank, Golden State Bancorp, which he also later sold to Citigroup for billions. He is also the chairman of Hilltop Holdings, a publicly traded Texas-based financial holding company, and is a major philanthropist, particularly to his alma mater, Southern Methodist University.