S id Richardson Bass is an American investor and philanthropist, and the eldest of the four famed Bass brothers of Texas. He and his brothers inherited a significant fortune from their great-uncle, the legendary oilman Sid Richardson. While the initial wealth came from oil, Sid Bass took the helm of the family's investment operations and transformed them from a regional oil and gas enterprise into a sophisticated and powerful global investment firm.

Educated at Yale and Stanford Business School, Bass applied modern investment principles to the family fortune. He became known for his savvy and often contrarian investments in major public companies. One of his most famous and profitable deals was a major investment in the Walt Disney Company in the 1980s, which helped the company fend off a hostile takeover and led to the installation of Michael Eisner as CEO, ushering in a new era of growth for Disney. Bass has operated for decades out of a famously private office in Fort Worth, making large, quiet investments across various sectors and cementing his reputation as one of America's most astute and reclusive financiers.