Mario Gabelli

Early Life

Mario Gabelli, born in The Bronx, New York, to Italian immigrant parents, demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. He began buying stocks at the age of 13. He attended Fordham Preparatory School and graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 1965 with a degree in accounting. He later earned an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Rise to Success

Gabelli's career began at Loeb, Rhoades & Co. in 1965, where he worked as a security analyst. In 1976, he founded Gabelli & Co., an institutional brokerage house. A year later, he founded Gabelli Investors, which later became Gamco Investors (now Gamco Asset Management Company Investors), an investment firm. Gabelli's firm went public in February 1999.

Key Business Strategies

Gabelli is a proponent of value investing, often analyzing a firm in great detail to calculate its private-market value. His investment philosophy, Private Market Value with a Catalyst™, focuses on identifying companies trading below their intrinsic value. He has been successful in generating high returns for his investors through this approach.

Philanthropy

Gabelli and his wife, Regina, are signatories of The Giving Pledge. He has contributed to numerous educational institutions, including Fordham University, Boston College, and Columbia Business School. His contributions have led to the renaming of the business schools at both Fordham and Roger Williams University in his honor.