Great investors in history: Georges Doriot

Georges Doriot set out to encourage private sector investment in companies run by soldiers who were returning from the Second World War.

Dr Matthew Partridge
By
published
in Features

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Georges Doriot: Wall Street had become too risk averse

Georges Doriot was born in Paris in 1899. He briefly served as an officer in the French army during World War I, before finishing his degree in 1920. He moved to America to do an MBA at Harvard Business School. He dropped out after a year to work on Wall Street, but in 1925 returned to Harvard as an assistant dean.

During World War II he served in the army as a quartermaster, rising to the rank of brigadier general. In 1946, he founded venture capital fund American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC), which he ran until 1971.

What was his strategy?

Did this work?

What were his biggest successes?

What are the lessons for investors?

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri

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