2004
Jim Rogers is considered one of the true legends of Wall Street. He co-founded the Quantum Fund, a global investment partnership, in the 1970s, and for the next decade oversaw a growth of more than 4,000 percent in the company’s portfolio. Rogers then retired — at age 37.
From 1990-1992, Rogers took a motorcycle trip of more than 100,000 miles, crossing six continents and setting a Guinness world record. His best-selling book, Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers, is an account of the trip and takes an intriguing and analytical look at the interplay of factors that drives successful nations and economics upward while others spiral downward and collapse.
As an encore, Rogers and Paige Parker, his future wife, set out on January 1, 1999, to chronicle the world at the turn of the Millennium. From 1999-2001, they completed a history-making overland trip which took them to 116 countries and covered 152,000 miles. Adventure Capitalist details the adventures of another Guinness world record trip.
Born 1942, Rogers’s entrepreneurial efforts began early in Demopolis, Alabama. At age five, he had his first job picking up bottles at baseball games. The next year he sold soft drinks and peanuts at Little League games. Wanting to start his own business, Rogers borrowed $100 from his father to buy a peanut parcher. Five years later, after taking out profits along the way, he paid off the loan and had $100 in the bank.
Rogers did not attend Auburn University, but certainly brought his experience as a citizen of the world to the Plains. As an early member of the International Board of Advisors for the College of Human Sciences, he helped advance the college within a global context. Following his first world tour, Rogers delivered the distinguished Mildred Brown Davis Lecture, sharing his knowledge as an investor and economist, as well as his love of travel with the campus and community.
Rogers has served as a professor in the Columbia University Graduate Schools of Business and International Affairs. He is a highly regarded media commentator and columnist, and his career success has been featured in numerous book, periodicals, and newspapers.
Rogers holds a bachelor’s in history from Yale University and a master’s in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University’s Balliol College. He and Paige live in New York City with their young daughter, Hilton Augusta.
Jim Rogers sold his New York City home and now resides in Singapore. He is chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc., which owns and sponsors the Rogers International Commodities Index created by Rogers in the late 1990s. He also created a new index, the Rogers Global Resources Equity Index, in 2011. Rogers has authored four more books, including 2009’s A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing and Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets in 2013.
