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Who

Edens is the chairman and CEO of Fortress Investment Group, the first US-based private equity/hedge fund to sell shares in the public markets.

Backstory

Edens attended Oregon State University before heading into finance, serving as a partner at Lehman Bros in the late 1980s followed by stints as a managing director at BlackRock and as head of global principal finance at UBS. In 1998, he teamed up with Peter Briger, Robert Kauffman, Randall Nardone, and, later, Mike Novogratz to form the private equity firm and hedge fund Fortress.

The founders took Wall Street by surprise in 2006 when they announced plans to go public, marking the first time a private equity firm had sought to tap into the public markets. In February 2007, shortly after selling a minority interest to Japanese investment firm Nomura for $890 million, Fortress raked in $600 million in the IPO, valuing the stake held by Fortress's principals at $9.7 billion. The move helped set off the wave of hedge fund and private equity firms that soon followed suit, including Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson's Blackstone and Dan Och's Och-Ziff Capital Management. These days Fortress has some $43 billion in assets under management, spread across several private equity and hedge funds. Unfortunately, the meltdown in the credit markets has pummeled both Fortress's returns as well as its stock price.

Keeping score

Forbes estimates Edens' net worth at $1.6 billion.

Campaign trail

Edens is a dedicated Democrat. He's donated thousands to area Dems including Chuck Schumer, Jon Corzine, and Chris Dodd.

Personal

Edens and his wife, Lynn, have four children and live on Central Park West. They also own a horse farm in North Salem, NY and a home on Martha's Vineyard.