Randall Smith

He met his first wife Kathryn Smith, when both were Cornell students, and she earned a PhD in political science. They have a son, Caleb Smith, who was profiled in 2011 in the Dallas-based D Magazine, and a daughter. Kathryn Smith died of ovarian cancer.

In 2007, Smith founded Alden Global Capital, and is its chief of investments.

In 2002, together with his second wife Barbara (a Houston native), and his brother Jeffrey Smith, they bought the historic 100-room 1924 Sam Houston Hotel, extensively remodelled it, and reopened it in 2005 as the Alden Hotel.

In 1998, he acquired the Bryan Tower, a 40-story downtown office building in Dallas, Texas, and his son Caleb Smith oversaw the renovation for his father's company Spire Realty, which he now runs.

His younger brother Russ Smith founded the Baltimore City Paper and the Washington City Paper, which he sold for $4 million, and in 1989 founded the New York Press.

Smith was a partner at Bear Stearns from 1975 to 1995, where he founded the convertible arbitrage department and later focused on investing in distressed assets.

He started his first investment firm at home while still working for Bear Stearns, with $20,000 he and his wife won in the late 1960s on Dream House, a television game show.

Randall Duncan "Randy" Smith (born 1942) is an American hedge fund manager, and the founder and chief of investments of Alden Global Capital.

Randall Smith was born in 1942. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1965, followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1967.