Ray Dalio

Dalio started Bridgewater Associates in a spare bedroom in 1975 and built it into the largest hedge fund in the world. Principles sets out the management system he ran it on, in which meetings are recorded, employees rate one another continuously in public, and disagreement is compulsory. Former staff, and the reporting in Rob Copeland's 2023 book, describe that culture as closer to fear than to candour; Dalio disputes the account. Big Debt Crises is the more technical work, a study of debt cycles that he gives away free. He stepped back from control in 2022.