Ivan Boesky is the money-loving inside trader whose behavior in the 1980s inspired the famous fictional Wall Street character Gordon Gekko.
In just under 25 years, Boesky went from serving as a law clerk in Detroit to being the man who almost single- handedly killed the Wall Street boom era of the 1980s.
Boesky's journey from college failure to Wall Street workaholic is one of a man who was addicted to money and the life lifestyle it provided.
And today, at the age of 75, he's not in bad financial shape either.
Detroit-born Boesky married the daughter of a wealthy real estate tycoon
Boesky was born in 1937, and his parents were immigrants from Russia. His father was a Detroit restraunteneur who owned delicatessens, restaurants and bars.
At the age of 25, Boesky married Seema Silberstein of Detroit in 1962.
Her father, Ben Silberstein, knew that Ivan liked Seema for her family's money, and he frequently called him "Ivan the Bum".
Ben Silberstein said that Ivan had "the hide of a rhinoceros and the nerve of a burglar".
Boesky got a law degree
Boesky attended three colleges, including the University of Michigan, but failed to receive an undergraduate diploma.
He later received his law degree, at the age of 27, from the Detroit College of Law in 1964.
In 1966, Boesky got a job on Wall Street.
Ivan started working as a law clerk and then as a tax accountant in Michigan. Then in 1966, he and Seema Boesky moved to NYC and into a Park Avenue apartment that Seema's father had paid for.
Boesky landed a job as a securities analyst at the merchant and investment banking firm L.F. Rothschild. He then moved to the First Manhattan company where he worked from 1968 to 1970.
After that, he served as a general partner at Edwards & Hanly from 1972 to 1975.
But, Ivan wanted his own securities business.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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