David G. Booth, ’71
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BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN
David G. Booth, ’71
Age: 53
Campaign Contribution: $10 million toward the GSB’s new integrated campus
Current Position: Chairman and CEO, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), Santa Monica, California
Career Highlights: After working on Wells Fargo’s first index fund, Booth joined Becker Securities as assistant vice president of funds evaluation in 1975. In 1981, he left an established position selling investment counseling services for Becker to launch his own entrepreneurial initiative with GSB alumni Rex A. Sinquefield, ’72, and Jeanne Sinquefield, A.M. ’71, Ph.D. ’72 (sociology), M.B.A. ’79. The three formed Dimensional Fund Advisors, a fund management firm that relies fully on academic theories of efficient markets. A radical move at the time, DFA was the first firm to introduce a fully indexed small company fund. It currently manages more than $30 billion in assets and is one of the largest institutional fund managers in the United States.
Family Life: Booth lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Suzanne Deal Booth, and their two children.
GSB Connections: All-encompassing. DFA was founded on the academic theories of GSB faculty members, and many of them serve or have served on its board of directors, including George Constantinides, Eugene Fama, Jack Gould, Merton Miller, Myron Scholes, and Roger Ibbotson. Booth also was a member of the GSB centennial committee and has been a representative at recruiting forums and receptions. The GSB honored Booth and his partner, Rex A. Sinquefield, with the 1999 Distinguished Entrepreneurial Alumni Award.
On Supporting the GSB Campaign: “I have a big debt to the University of Chicago. I owe them a lot. . . . We [Booth and the Sinquefields] built a business around everything we were taught at the GSB,” said Booth, who added that he wanted to do something in exchange for the education he received at the GSB. “Dean Hamada told me this [gift] would make us even, and now I’ve squared myself away with the university.” He added, “At first, I wasn’t going to publicize my gift, but I decided it is important that people not only commit [to the campaign] but also publicize their gifts to encourage others to give similarly.”––A.R.
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