RE:Thomas Kaplan Back At It
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#1741 Thomas Kaplan
- Real Time Net Worth As of 6/13/15
- $1 Billion
Thomas Kaplan on Forbes Lists
Natural resource investor Thomas Kaplan became fascinated with commodities as a doctoral student studying history at Oxford University, where he wrote his dissertation on how demand for tin and rubber effected the Malayan counterinsurgency. In 1993, he founded Apex Silver Mines to cash in on the metal's rising prices and left the company in 2004. He founded Leor Exploration & Production in 2003 and sold the company's natural gas field for $2.55 billion in 2007, investing the proceeds in gold and silver and acquiring substantial holdings in mining development firms NovaGold Resources, NovaCopper Inc. and Gabriel Resources. Kaplan has developed a reputation for being bullish on gold, and correctly predicted the steep increase in the commodity's price following the Great Recession. Kaplan serves as chairman of the famed 92nd Street Y in Manhattan and as executive chairman of Panthera, a foundation dedicated to the preservation of wild cats that he cofounded with his wife Daphne in 2006.