Marcel Erni

Marcel Erni is the cofounder of Partners Group, a Swiss private equity firm with more than $131 billion in assets under management.

He started Partners Group in 1996 with fellow billionaires Alfred Gantner and Urs Wietlisbach; the trio had all worked at Zurich's Goldman Sachs.

The firm was reportedly created in a 300-square-foot office with Ikea desks, with its founders pooling together $100,000 for its startup capital.

Partners Group went public in Switzerland a decade later, and Erni still owns roughly 5% of the stock.

The University of Chicago alum also did a stint at McKinsey & Co. and has a PhD in finance and banking from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.