Printable Biography of Dennis Tito

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Applying science to the art of money management, Tito and his team of 250 professionals utilize mathematical formulas to advise a wide variety of institutional and high net worth investors worldwide. Founded in 1972, Wilshire advises on about $1 trillion in assets, directly manages about $10 billion in assets, and provides analytical tools to some 350 institutions around the world

Focused on his goal to participate in the U.S. space program, Tito earned a B.S. in Astronautics and Aeronautics from NYU College of Engineering and a M.S. from Rensselaer in Engineering Science. He began his career as an aerospace engineer with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the age of 23. While serving at JPL, he was responsible for designing the trajectories for the Mariner spacecraft missions to Mars and Venus. Even though he left to pursue a career in investment management, he has always remained interested in and committed to the exploration of space.

Employing the same methodology he used to determine a spacecraft's path, Tito is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative analytics that uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. In 1974, Tito developed the Wilshire Total Market Index (The Wilshire 5000), the broadest stock market index that Federal Reserve officials cite as a barometer of the U.S. economy.

Under Tito's guidance, Wilshire has consistently been an industry pioneer. As the world began entering the computer age, Wilshire integrated computers with engineering and investment concepts to provide some of the first data to money managers, ultimately shaping modern portfolio management theories. Among milestones in Wilshire's history:

-Created the first asset-liability model for pension funds. -One of the first investment management firms to advise clients to invest in index funds. -Developed the first custom style indexes to evaluate equity managers and developed portfolios to match these indexes. -Advanced the first comprehensive small stock index, the Wilshire 4500. -In the area of trading, Wilshire again was in the forefront creating a fourth market among large institutions to trade stocks at almost no cost and was one of the first to create a transaction cost measurement system. -Among the first to use performance-based fees after the SEC approved the idea and in 1990 to develop a quantitative approach to measuring manager style, called the "style map." -Among the first to integrate currency hedging into an asset allocation framework. -Aided in the development of the first-ever "Corporate Restructuring Fund" in South Korea - the country's first closed-end mutual fund - to provide capital to small and medium-sized firms in the wake of the financial crisis in Asia.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1999, Tito noted "You don't get to Mars by luck. It's like threading a needle (from) 10 miles away. In dealing with the stock market, you could just throw darts and end up with a portfolio that might luck out and beat the market, but you don't get to Mars that way."

A philanthropist and civic leader, Tito supports and is actively involved in many charitable and civic causes including establishing the Dennis A. Tito Gene-Nutrient Interaction Laboratory at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition. He formerly served as President of Commissioners for the Department of Water and Power of Los Angeles.

On April 28, 2001, Tito made history by becoming the first individual to personally pay to travel in space. Launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Tito served as a crewmember of an eight-day Russian Soyuz taxi mission to the International Space Station. By fulfilling his 40-year dream to travel to space, Tito captured the imagination of millions of people worldwide and renewed interest in the United States space program .