W. Russell (Russ) Ramsey

W. Russell “Russ” Ramsey is a successful entrepreneur, financier, businessman, educational leader and philanthropist. Over the course of his career, he has built multibillion dollar businesses primarily in the fields of investment banking and money management, led a major university, invested in dozens of start-up companies and has been an active philanthropic investor, primarily helping at-risk families.

Ramsey is most widely known for co-founding Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group (FBR) in 1989, a top-ten investment bank for which he was president and co-chief executive officer through 2001. He was responsible for many innovative and creative new businesses during his time at the firm. He created Ramsey Asset Management in partnership with FBR in 2001 and remained active with the firm until 2007 when he retired as a director.

Mr. Ramsey is also the founder, chairman, and CEO of Ramsey Asset Management (RAM), an alternative asset management firm with aggregate assets in excess of $500 million. Founded in 2001, RAM is an institutional firm which has a range of directional equity-hedging products which leverage a common research platform, fundamental analysis, and a proprietary approach to identifying investment opportunities. Key to the firm's approach is identifying those companies that exhibit either improving or declining business prospects for which the firm believes its view is sufficiently divergent from that of Wall Street.

Ramsey also served on the George Washington University (GW) Board of Trustees, beginning in 1998. From 2006 until 2013, he served two terms as chairman of the board, overseeing the creation and staffing of the university's first investment office, playing a critical role in the university surpassing the $1 billion threshold in its endowment, and directing several special board committees including the presidential search committee that selected the 16th president of the university, and Square 54 which oversaw the development and analysis of alternatives for monetizing the Washington Circle redevelopment.

Ramsey was elected chairman emeritus of GW’s board of trustees in 2013, and was presented with a doctor of public service, honoris causa, in May 2014. In 2005, the Ramsey family donated $1 million to George Washington University (GW) to create the GW Ramsey Student Investment Fund (GW RSIF), an investment portfolio run by GW MBA students, providing real world finance and investment experience. Since its inception, the GW RSIF has served as a foundation for the establishment and growth of the GW Investment Institute. Now, both GW MBA and undergraduate students manage approximately $8 million of endowment capital across four student investment funds and multiple asset classes. The endowment payout from GW RSIF supports the GW Ramsey Scholars program where each academic year the top 10 students receive $5,000 each and a GW Ramsey Scholar designation. To date $150,000 has been awarded to 30 GW Ramsey Scholars. Mr. Ramsey currently serves as chair of the GW Investment Institute Governing Board.

In March 2014, Ramsey was named chairman and CEO of Washington 2024, where he, along with vice chairman Ted Leonsis, oversaw the organization charged with securing the nation’s capital with the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. After the United States Olympic Committee awarded the U.S. bid to Boston in early 2015, Ramsey was at the forefront of conversations and organized efforts to capture the energy sparked by the campaign and redirect it toward the economic prosperity of the greater Capital Region. Russ received a B.S. in Business Administration from the George Washington University and was named to the GW All-Century Baseball Team and Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 2016, these efforts led to the formation of the Greater Washington Partnership (GWP), a first-of-its-kind collaboration of CEOs in the greater Washington region, spanning the nation’s third largest economy from Baltimore to Richmond. The Partnership is addressing the critical economic issues facing the region to ensure it remains one the world’s best places to live, work and build a business. GWP is now working to advance inclusive, actionable solutions that strengthen the regional economy and position greater Washington as a leading global region and center for commerce and innovation. Ramsey is co-founder and executive committee member of GWP.

He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Washington-Baltimore chapter of the World President’s Organization (WPO), a member of the board of directors of DC-CAP, advisory board member of the Cancer Moonshot 2020 Panel (launched by then-Vice President Biden), and is an advisor/investor to many emerging growth companies.

Ramsey is a native Washingtonian. He attended GW on a baseball scholarship (and is a member of the GW Athletic Hall of Fame and All-Century Team). He lives with his wife, Norma, in Northern Virginia and has four children – Paige, Mark, Eric and Samantha. Through the W. Russell and Norma G. Ramsey Foundation, the Ramseys are actively committed to philanthropic causes that provide education and wellness programs to those in need.