David Tepper, the hedge fund billionaire from Stanton Heights, went off script to tell the Carnegie Mellon University graduating class of 2018 that he was nervous before giving the keynote address.
He had already received an honorary doctorate as a philanthropist and “one of the most successful investors of this generation,” whose $125 million in donations to the university include more than $60 million for the Tepper Quad and Tepper School of Business. The building is scheduled to open in the fall.
On Sunday, from the stage in CMU’s Gesling Stadium, he was preparing to talk about how “a kid who couldn’t afford to go to an NFL game until he was 20 was on the verge of becoming the owner of the Carolina Panthers.