Who

Jim Chanos is head of Kynikos Associates, a short-selling hedge fund with $3 billion under management. Appropriately, the word "kynikos" means cynic in Greek.

Backstory

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Chanos graduated from Yale and cut his teeth at Paine Webber, Gilford Securities and Deutsche Bank, where he specialized in finding overpriced stocks and made a name for himself by predicting the demise of piano maker Baldwin-United. The late 1990s were not kind to Chanos—he was one of the only short-sellers to have made it out of the bull market with a business to speak of—but he reaped his rewards when the markets tumbled in 2000 and 2001. In 2000, Kynikos' Ursus Partners fund generated a nearly 50% return when many other funds were in negative territory, and he performed equally impressively in 2001. These days Chanos manages about $3 billion as part of Kynikos's Ursus and Beta hedge fund families.

Of note

Chanos is best known for being the first to call Enron on its accounting shenanigans, tipping Fortune magazine reporter Bethany McLean in the process. Shorting Enron made Chanos a fortune—and remains his claim to fame—but the fund also made a pretty penny shorting Tyco long before Dennis Kozlowski became front-page news. The downturn in the economy is now providing Chanos with plenty of fresh opportunities. According to Trader Monthly, he took home $300-$350 million in earnings in 2007 thanks to the market turmoil.

Campaign trail

A longtime Democratic donor—he gave more than $100,000 to the party in 2006 and '07—Chanos has also been very active dealing with Congress on behalf of the industry. Chanos chairs the Coalition of Private Investment Companies and most recently has been speaking out against changes in the law that would raise tax rates for private equity firms.

Personal

Chanos and his wife Amy had four children before divorcing in 2006. He lives on the Upper East Side, and has a weekend home on Further Lane in East Hampton. He also has a condo in Miami Beach.

No joke

Chanos once hung a Gerhard Richter painting in his office reception area, but says he decided to take it home after a client mistook it for a child's finger-painting. It now hangs in his bedroom.