Gary A. Tanaka

Who is Gary A. Tanaka?

Gary A. Tanaka is a Japanese-American businessman, sportsman and philanthropist who co-founded the investment company Amerindo Investment Advisors in 1979 along with Alberto Vilar.

Tanaka was born during World War II in the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho. He graduated from MIT, then earned a PhD degree at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom with a dissertation on the mathematics of the transition from laminar to turbulent flow in a fluid flowing over a solid surface. He lives in London with his wife and two children in a house which was once Dwight D. Eisenhower's wartime headquarters. Tanaka has two adult sons, Mark Tanaka, who is also a fund manager, most recently of Sanno Point Capital Management and Michael Tanaka, a notable businessman based in the UK.

Tanaka was perhaps best known for his donation of £27m to Imperial College, which resulted in construction of the Tanaka Building in 2004, designed by the international architecture, planning and design studio Foster and Partners. The building houses Imperial College Business School, and combines the business school's facilities with a new front entrance for the College.