Antony Ressler

Drexel and Apollo created the foundation for Ares

Ressler spent five years at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he gained experience in leveraged and high-yield credit. Forbes says that after Drexel collapsed he helped cofound Apollo with former colleagues, giving him an early ownership role in one of the alternative-investment industry's major firms. ^[1]

He later cofounded Ares in 1997, initially as a credit business associated with Apollo. The firm's focus on understanding and pricing credit risk positioned it for the expansion of institutional private credit that became central to Ares' later growth. ^[1][2]

Ares expanded into a large public alternative asset manager across credit, private equity, real estate and infrastructure. Ressler remained cofounder and executive chairman, preserving founder economics as the firm's fee-earning assets and public equity value increased. ^[2][1]

Founder ownership matters more than the firm's client assets

Ares manages hundreds of billions of dollars for outside investors, but those assets are not Ressler's personal wealth. His economic interest comes from ownership in the manager, investment participation and other founder economics tied to the firm's performance and market value. ^[2]

Ressler later led the purchase of the Atlanta Hawks, adding a major sports asset to his portfolio. That investment diversified wealth already created through finance, while the core fortune still traces back to the ownership stakes and investment-management economics built through Apollo and especially Ares. ^[1]