Gerald Tsai Jr. was one of the most influential financiers of the 1960s and the first Chinese-American C.E.O. of a Dow Jones Industrials company.

Mother Knows Best

Gerald Tsai Jr. revolutionized Wall Street and put Fidelity on the map with the help of one unlikely adviser—his mother, Ruth, the first woman to trade on the floor of the Shanghai Stock Exchange

By Justin Baer

Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop

Gerald Tsai Jr. was the star stock picker of the “Go-Go 60s,” a period defined by the market’s love for Polaroid, Xerox, and other tech darlings that once held Wall Street as spellbound as Nvidia and Tesla do today. Later, when the bull market faded, Tsai emerged as a formidable Wall Street deal-maker and the first Chinese-American to run a Dow Jones Industrials company.

And he owed it all to his mother.