Robert A. Levy

Levy was born and grew up in the working class Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His parents ran a small hardware store. He attended college at American University, where he earned a Ph.D. in business in 1966. Twenty-five years later, at the age of 50, he attended George Mason School of Law, where he received his JD in 1994.

After earning his Ph.D. and serving in the U.S. Air Force, Levy resided in Silver Spring, Maryland, and founded CDA Investment Technologies, an institutional money manager and provider of financial information and software. The company grew to have offices in Rockville, Maryland, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, and London. It was particularly well known for its performance measurement rankings and compilations of institutional portfolio holdings. CDA's tabulations triggered a variety of articles in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Levy sold the company in 1986 to Dutch publishing firm Elsevier for an undisclosed amount. In 1987, Elsevier sold CDA to The Thomson Corporation for a profit. Levy stayed on as CEO through both sales, retiring from his position in 1991 to attend law school.

In 1976, Levy married Diane Stearn, who was his neighbor from birth until age seven. They live in Naples, Florida. They have a son and two grandchildren.

Levy has been a significant donor to a number of pro-liberty public policy organizations. The Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Studies is named in his honor, as is the moot court room at the Institute for Justice. Levy also established a Fellowship in Law and Liberty, which encourages talented scholars to pursue a JD degree at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. The atrium of the law school bears his name.