"M" is for Moore, Darla Dee (b. 1953)

"M" is for Moore, Darla Dee (b. 1953). Businesswoman, philanthropist. A Lake City native, Moore is a partner of Rainwater, Inc., one of the largest private investment firms in the country. She is also founder of the Palmetto Institute, a private policy research group. After graduating from USC and obtaining an M.B.A. from George Washington University, she went to work for Chemical Bank in New York City. In 1997, Fortune labeled her “The Toughest Babe in the Business, the first time it profiled a woman in a cover story. A year later she was named to Fortune’s list of the top fifty most powerful women in American business (she ranked nineteenth). Over the past twenty-five years Darla Dee Moore has donated more than one hundred million dollars to South Carolina universities and cultural institutions.