Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an American businessman and author, known for the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of personal finance books. He is the founder of the Rich Dad Company, a private financial education company that provides personal finance and business education to people through books and videos, and Rich Global LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

In 1977, Kiyosaki started a company called “Rippers” that marketed nylon and Velcro wallets. The company eventually went bankrupt and he took a job as a sales associate for Xerox until June 1978.

In 1993, Kiyosaki published his first book, If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go To School. In his book, he encouraged parents not to send their children to college and instead to enter the real estate business.

In 1997, Kiyosaki launched Cashflow Technologies, Inc., a holding company that owns and operates the Rich Dad and Cashflow brands. Kiyosaki created the Cashflow board and software games to educate adults and children about business and financial concepts.