Sheldon Adelson
Sheldon Adelson | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 1, 1933 |
| Occupation | Gambling/leisure businesses |
Sheldon Gary Adelson (born August 1, 1933)[1] is an American billionaire businessman. He is a property developer and public company CEO based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates the Venetian Casino Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Adelson vastly increased his net worth upon the initial public offering of Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) in December 2004 by selling just 10% of the shares. With an estimated wealth of US$26.5 bn, he is the world's 3rd richest person as of 2007[2]. Adelson studied at City College of New York, but did not complete his studies.
Early life and career
Adelson was born in to a Jewish family in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. He worked at a young age selling newspapers on local street corners and owned his first business by the time he was twelve. In the years that followed, he worked as a mortgage broker, investment adviser and financial consultant. To this point in his career, Adelson has created and developed to maturity more than 50 different companies, including COMDEX, a tradeshow he developed with his partners for the computer industry. Adelson together with his partners directed COMDEX to become the world's largest trade show with a presence in more than 20 countries. Originally based in Las Vegas, it debuted in December 1979. In 1995, Japan-based Softbank Corp. purchased COMDEX for more than $860 million.
In 1988, Adelson and his partners purchased the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. the former hangout of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, in order to bring Las Vegas to a new phase of business centricity through the exhibition industry. The following year, Mr Adelson and his partners constructed the Sands Expo and Convention Center, the only privately owned and operated convention center in the United States.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to Softbank Corporation of Japan for a cash price in excess of $860 million. In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his wife Miriam (a physician), Adelson gained the inspiration for a mega-resort hotel, and he proceeded with the implosion of the venerable Sands and the construction of the $1.5-billion The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino. The luxurious, all-suite Venetian revolutionized the Las Vegas hotel industry, and has been honored with architectural and other awards naming it as one the finest hotels in the world. In 2003, The Venetian added the 1,013-suite Venezia tower - giving The Venetian 4,049 suites, 18 leading-chef restaurants, a shopping mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers.
Adelson spearheaded a major project to bring the Sands name to the Macao SAR, China, the Chinese gambling city that had been a Portuguese colony until December 20, 1999. The one million-square-foot Sands Macau became the People's Republic of China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004.
In addition, on May 26, 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Singapore's Marina Bay. The new casino is expected to open in 2009 at a rumored cost of $3.16 billion.
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to buy controlling interest in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. [3]
Since 1991, Adelson is now married to Miriam Ochshorn, a physician.
Philanthropic gifts
In 2006 Mr. Adelson contributed $25,000,000 to the organization Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. The gift is anticipated to be given annually for the foreseeable future [1].
In 2007, Adelson pledged another $25,000,000 to the Birthright Israel program, allowing for approximately 20,000 people to take part in the program [2].
References
- ^ Brainy Media (2007), Sheldon Adelson Quotes, retrieved 7 April 2007
- ^ Forbes Special Report - The world's billionaires
- ^ IsraelNationalNews.com (2007), American Billionaire Launching Free Israeli Daily, retrieved 12 July 2007