Howard Kerzner

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Howard Brett ("Butch") Kerzner (b. 27 January 1964, Durban - d. 11 October 2006) was the Chief Executive Officer of Kerzner International from 1 January 2004 until his death.

Butch was born to Sol Kerzner and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He left South Africa in 1982 to study economics at Stanford University where he graduated in 1986.

Kerzner started with First Boston Corporation, New York in their Mergers and Acquisitions Department. He returned to Stanford University in 1989 to do a Master of Business Administration. In September 1991 Kerzner became an associate at Lazard Freres and Co. but at the request of his father who was Sun International's founder, chairman and chief executive, he joined Sun International in September 1992 as Director of Corporate Development.

In May 1995 Kerzner left South Africa once again and joined his father's new company, Kerzner International as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development.

In June 1996, he became President until the end of December 2003 when he took over from his father as Chief Executive Officer. On December 8, 2004, Kerzner was elected a Director of Kerzner International.

Kerzner married Hong Kong-born Vanessa Kerzner; they had two children.

Kerzner was killed on October 11, 2006 when the helicopter he was travelling in crashed near Sosua in the Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic