Wayne Huizenga

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Harry Wayne Huizenga (born on December 29, 1937) is an American who has built several companies into multi-billion dollar enterprises, mostly through an aggressive process of acquisitions. Huizenga graduated from the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1955 and is an alumnus of Calvin College located in Grand Rapids, MI.

Huizenga grew up in a wealthy family whose economic fortunes went up and down. Starting with a single garbage truck, he grew Waste Management Inc. into the largest waste disposal company in the United States, before repeating the process with Blockbuster Video. Eventually, Huizenga would also build and acquire auto dealerships to form AutoNation, the nations largest automotive dealer, and also a Fortune 500 company. All said, he has been the creator of three Fortune 500 companies. He has been a 5 time recipient of Financial World Magazine's CEO of the Year and was the 2005 recipient of Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year.

In late 2004, he sold his ownership share in a group of hotels that included The Hyatt Pier 66 Hotel and Radisson Bahia Mar Hotel & Marina in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, The Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, FL, and several others in Naples, FL and Arizona. His most recent venture is AutoNation.

In 2004 Huizenga purchased the luxury private yacht "Aussie Rules" from famous golfer Greg Norman. The luxury yacht cost $77 million and was further modified by Huizenga and now features a Heli Pad for a 12 seater helicopter. M/Y "Aussie Rules" was renamed "Floridian" and is still considered to be one of the most luxurious and famous as shown in the list of motor yachts by length. The yacht can accommodate up to 12 guests and may be chartered out for around $400,000 per week.^[1]

[edit] Sports Team Ownership

Huizenga owns the Miami Dolphins, as well as Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens. He introduced baseball and hockey to the South Florida area as the initial owner of the Florida Marlins and Florida Panthers. He was criticized for naming his two teams for the state of Florida rather than the city of Miami, but as an advocate for the city of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, he explained that his goal was to include Broward and Palm Beach in his teams' fanbase. Huizenga has been scorned by the public in South Florida since the dismantling of the Florida Marlins team that won the 1997 World Series. Huizenga, in keeping with his previously stated intentions, sold the Marlins to current Boston Red Sox owner John Henry at the end of the 1998 season. He also received criticism for moving the Panthers to western Broward county in the city of Sunrise, unlike the Miami Heat, which placed their arena in downtown Miami.