Sheldon Adelson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sheldon Gary Adelson (born 1934) is an American 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., which owns and 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.
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.
Earlier in his career, Adelson together with his partners launched the well-known COMDEX computer trade show. COMDEX, based in Las Vegas, debuted in December 1979. In 1995, Japan-based Softbank Corp. purchased COMDEX for more than $860 million.
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[edit] Wealth
According to Forbes magazine, Adelson is the 6th richest person and the third richest American in the world, with a net worth estimated at US $26.5 billion in 2007. His wealth in 2003 was $1.4 billion [1]; in 2004, his fortune increased 750 percent after his company started publicly trading. [2] Forbes estimates he has been earning about $1 million an hour for the past two years. [3] In addition, based on the rankings of the world's wealthiest people in Forbes magazine, some observers believe Adelson is the richest Jewish person in the world [4].
Sheldon G. Adelson is Chairman of the Board and principal owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the parent company of The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and Venetian Macao Limited in Macao, China. A dynamic entrepreneur, business visionary, and venture capitalist, Mr. Adelson's business career spans five decades.
[edit] Early life and career
Adelson was born to a poor 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.
In 1988, Adelson and his partners purchased the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. 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.
[edit] Charitable Gifts
In 2006 Mr. Adelson contributed $30,000,000 to the the Zionist organization Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. The gift is anticipated to be given annually for the foreseeable future [5]. 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 [6].
