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Sheldon Adelson
Ex-Chairman, CEO & Treasurer, Las Vegas Sands Corp- Las Vegas Sands
Sheldon Adelson's Journey so far ...
- Born to immigrant parents in the US, Sheldon Adelson began his career at an early age
- He started with selling newspapers at the age of 12 and then set up a candy-vending machine when he was 16
- He served some time in the army and upon returning, relaunched his business career
- This time he created a series of businesses which, among others, included a company which sold toiletry kits, a chemical spray to clear frozen windshields and a charter tours business
- Reports suggest that during this period he earned and lost huge amounts of money, multiple times
- Adelson founded the Interface Group along with some partners in the early 1970s
- The company saw some major success in 1979 when it organised the trade show COMDEX or Computer Dealers Exposition. Eventually, it became one of the biggest trade shows in the world
- COMDEX (along with some other smaller shows) was sold to SoftBank for $862 million in 1995
- In 1989, at the age of 55, he entered the hotels & casino business with the acquisition of the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Simultaneously, he also formed Las Vegas Sands LLC which was renamed as the Las Vegas Sands Corp. in 2004
- He built one of America’s largest privately-owned convention centres, the Sands Expo & Convention Centre, in 1990. He’s been widely credited for transforming Vegas from a gaming-centric city into a venue for world-class conventions and exhibitions
- The Sands Hotel was demolished in 1996, and Adelson’s new project -- The Venetian Resort - -came up in its place. The Venice-themed hotel & casino was built with an investment of $1.5 billion and opened its doors for the public in 1999
- Adelson’s company Las Vegas Sands’ IPO debuted in the public markets in 2004
- He expanded his business to the Chinese gambling destination Macao with the opening of The Sands Macao in 2004, followed by The Venetian Macao on the Cotai Strip in 2007, both of which were huge successes
- Owing to the success of his businesses in Asia and in the equity markets, Adelson became the third richest person in America in 2007
- In 2007, he also started the free news daily Israel Hayom, which translates to Israel Today. It eventually became Israel’s most widely circulated newspaper
- In 2010, he further increased his group’s presence in Asia by opening the luxury hotel & casino Marina Bay Sands in Singapore which was built for a whopping $6 billion
- He purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- a local news publication in 2015
- In a career that has spanned nearly seven decades, Adelson has created nearly 50 companies
- Today, his Las Vegas Sands is the world’s largest casino operator with reported revenues of $13.7 billion in 2019. Adelson owns around 57% of the company and continues to be the world’s richest casino businessman
- Over the years, he has made significant donations to the Republican Party in America and has also made monetary contributions to many Israeli politicians. Some notable beneficiaries include Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu
- Apart from that, he has also made large donations to various Jewish organisations such as Birthright, and to support initiatives such as ‘War on Drugs’
Before you go ...
- His significant contributions to Trump’s political campaigns earned him the nickname ‘Trump’s Patron-In-Chief’
- Apart from deluxe casinos, Adelson is also high on other luxuries such as a mega mansion in the posh Summerlin area of Vegas which he calls home, real estate worth around $52 million in Malibu, California, a 300-foot yacht and a fleet of private aircraft which among others includes a custom-made Boeing 737 and Airbus A340