Kevin O'Leary (entrepreneur)
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| Kevin O'Leary | |
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.jpg) O'Leary in March 2011 |
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| Born | July 9, 1954 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Alma mater | University of Waterloo |
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| Website | |
| Official website | |
Kevin O'Leary (born 9 July 1954) is a Canadian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, investor, and television personality.
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[edit] Early life and education
O'Leary was born in Mount Royal, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, to a salesman father and seamstress mother.[1]
His father was Irish and his mother was of Lebanese descent.[2] O'Leary's parents divorced when he was young, and his father died shortly after that. His mother later re-married.[3]
He studied for two years at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean followed by the University of Waterloo.[4]
Kevin O'Leary received an Honours Bachelors degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology from the University of Waterloo and, in 1980, he earned his MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario.
[edit] Career
O'Leary started a software company in the basement of a small Toronto home along with partners John Freeman and Gary Babcock. His mother provided the seed investment of $10,000, which he used to start software publisher SoftKey. Softkey products typically consisted of software intended for home audiences, especially compilation discs containing various freeware or shareware game software packaged in a "jewel-case" CD-ROM. By 1994, Softkey had become a major consolidator in the educational software market, acquiring no less than sixty rivals, such as WordStar and Spinnaker Software. In 1995, Softkey acquired The Learning Company (TLC) for $606 million, moved its headquarters to Boston, and took The Learning Company as its name. TLC bought its former rival Brøderbund in June 1998 for $416 million. In 1999, The Learning Company and its 467 software titles were acquired by Mattel in a $3.8 billion stock swap.[5] Sales and earnings for Mattel soon dropped, and O'Leary departed from Mattel.
In 2003 he became co-investor and a director in Storage Now, a developer of climate controlled storage facilities. Through a series of development projects and acquisitions, Storage Now became Canada’s third largest owner/operator of storage services with facilities located in eleven cities serving such companies as Merck and Pfizer when it was acquired by the In Storage REIT in March 2007 for $110 million.[citation needed]
In March 2007 O'Leary joined the advisory board of Genstar Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on investments in selected segments of life science and healthcare services, industrial technology, business services and software. Genstar Capital appointed O'Leary to its Strategic Advisory Board to seek new investment opportunities for its $1.2 billion fund. O’Leary also serves on the executive board of the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. He is a member of the investment committee of Boston’s 107 year old Hamilton Trust and an investor of EnGlobe, a TSX listed company.[citation needed] He is a former co-host of SqueezePlay on Business News Network, Canada’s national business television specialty channel. O’Leary is currently working as the entrepreneur/investor co-host for the Discovery Channel’s Discovery Project Earth, a project that explores innovative ways man could reverse climate change.[citation needed]
O'Leary, serves as foil to Journalist Amanda Lang on The Lang and O'Leary Exchange on CBC News Network. He is also a venture capitalist on the Canadian version of Dragons' Den, which airs on CBC Television and CBC News Network, and a "shark" on the United States' version of Dragons' Den, Shark Tank, which airs on ABC.
In January 2008 he co-founded O'Leary Funds Inc., a mutual fund company that targets buy and hold investors. He is the company's chairman.
[edit] Controversies
In October 2010 O'Leary used the term "Indian Giver" during a live Lang and O'Leary Exchange. After a complaint from an aboriginal, Alex Jamieson, and condemnation from the CBC Ombudsman, O'Leary offered an apology for his use of the term.[6] No disciplinary action was taken by the CBC.
During a segment on the Occupy Wall Street protests on the October 6, 2011 episode of the CBC News Network's The Lang & O'Leary Exchange, O'Leary called multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges "a left-wing nutbar." Hedges accused O'Leary of "character assassination" and compared the quality and nature of the interview to the likes of "FOX News". Hedges closed by stating that "it will be the last time [he appears on the show]." CBC's ombudsman found O'Leary's behavior to be a violation of the public broadcaster's journalistic standards.[7] O'Leary later acknowledged that he did make a technical mistake during the interview by calling Hedges "a left-wing nutbar" rather than comparing him to one. He did not offer an apology for the insult. No disciplinary action was taken by the CBC.
[edit] References
- ^ Allemang, John. "Kevin O’Leary: The shark who swims alone". The Globe and Mail. September 23, 2011
- ^ Schlesinger, Joel. "The dragon's pen: Reality TV villain writes about life and money in new autobiography". Winnipeg Free Press. October 1, 2011
- ^ [1]
- ^ Campbell, Colin. "In conversation: Kevin O’Leary". Maclean's. October 5, 2011
- ^ Dignan, Larry. "Mattel/The Learning Co. in $3.8B merger". ZDNet. December 14, 1998
- ^ Doyle, John. "It’s one thing to be offended, another to be disgusted". The Globe and Mail. March 10, 2011
- ^ Szklarski, Cassandra. "CBC ombudsman says O'Leary's 'nutbar' remark violated journalistic standards". Winnipeg Free Press. October 14, 2011
[edit] External links
- 1948 births
- Anglophone Quebec people
- Businesspeople in software
- Canadian businesspeople
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation people
- Canadian investors
- Canadian people of Irish descent
- Canadian television hosts
- Canadian television journalists
- Living people
- Participants in American reality television series
- Participants in Canadian reality television series
- People from Montreal
- Royal Military College Saint-Jean alumni
- University of Waterloo alumni
- Venture capitalists
