He is the Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, parent firm of Venetian Macao and The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. His wealth can be traced through his involvement with COMDEX, the annual computer technology show. The money he earned in COMDEX was used to buy and raze down the legendary Sands Hotel to give way to The Venetian.
Shiv Nadar (born 14 July 1945) is an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of HCL and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. As of 2015, his personal wealth is estimated at $13.7 Billion. Nadar founded HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company's focus. In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts in the IT industry.Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magus (Old Persian for Wizard), since mid-1990s has focused his efforts in developing the educational system of India through the Shiv Nadar Foundation. Shiv Nadar is the brother of famous tamil novelist Ramanichandran.
Early life and education:
Nadar was born in 1945 in Moolaipozhi village, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district (present ), Tamil Nadu, India. His parents were Sivasubramaniya Nadar and Vamasundari Devi.Nadar's mother, Vamasundari Devi, is the sister of S. P. Adithanar, founder of Dina Thanthi newspaper.
Nadar studied at Town Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam. He got admission in the first form (Sixth Standard) on 29 June 1955 and continued his education in Town High School till 1 June 1957. Nadar received a pre-University degree in The American College, Madurai and degree in Electrical And Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.
Career:
Nadar began his career at Walchand group's Cooper Engineering in Pune in 1967. he soon gave it up to begin his own venture, in partnerships with several friends and colleagues. These partners were Ajai Chowdhry (Ex-Chairman, HCL Infosystems), Arjun Malhotra (CEO and Chairman, Headstrong), Subhash Arora, Yogesh Vaidya, S. Raman, Mahendra Pratap and DS Puri,
The initial enterprise which Nadar and his partners began was Microcomp, a company which focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. HCL was founded later, in 1976, with an investment of Rs. 187,000.
In 1980, HCL ventured into the international market with the opening of Far East Computers in Singapore to sell IT hardware. The venture reported Rs 1 million revenue in the first year and continued to address the Singapore operations.[14] Nadar remained the largest shareholder without retaining any management control.
Awards and accolades:
In 2008, Government of India awarded Nadar with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his contribution to IT industry.
In 2007, Madras University awarded him honorary doctorate degree (D Sc) for his contributions in promoting software technology. Nadar was also recognised as E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 (Services).
In 1995 he became the Dataquest IT Man of the year. In 2005 he was bestowed with CNBC Business Excellence Award. In 2006 received an Honorary Fellowship of All India Management Association-AIMA. In 2009 he was counted amongst Forbes 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific. In 2010 received Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award.
Shobhan Mittal serves as Chief Executive Officier & Joint MD of Greenply Industries since February 5, 2015 and has been its Executive Director since September 1, 2006. In this limit, he controls an organization with a main position in India's medium density fiberboard (MDF) and plywood buyer markets.
Shobhan Mittal manages the improvement of new items notwithstanding giving administration to the built arranging division's deals and dispersion exercises. Moreover, he draws in with speculation accomplices in building up a universally engaged procedure for the organization.
Mr. Shobhan Mittal keeps up a solid group center and is on no time attempting to incorporate business forms with social welfare ventures. His firm works the Udayan Shalini Fellowship Programme, which contacts young ladies from parts of society that are monetarily underestimated. Its provincial tasks include medicinal services, cleanliness mindfulness, and training.
Dynamic with the All India Plastics Manufacturers Association, Shobhan Mittal likewise sits on the Advisory Committee on Sustainable Forest-based Industries inside the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
In his leisure time, Greenply Industries Limited CEO and Joint MD Shobhan Mittal appreciate going far and wide looking for the best scuba plunging spots. One of Shobhan Mittal's most loved goals is the Maldives, which comprises of more than a thousand islands. The country is portrayed by white shorelines and different coral reefs that are home to an extensive variety of untamed life. Some of the Maldives excellent scuba diving spots loves by Shobhan Mittal are Fotteyo Kandu, Okobe Thila, Kuredu Express and Broken Rock.
Søren Kristian Toubro (27 February 1906 – 4 March 1982) was a Danish engineer who co-founded Larsen & Toubro, an India-based conglomerate.
Early days in India
Seeing opportunity in ship repair during wartime, Larsen and Toubro formed a new company called Hilda Ltd. Around this time, L&T also started two repair and fabrication shops. The internment of German engineers who were supposed to build a soda ash plant for the Tatas provided L&T another new opportunity.
In 1944, Larsen and Toubro established Engineering Construction & Contracts (ECC). L&T started collaborating with international companies around this time. In 1945, L&T signed an agreement with the Caterpillar Tractor Company of USA for marketing earthmoving equipment. L&T also started representing British manufacturers of equipment used to manufacture a variety of products including biscuits, glass, hydrogenated oils and soaps.
At the end of World War II, the war-surplus Caterpillar equipment was available in bulk at low prices. However, L&T lacked the money to purchase them. Therefore, Larsen and Toubro decided to raise additional equity capital, and as a result, Larsen & Toubro Private Limited was established on 7 February 1946. After India gained independence in 1947, L&T set up offices in Calcutta, Madras and New Delhi. In 1948, L&T acquired 55 acres (22 ha) of undeveloped land in the Powai suburb of Mumbai.
Larsen and Toubro gradually transformed L&T into a large business house with diverse interests. A 2006 article in The Hindu described Toubro as follows:
A workaholic, he expected the same of others. A hard taskmaster with a schoolmasterly attitude to training he may have been, but the young he mentored still remember the lessons he taught: that no effort was too great to ensure customer satisfaction, that there must be attention to detail in the quest for perfection, and that there must be pride in whatever was being done.
Soren K Toubro served as the director of L&T from 1946 to 1981, and retired from active management in 1962–63. He continued to serve on the L&T and ECC board of directors till 1981.
He is the Chairman and majority shareholder of H&M, a fashion company founded by his father Erling Persson. He also has significant holdings in Hexagon, a technology company based in his native Sweden.
He owns Delton AG, an umbrella corporation that manages all his holdings. Among them is a 17 percent stake in BMW. He also used to be connected with Gemphus International, a digital security company. He also served on the boards of Dresdner Bank AG and Gerling Konzern Allgemeine Versicherungs AG.
Stefano Pessina (born 1941) is an Italian-born Monegasque billionaire businessman and the Executive Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and the single largest shareholder of Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Biography:
Early life:
Pessina was born in Pescara and grew up between Milan, Como and Naples.
He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan in nuclear engineering.
Career:
In 1977, he took over his family's pharmaceutical wholesaler in Naples and turned it into Alliance Santé, a Franco-Italian pharmaceutical wholesale group. In 1997, it merged with Alliance UniChem, and he joined its Board of Directors. From 2001 to 2004, he served as its Chief Executive. He served as Executive Deputy Chairman, and later as Executive Chairman.
Stefano served as Executive Chairman of Alliance Boots from 2007 – 2014 and sat on the Board of Directors of Walgreens until Aug 2014. He now serves on the Board of Directors at Walgreens Boots Alliance. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Consumer Goods Forum.
Personal life:
He is separated from his wife Barbara, and they have two children. He has been the partner of Ornella Barra for over 30 years. As of February 2015, he is worth US$11.4 billion, owning around 15% of Walgreens Boots Alliance.
He has lived in Monte Carlo, Monaco, for many years. His son, a banker, works at Walgreens Boots Alliance.
UK Labour Party "catastrophe":
In a 31 January 2015 interview for The Sunday Telegraph, Pessina commented on the prospect of Britain's Labour Party winning the UK general election in May 2015, "If they acted as they speak, it would be a catastrophe ... The problem is would they act that way or not? One thing is to threaten and to shout but it is completely different to be in charge and to manage the country day-to-day." He described Labour’s business policies as "not helpful for business, not helpful for the country and in the end it probably won’t be helpful for them". The Sunday Telegraph noted that Pessina "declined to elaborate on which specific policies he disliked".
On Sunday 1 February, Labour's shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna, responded in The Independent, "The British people and British businesses will draw their own conclusions when those who don’t live here, don’t pay tax in this country and lead firms that reportedly avoid making a fair contribution in what they pay purport to know what is in Britain’s best interest." On 2 February, in a live Q&A session with Sky News, the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said, "The chairman of Boots lives in Monaco and doesn't pay British taxes ... I don't think people should take kindly to being told how to vote by someone who avoids paying his taxes."
On 2 February, Walgreens Boots Alliance stated, "The comments made by Stefano Pessina were a small part of a much larger conversation and have been taken out of context ... Stefano Pessina was expressing his personal views only and is not campaigning against Ed Miliband or the Labour Party." On 6 February, Allister Heath, deputy editor of The Telegraph, described the "attacks" by Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians on Pessina, "one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs", as being "as nonsensical as they were indefensible".
Stephen Allen Schwarzman (born February 14, 1947) is an American business magnate and financier. He is the chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity and financial advisory firm he established in 1985 with former US Secretary of Commerce Pete Peterson. His personal fortune is estimated at $12.9 billion, according to Forbes. As of 2015, Forbes ranked Schwarzman at 100th on its World's Billionaires List.
Early life and education:
Schwarzman was raised in a Jewish family in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, the son of Arline and Joseph Schwarzman. His father owned Schwarzman's, a former dry-goods store in Philadelphia.
Schwarzman attended the Abington School District in suburban Philadelphia and graduated from Abington Senior High School in 1965. He attended Yale University during the same period as George W. Bush, one year behind him (both were in the Skull and Bones society) and graduated in 1969. He then went on to Harvard Business School and graduated in 1972.
Career:
Schwarzman's first job in financial services was with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a now defunct investment bank. After business school, Schwarzman started working at the investment bank Lehman Brothers, where he reached the rank of managing director at age 31. He eventually became the head of Lehman Brothers' global mergers and acquisitions team. In 1985, Schwarzman and his boss Peter Peterson started Blackstone, which originally focused on mergers and acquisitions.
When Blackstone went public in June 2007, it revealed in a securities filing that Schwarzman had earned about $398.3 million in fiscal 2006. He ultimately received $684 million selling part of his Blackstone stake in the IPO, keeping a stake then worth $9.1 billion.
In 2007, Schwarzman was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.
Schwarzman has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and was chairman of the board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from 2004 to 2010.
In June 2007, Schwarzman described his view on financial markets with the statement: "I want war, not a series of skirmishes... I always think about what will kill off the other bidder."
In August 2010, Schwarzman compared the Obama administration's plan to raise carried interest taxes to Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, a comment for which Schwarzman later apologized.
Among Blackstone's largest investments were SeaWorld Parks, in 2009. SeaWorld Parks were the focus of the 2013 film Blackfish, a documentary on Killer Whale attacks at these parks and the ethics of keeping them captive. When asked about the film, Schwarzman said on record that SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau should be blamed for her own death, claiming that the veteran animal trainer broke multiple safety rules before she was pulled into a tank and killed by a six-ton orca in February 2010. Blackstone said in a written statement that Schwarzman "misspoke" in response to the question about Blackfish. The firm said its chief executive had not anticipated a question about the film and had not been briefed on the subject. The firm said Schwarzman does not plan to go back on CNBC to correct the record on air. SeaWorld, for its part, said unequivocally that Brancheau bore no blame. "Dawn was one of the world's most skilled and experienced marine mammal trainers. Her dedication to safety was among the many reasons she was so respected by her colleagues at SeaWorld and within the worldwide animal training community," the company said in a written statement. "We have never said and do not believe that she was at fault for the events of February 24, 2010."
In 2014, Schwarzman was named as one of Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential people of the year.
Philanthropy:
In 2004, Schwarzman donated a new football stadium to Abington Senior High School—the Stephen A. Schwarzman Stadium.
On March 11, 2008 Schwarzman announced that he contributed $100 million toward the expansion of the New York Public Library, for which he serves as a trustee. The central reference building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue was renamed The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
On May 11, 2015 Peter Salovey, the President of Yale University, announced that Schwarzman contributed $150 million to fund a campus center in the university's historic "Commons" dining facility.
Stephen K. Gunn is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Sleep Country Canada Inc, which he co-founded with Christine Magee and Gordon Lownds. As of June 2013, the company has 201 stores across Canada and 43 stores in the US (Sleep America).
Early life:
Gunn grew up in Montreal and Kingston. He completed an honours BSc in Electrical Engineering from Queen's University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business (1981).
Career:
After university he joined McKinsey & Company as a Management Consultant (1981–1987). In 1987, he co-founded and was the President of Kenrick Capital, a private equity business. In October 1994, he co-founded Sleep Country Canada with Christine Magee and Gordon Lownds. He is currently on the board of directors for Dollarama, Cara Operations and Golf Town.
Personal life:
Gunn is married with a daughter and 3 sons. He enjoys golf, sailing and skiing.
Awards:
1998- Financial Post named him and Christine Magee the Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year, Retail/Wholesale
2003- Inducted into the Canadian Retail Hall of Fame, Retail Council of Canada
2004- Inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends
2006- Recipient of CIRAS Henry Singer Award for exceptional leadership in the retailing and services sectors
He is the CEO of Microsoft. He is responsible for the development of the groundbreaking .NET framework platform of the company. This software platform can run on computers, servers, the Internet and even in non-PC devices.