Sheldon Adelson Net Worth, Money and More
Net worth- $37.5 Billion
Profession- Entrepreneur and Businessperson
“An entrepreneur is born with the mentality to take risks, though there are several important characteristics: courage, faith in yourself, and above all, even when you fail, to learn from failure and get up and try again.”
- Sheldon Adelson
Nationality- American
Born as Sheldon Gary Adelson, is an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist. Presently, Adelson is the chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited. The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center are operated by the Venetian Macao Limited. Sheldon is one of the richest people in the world. Sheldon also owns Israel HaYom, the Israeli daily newspaper.
Early life and career
Sheldon Gary Adelson is better known as Sheldon Adelson. He was born on August 4, 1933 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Sheldon belongs to a Ukrainian Jewish background. His parents are Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. Sheldon’s father was a taxi driver and sold advertisements and his mother was the owner of the knitting shop. Sheldon grew up in the neighborhood of Boston, Dorchester.
Adelson started his business career by selling the newspaper at the age of 12. He was able to start this business by borrowing the amount of two hundred dollars from his uncle and with that money he purchased the license for the same. He continued with the newspaper selling business for 4 years. Then at the age of 16, Sheldon set up a business of candy vending machine. Sheldon wished to become a court reporter, so he attended the trade school for that. Moreover, he also joined the army after that. But soon he was discharged from army. After that he again started a new business of toiletry kits. Soon he changed his business, named De-Ice-It. This company sold the chemical spray helpful in clearing frozen windshields.
Sheldon’s alma mater is City College of New York, from which he decided to drop out. Then Adelson started a charter tours business in 1960. Sheldon Adelson, the business minded personality has created over approximately 50 of his own businesses. In a time being he became a millionaire. Ironically in his 30s he had built and lost a fortune twice.
The millionaire along with his partners developed COMDEX (computer trade show) for the computer industry in late 1970s. However the first computer trade show was in 1979. the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows was sold to a Japan company, SoftBank Corporation, for $862 million in 1995 by Adelson and his partners, having his share over $500 million.
“Entrepreneurship is essentially identifying the path that everyone takes; and choosing a different, better way”
Then Adelson in 1998 purchased a casino in Las Vegas, Sands Hotel and Casino, again with his partners. He then constructed Sands Expo and Convention Center, the only privately owned and operated convention center in the US. Adelson then got inspiration for a mega-resort hotel in Vennice during his second honeymoon in 1991. To accomplish this he spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, Venice-themed resort hotel and casino and knocked his Sands to pieces. In the year 2000, Adelson decided to build a casino resort, one of five stand-alone casinos in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The casino was opened in 2009. In 2003, The Venetian was upgraded by adding 1,013-suite Venezia tower – giving the hotel 4,049 suites; 18 restaurants and a shopping mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers. In 2007, he opened the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai worth $2.4 billion. Sheldon also planned to open various hotels such as Four Seasons, Sheraton and St. Regis. Now Adelson wanted to expand his Sands in other countries. He started it with Macau, the Chinese gambling city. Sands Macau was opened in May 2004 and became the People’s Republic of China’s first Las Vegas-style casino. With the opening of Sands Macau, Sheldon’s wealth was multiplied more than fourteen times.
In the year 2010, he opened the new casino Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It is the most expensive building in the world which includes a shopping mall, convention center, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Sheldon didn’t limit his business to casinos and hotels. Now he wanted to buy a Israeli newspaper Maariv but all his planning failed. Then he decided to compete with Israeli by publishing free daily newspaper. In 2007, the first edition of Israel HaYom (new newspaper) was published. Also, initially this newspaper was distributed for free. Recently in March 2014, Sheldon was officially permitted to purchase the Maariv and the conservative religious Zionist newspaper Makor Rishon from a Jerusalem court.
Besides business, Sheldon also contributed in politics to the Republican National Committee.
Personal Life
The successful business man has been married twice. His first wife was Sandra. They got separated in 1988. Sheldon had three adopted children (Mitchell, Gary and Shelley) with Sandra. Then in the year 1991, he again got married, to Miriam Ochshorn. She was previously married to Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn and had two daughters with him.
Awards
In 2008, Adelson and his second wife Miriam Adelson, won the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution. The Nevada Policy Research Institute also awarded Adelson the Chairman’s Award for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
The entrepreneur also served the Honorary Delegation and accompanied President George W. Bush to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel (2008).
Philanthropy
Adelson, best known for his casino and hotel magnate is a lifelong donor. He donated over $25 million to the The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school and $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in 2006. In 2007, he established the Adelson Family Charitable Trust, which is expected to donate $200 million to Jewish and Israeli causes.
Assets owned by him
- Besides various casinos and hotels he also owns a house which is situated in Las Vegas, US. He purchased this house in 2005 for $5.5M.
- He also owns a private jet and 16 Las Vegas Sands aircraft.
