Sheldon Gary Adelson is an entrepreneur from the United States. He ventured into various successful businesses that made him one of the richest men of the world. The self-made billionaire is the head of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and an Israeli newspaper called Israel Ha Yom.
Sheldon was born on 4th August 1933 in Boston, Massachusetts. It was obvious that he was very adept in his business skills since he started at age 12. He sold newspapers and later on bought a candy vending machine with his savings. He worked several jobs including that of a mortgage broker, financial consultant and investment advisor. He also joined the army for a short while. After being discharged from it he began selling ‘De-Ice-It’ which was a chemical spray for melting ice on car windshields. Sheldon went to the City College of New York but soon dropped out.
Sheldon’s main source of wealth was ‘COMDEX’ a computer trade show which began in 1979. In 1988, he and his partners bought the Sands Hotel and Casino. After gaining massive profits they decided to go further. He remodeled the Sands according to his business ideal. He then constructed a shopping mall, resort and convention center that would hold his business events such as COMDEX. While honeymooning with his second wife in Italy, Sheldon got highly inspired by the architecture there and got the idea of building a mega resort hotel. Sheldon and the co-owners at COMDEX sold its Interface Group Show Division to SoftBank Corporation for $862 million with Sheldon Adelson getting more than 500 million. Sheldon then ended all his partnerships and went on to build his own Venetian Resort Hotel and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. After the success of this business venture he got offered an agreement to launch another casino resort on Macao, the Chinese Island. In 2006, he got offered the license to construct yet another casino resort, this time in Marina Bay in Singapore. It opened in 2010 and costed $5.5 billion.
During the 2000s Sheldon Adelson started using his influence and money to fund politicians of his choice. He also gave millions to charitable organizations, mainly Israeli and Jewish, such as Museum of Holocaust Art, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority. He established his own philanthropic organization in 2007 named the ‘Adelson Family Charitable Trust’ which is known to generously donate to Israeli and Jewish causes. Sheldon is also the member of the Board of Directors at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has been honored with many awards including the ‘Woodrow Wilson Award in 2008 and the Chairman’s Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute. President George W. Bush selected him to accompany the Honorary Delegation to Jerusalem on the 60th anniversary of Israel in 2008. In 2012, Sheldon was the 24th wealthiest person of the world and his estimated net worth was $21.8 billion. According to Forbes 400, he was the 12th richest American. Sheldon got married twice and he has five children.
