Kevin O’Leary is a businessman, entrepreneur, and TV personality from Canada. He is 68 years old. He is referred to as Mr. Wonderful and also as Uncle Kevin.
He was made subject to a lawsuit suing in relation to the FTX declaring bankruptcy and his being associated with it as a spokesperson.
Kevin O’Leary – Education & Personal Life
Terence Thomas Kevin O’Leary was born in 1954 in Montreal, Quebec in Canada.
O’Leary has a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. He later graduated with a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario.
He holds Canadian, Irish, and as well as UAE citizenship. He has Irish descent through his father Terry O’Leary. His father’s alcoholism, his parent’s divorce, and his father’s death had major impacts on him as a child.
O’Leary is the stepson of George Kanawaty, an international figure in the International Labour Organization of the UN.
Georgette, O’Leary’s mother, initially a small business owner, had taken up his father’s business post his death. She was a strategic investor which she kept to herself and O’Leary only came across the fact upon the disposal of her will upon her death.
O’Leary was reported to have dyslexia and he later commented that this condition has been a boon for him in the business world.
He has been married to Linda O’Leary since 1990 and the couple has 2 children together.
Kevin O’Leary – Early Career
O’Leary has ventured into his professional career as a student in the MBA program. He interned as the assistant brand manager of the cat food brand owned by Nabisco. Nabisco is an American food line of snacks and cookies.
O’Leary co-founded an independent TV production company named Special Television Event (SET) with his old classmates Dave Toms and Scott Mackenzie.
The productions of the SET include sports-related programs such as Don Cherry’s Grapevine, Bobby Orr and the Hockey Legends, and The Original Six.
The other programs of SET were soccer films, small tv shows, sports documentaries, and local ads. O’Leary later sold his share to one of his partners for an amount of 25,000 USD.
Kevin O’Leary – Professional Career
In 1986 he founded Softkey along with partners Gary Babcock and John Freeman. Softkey offered services of publishing and distributing PC software for Windows and Macintosh based on CD – ROM
O’Leary became the director of StorageNow Holdings in 2003, He was also its co-investor. StorageNow holdings is a company that develops climate-controlled storage facilities which are owned by Reza Satchu and Asif Satchu.
In 2007 he became a member of the advisory board of Genstar Capital. He was appointed to the position of the Strategic Advisory Board. His role was to find investment opportunities for its fund of 1.2 billion USD.
In 2008 O’Leary Funds Inc was co-founded by him. He is the lead investor and chairman of the company with his brother being the director.
He is also the founder of O’Leary Ventures, O’Leary Mortgages, O’Leary Fine Wines, and O’Leary Books.
O’Leary Ventures is a company focusing on venture capitalism. O’Leary Mortgages was closed in 2014.
The funds O’Leary has had a fall of 20 % and as a result, he does not manage outsider money anymore.
In 2015 O’Leary Funds Management LP, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) was launched by him. It was by his O’Share Investments.
He has also invested in gold. He has an investment of 5 percent of his financial portfolio in physical gold. In 2019 he viewed cryptocurrency as a useless currency and a digital game.
Later in 2021 he reportedly made a 3 to 5 percent allocation to bitcoin following his being a strategic investor in Defi Ventures. It is a Vancouver- based platform for decentralized finance.
His taking up of an ownership stake in the parent companies of FTX.com and FTX.US was announced in 2021.
Initially, he had the role of ambassador and spokesperson of FTX. Following FTX’s declaration of chapter 11 bankruptcy and the news of its Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman – Fried misusing client funds for speculative bets caused O’Leary to take a backseat in the ownership stake.
Kevin O’Leary as well as other spokespeople of the FTX was sued in the following class-action lawsuit in 2022.
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Kevin O’Leary In Television
Kevin O’Leary has appeared in tv programs of business news shows such as The Lang and O’Leary Exchange and SqueezePlay. He has also appeared in reality tv shows such as Redemption Inc and Dragon’s Den.
In 2009 O’Leary was in Shark Tank, America. He was also in Project Earth a reality tv show which featured scientists in a discussion of geoengineering methods to put a stop to global warming and related issues. The program was broadcast on the Discovery Channel.
Kevin O’Leary In Politics
Kevon O’Leary has shown interest in the Conservative Party. In 2017 he made an entry into the Conservative Leadership Race.
O’Leary is settled with his family in Miami. He is an ardent fan of football and he also loves to travel.
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