Kevin O'Leary
Shark Tank Investor and Chairman of O'Leary Funds
Kevin O'Leary is a Canadian businessman, investor, writer, financial commentator, and television and radio personality. He is co-founder and chairman of O'Leary Funds and the co-founder of SoftKey. He previously served as a commentator on Canada's CBC Television and CBC News Network program The Lang and O'Leary Exchange and hosted Redemption Inc. Kevin is an investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank and was a venture capitalist "dragon" on CBC Television's Dragons' Den.
From 1995 to 1999, he bought out almost every one of his software competitors, including Mindscape, Brøderbund, and the Learning Company in the industry's first vicious public hostile battle. Shareholders loved his take-no-prisoners, cost-cutting style and fueled him with billions to do his deals.
In 1999, Kevin sold his company to Mattel for a staggering $3.7 billion, one of the largest deals ever done in the consumer software industry. To keep his money working hard, he took control of his wealth from his lackluster money managers and founded his own mutual-fund company, O'Leary Funds. He raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors who share his "get paid while you wait" yield-oriented, value-investing philosophy. He shares his tips and tribulations with a national television audience and turns Wall Street upside down in the process.
As a self-proclaimed "eco-preneur," Kevin looks hardest for investments that make money and are environmentally friendly. When he's not squeezing the market from his office in West Palm Beach, he travels the world looking for new opportunities to deploy his capital. He is a founding investor and director of Stream Global, an international business outsourcing company. He is on the investment committee of Boston's prestigious 200-year-old Hamilton Trust, and is the chairman of O'Leary Funds. He also serves on the executive board of the Richard Ivey School of Business.