Star of ABC’s Shark Tank, Top Business Speaker, Serial Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, and Investor
Kevin O'Leary: Biography at a Glance
- Kevin O'Leary is best known as an investor and host on ABC's Emmy-winning venture capital reality TV shoe Shark Tank, revered for his business acumen.
- He co-founded SoftKey Software in 1986, revolutionizing the software industry by applying consumer goods marketing strategies. SoftKey became the world's second-largest consumer software company with annual sales of over $800 million.
- He played a key role in consolidating the software industry, raising over $1 billion in financing and acquiring multiple competitors, including Compton's New Media, The Learning Company, and Broderbund.
- In 1999, The Mattel Toy Company acquired The Learning Company, originally SoftKey, for $4.2 billion.
- O'Leary has diverse investments, including his roles as Chairman of O'Shares ETF Investments and Beanstox, and holds stakes in over 30 private companies across various sectors.
- Beyond business, O'Leary is an accomplished author of three #1 best-selling books and has a passion for photography, watch collecting, and music.
Biography
Kevin O’Leary was born on July 9th, 1954. As the son of a United Nations ILO official, he had the opportunity to live and be educated in Cambodia, Cyprus, Tunisia, Ethiopia, France, and Switzerland.
Kevin attended the University of Waterloo where in 1977 he received an Honors bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and Psychology. He attended the Ivey Business School where he received his MBA in 1980. After working briefly as an assistant product manager at Nabisco Brands, he left to pursue a career in television production and became a founding partner in Special Event
Television, an independent production company that produced original sports programming such as “The Original Six”, “Don Cherry’s Grapevine” and “Bobby Orr and the Hockey Legends”.
Kevin co-founded SoftKey Software in 1986. SoftKey was the first software company to apply the principles of consumer goods marketing to the software industry. SoftKey grew quickly as the price of personal computers declined and millions of North American families began to buy software for family education and entertainment.
In January of 1994, SoftKey became a catalyst of consolidation in the software industry, raising over $ 1 billion in a series of debt and equity financings and completing the first trans-border three-way pooling, merging with Spinnaker Software and WordStar International. As a result of this merger, the company moved its headquarters to Boston, Massachusetts. In late 1995, SoftKey acquired Compton’s New Media and The Learning Company. In early 1996, SoftKey completed the acquisition of the Minnesota Educational Computer Company. In late 1997 and early 1998, the company acquired three more of its competitors, Creative Wonders, Mindscape, and Broderbund making SoftKey the world leader in the development of educational, reference, and home productivity software and the world’s second-largest consumer software company with annual sales over $800 million, two thousand employees and subsidiaries in 15 countries.
In 1996 SoftKey changed its name to The Learning Company. In early May 1999, The Mattel Toy Company acquired The Learning Company for $4.2 billion. In 2003 he became co-investor and a director in Storage Now, a leading developer of climate-controlled storage facilities. Through a series of development projects and acquisitions, Storage Now became an owner/operator of storage services with facilities located in eleven cities serving such companies as Merck and Pfizer when it was acquired by the In-Storage REIT in March 2007 for $110 million.
In July of 2007, Kevin became a founding SPAC investor and Director of Stream Global Services Inc., focused on the growing outsourcing business services market.
Kevin O’Leary is the Chairman of O’Shares ETF Investments and Beanstox, an automated internet-based investment advisory service. He also holds investments in over 30 private venture companies across a wide range of sectors. He is a member of Boston’s 120-year-old Hamilton Trust, the oldest investment club in the US. He is a contributor to CNBC, ABC News, and Good Morning America and an entrepreneur/investor and co-host for the Discovery Channels Project Earth series that explores innovative ways man could reverse global warming by implementing large-scale geo-engineering infrastructure projects. He is also an investor/host of ABC Television’s four-time Emmy Award-winning venture capital reality programs Shark Tank and Beyond the Tank produced by MGM/Sony/ABC.
Kevin O’Leary is an active photographer, watch collector, guitarist, and author of three number #1 best-selling books Cold Hard Truth, Men, Women and Money, and Family Kids and Money.
Topics
Cold Hard Truth
Kevin O’Leary, one of North America’s most successful entrepreneurs, reveals the secrets that made him rich and shares his personal advice for readers from every walk of life. Kevin describes his incredible journey, from his sometimes difficult childhood to the way he built his first company, managed personal pressures, and ultimately achieved remarkable success. His advice is engaging and practical – and will help those who read it become the best entrepreneurs and business people that they can be. Topics cover business, money, and life, including how to find your calling and turn your talents into a profitable venture; building a dream team; transforming adversity into opportunity, and making and growing your business–and your money.
Lessons from a Shark
Kevin O’Leary will take you on a behind-the-scenes look at his two hit shows, Dragons’ Den & Shark Tank. He customizes every presentation for his audience to bring unique business information to each event. He’ll share entertaining and insightful outtakes from his TV shows – videos you can’t see anywhere else, along with a current economic overview and how it relates to your industry, and finally, he’ll be a ‘secret agent’ for your industry with insights into how your industry is performing, where the innovation is coming from and more. All based on a content review of your industry prior to the event.
An Evening with Kevin O'Leary
With candor and unmatched business smarts, Kevin O’Leary draws on his encyclopedic knowledge of finance, investing, economics, and business to discuss a variety of topics. How, for instance, will the global recession affect a myriad of industries, including your own, and what can you do to protect your company, and come out stronger than ever? Razor-sharp and quick on his feet, O’Leary pulls no punches in his enlightening and timely talks.
American Business 2.0
When the great COVID Pandemic of 2020 hit the world, it altered the American business landscape. While many businesses like restaurants, airlines, and shared workplaces (think WeWork) went out of business or were reduced drastically, online businesses like Zoom, Adobe, and Shopify flourished. Meanwhile, changes that were happening slowly in the workplace, such as remote work, flexible schedules, and online retailing, accelerated rapidly and became the norm. In this talk on the future of business, Kevin O’Leary will share other changes that are happening so you and your company can be prepared for American Business 2.0.
