In this success post, we are going to share the story of Leon Black, an American businessman and the son of Eli Black, who was a prominent Jewish Businessman.
His business revolves around private equity and leveraged buyouts. He is also the co-founder of the private equity giant Apollo Global Management.
Leon Black early life
Leon Black was born in July 1951 to Eli Black and Shirley Lubell. Eli Black was a businessman who emigrated from Poland and was the owner of the United Brands Company.
Leon completed his BA in History and Philosophy from Dartmouth College in the year 1973. He then went to Harvard University to complete his MBA in the year 1975. He was a member of the Board of Trustee of Dartmouth College during the period 2002-2011.
Leon Black Career
After completing his MBA from Harvard University, he went to work on Wall Street in Drexel Burnham Lambert, an investment bank, as an MD in mergers and acquisitions. He was also the co-head of the Corporate Finance Department. In the late 80s, after Drexel collapsed, he co-founded the Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm.
Other than Leon, the co-founders of Apollo included John Hannan, who was also the co-director of the International Finance at Drexel, along with some other prominent personalities such as Arthur Bilger, Marc Rowan, Michael Gross, and Josh Harris. His family foundation donated around $4 million in the year 2004 and $6 million in 2005 in grants.
It has shut down the grants since then and has been known to be drained to its assets. Now it only makes one to two grants a year, that too to some pre-selected organizations. Since his mother was an artist, Leon is known to have an art acquisition worth $2 billion.
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