Kevin O'Leary facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kevin O'Leary
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O'Leary in 2023
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| Born |
Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary
July 9, 1954 |
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| Citizenship |
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| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Businessman, investor, journalist, television personality |
| Known for | Reality TV host, CNBC and BNN contributor |
| Political party | Conservative (2004–present) Liberal (before 2004) |
| Spouse(s) |
Linda Greer
(m. 1990) |
| Children | 2 |
Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary (born July 9, 1954), sometimes called Mr. Wonderful, is a Canadian-Irish businessman, investor, journalist, and television personality.
Contents
Early life and education
O'Leary was born on 9 July 1954, in Montreal. He is one of two sons of Georgette (née Bookalam), a small-business owner and investor of Lebanese descent, and Terry O'Leary, a salesman of Irish descent. Kevin also has a brother, Shane O'Leary.
O'Leary grew up in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec. His parents divorced when he was a child. His father died shortly after that, when O'Leary was only seven. After his father's death, his mother ran the family's clothing business as an executive. His mother later married an economist, George Kanawaty, who worked with the UN's International Labour Organization. His stepfather's international assignments caused the family to move frequently, and O'Leary lived in many places while growing up, including Cambodia, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and Cyprus. O'Leary attended Stanstead College and St. George's School, both in Quebec.
O'Leary's mother was a skilled investor. She kept her investment portfolio secret, so O'Leary only discovered his mother's skill as an investor after her death when her will was executed.
O'Leary had aspired to become a photographer, but on the advice of his stepfather ultimately led him to attend university, where he continued to develop his interest in business and investing since his youth. He received an honours bachelor's degree in environmental studies and psychology from the University of Waterloo in 1977 and an MBA in entrepreneurship from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario in 1980.
Business career
In 1978, between the first and second years of his MBA program, O'Leary was selected for an internship at Nabisco in Downtown Toronto and then worked as an assistant brand manager for Nabisco's cat food brand. After leaving Nabisco, O'Leary began a brief career as a television producer.
O'Leary co-founded SoftKey Software Products, a technology company that sold software geared toward family education and entertainment. During the late 1980s and 1990s, SoftKey became a major consolidator in the global educational software market. SoftKey later changed its name to The Learning Company and was acquired by Mattel in 1999, with the sale making O'Leary a multimillionaire.
Media
From 2004 to 2014, he appeared on various Canadian television shows, including the business news programs SqueezePlay and The Lang and O'Leary Exchange, as well as the Canadian reality television shows Dragons' Den and Redemption Inc. In 2008, he appeared on Discovery Channel's Project Earth. Since 2009, he has appeared on Shark Tank, the American version of Dragons' Den.
O'Leary's appearances on Dragons' Den and Shark Tank popularized the nickname "Mr. Wonderful" for him; he has said that he is often referred to by that name in public. O'Leary has said that the nickname serves both as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his reputation for being mean, as well as a reflection of his view that his blunt assessments are helpful to misguided, naive, and inexperienced entrepreneurs.
Political career
In 2017, he campaigned to be the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He was a frontrunner in the polls during much of that time but dropped out in April 2017, one month before the election, citing a lack of support in Quebec.
Political positions
O'Leary supports multilateral free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. He opposes right to disconnect legislation, which gives employees the legal right not to respond to work-related communications outside of working hours.
O'Leary supports building a pipeline from the Athabasca oil sands to Eastern Canada with the intention of making Canada "energy independent". He has criticized Canada's reliance on Saudi Arabia for oil and gas. He has stated he would support a national referendum on the issue of pipelines.
O'Leary has advocated for increased border security in order to tackle the issue of irregular border crossing.
Personal life
O'Leary is Catholic. He and his wife, Linda (née Greer), have been married since 1990. The couple separated in 2011, but they resumed their marriage after two years. Linda now serves as the VP of Marketing for O'Leary Wines. They have two children, Trevor and Savannah.
The O'Learys live in Miami Beach and Toronto. He also maintains a cottage in Muskoka, Ontario, as well as homes in Boston and Geneva, Switzerland. In a 2022 CNBC interview, he mentioned that he has obtained a UAE citizenship in order to be able to partner with Emiratis on investments.
Interesting facts about Kevin O'Leary
- Due to his paternal heritage, O'Leary also holds Irish citizenship and carries an Irish passport.
- O'Leary has dyslexia, which he argued helped him in the world of business.
- In his youth, he met both Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Pol Pot of Cambodia.
- O'Leary attributed his future business success at The Learning Company as a result of the extensive marketing skills that he honed during his assistant brand management days at Nabisco.
- Many of his investment lessons came from his mother, including the admonition to save one-third of his money.
- O'Leary has been an advocate of cryptocurrency investing and personally owns coins in the cryptocurrencies Ether, A4M Ethereum Blockchain, Polygon, SOL, Bitcoin, and Pawthereum.
- He is a fan of the New England Patriots football team and claims to watch all of their games.
Kevin O'Leary quotes
- "Vision is nothing without a plan to execute it."
- "My partners... taught me that in order to create wealth, I needed to pair up with people whose strengths compensated for my weaknesses."
- "The definition of leadership is that you have to find great people and ask them to do extraordinary things."
- "Money equals freedom."
- "I actually think being an entrepreneur is a state of mind. If you're going to be an entrepreneur, my thesis is that you have to sacrifice everything for some period in your life to be successful."
Books
- Cold Hard Truth: On Business, Money & Life (2011)
- Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women, and Money: 50 Common Money Mistakes and How to Fix Them (2012)
- Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money (2015)
- Cold Hard Truth on Marriage and Money: Part Two of Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money (2015)
- Digital Pivot or Bust In a Post COVID-19 World: Why Small Businesses Must Re-Think Everything to Survive and Thrive! (2020)
