Famous Entrepreneurs

While most teenagers are concerned about the opposite sex and college, Peter Jones at the age of 16 founded a tennis academy. All of his beginning businesses did not meet with success due to Peter’s inexperience. He was not one to give up easily and his nature paid off with his thriving computer business in his early twenties.  Unfortunately he lost the business because of cash flow problems.

Peter left the entrepreneurial world for a while, when at the age of 28, he joined Siemens to run the UK computer business.  In 1998, at the age of 30, Peter started his telecom business, Phones International Group.  Today the business generates revenues in excess of £200m.  In 2003, the firm was recognized in The Sunday Times/Virgin Atlantic UK Fast Track League Table as the 13th fastest growing business.  His business interests today range from telecoms, leisure, publishing as well as TV and media.

Peter has won many national awards, including Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001 The Times/Ernst & Young, and was named 14th in the top 40 young entrepreneurs by the Daily Telegraph in 2005.

Peter’s advice to other entrepreneur’s is:
·   Top pitching tip – Know your end goal and work towards it.
·   Cardinal pitching sin – Do not over exaggerate the opportunity, be clear and concise.
·   Motto – Believe in yourself, never give up and go about your business with passion drive and enthusiasm.

Peter’s visibility in the UK and the world increased rapidly with his appearance on BBC’s Dragons’ Den.  On this show, Peter is 1 of 5 successful businessmen (dragon’s) who listen to entrepreneur’s pitch items with the hope of gaining financing form. This is done typically in exchange for a stake in their enterprise. Through this show, Peter has invested in companies including the magazine Wonderland and a data service for marinas, Square Mile International.

In April of last year, Peter closed a deal with ITV to star in and produce at least two new prime time shows.  The first of these is called “The Tycoon.”  Peter will be searching the UK for the next big Business Tycoon..  the other show is expected to be modeled after Peter’s American TV hit show “American Inventor”, which airs on ABC..  Peter teamed with Simon Cowell and the producers of American Idol to find the best in American ingenuity. Finalists are given $50,000 to develop their idea and bring it to the next level.

There is a humanitarian side to Peter.  His charity called Forgotten Children provides funding for organizations looking after children who have slipped through the normal system of care. He maintains an interest in children’s success despite their circumstances and makes every effort in providing ease to their difficult environment. This is truly one of his most admirable qualities.

Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 in Delta Louisiana to former slaves, Owen and Minerva Breedlove. Her parents died during a yellow fever epidemic when she was 7 years old. When she was ten years old, her older sister and her moved to Vicksburg to obtain work. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape her sister’s abusive husband. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Lelia, and two years later her husband died.

She moved in with her brothers in St. Louis, Missouri and worked doing laundry for a dollar a day. While living in St. Louis, she joined St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church; this helped develop her speaking, interpersonal and organizational skills. She remarried in 1894 to John Davis, this marriage lasting until about 1903.

In the early 1900s, Sarah claims to have had a dream that inspired her to start her own business. She would tell reporters, her dream was of a large black man that appeared to her and gave her a formula for curing baldness. The early 1900s lacked indoor plumbing and consequently, many people only washed their hair once or twice a month. This caused dandruff and other scalp afflictions that soon caused problems such as baldness.

Sarah, being inspired by this dream set out to become what the Guinness Book of World Records would later call, the first woman to ever become a millionaire.

In 1905, Sarah moved to Denver, Colorado, to work as a sales agent for Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur who manufactured hair care products. Sarah, mindful of her dreams, took a sample of Malone’s formula to a Denver pharmacist who helped her formulate her own “Wonderful Hair Grower” products.

Soon afterward she met and married Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. In 1906 she changed her name to “Madame C. J. Walker”, and started the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company to sell hair care products for Black women. Critics claimed she was trying to match the black woman’s hair to the white styles, to which she retorted, “My products are simply to help black women take proper care of their hair and promote growth.”

Madame Walker and her husband began touring the country to promote her new products, while daughter, Lelia, maintained the mail-order business in Denver. In 1908 to they opened a beauty training school, the ‘Lelia College for Walker Hair Culturists’, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. In 1910, they moved their operation to Indianapolis, the country’s largest manufacturing base at the time, so they could have access to the eight major railway systems located there, for shipping their products all over the USA.

Later in 1910, her husband and her divorced, and Madame Walker turned over operations to some trusted key principles, while still maintaining ownership. By 1917, Madame C. J. Walker’s hair care and cosmetic company became the largest business in the United States owned by a black person.

A notable quote by Madame Walker:  “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there, I was promoted to the washtub. From there, I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations…I have built my own factory on my own ground.”

And probably the most inspirational “There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.”

She became active as a philanthropist and in the NAACP, helping to make lynching a crime after the St Louis riots of 1917.

Her company thrived providing jobs to many black women as sales people. Her inspiration and generosity was resounded through organizations like the YMCA, YWCA, orphanages, churches, and the NAACP.

On Sunday, May 25, 1919, Madam Walker died at Villa Lewaro, her mansion in New York, from kidney failure, and the result of hypertension. Her daughter Lelia succeeded her as president of the C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company.

Lorenzo Borghese was Born June 9, 1972 in Milan, Italy to Prince Francesco Marco Luigi Costanzo Borghese and Amanda Leigh, an American citizen. He lived in Milan until 1977, when the family moved to Connecticut. There he attended local schools and eventually went to Winter Park, Florida, where he graduated from Rollins College. He later attended Fordham University in New York where he obtained his MBA.

Prince Lorenzo is only a Prince in name, the title his family carries dates back to when Pope Paul V in the 17th century bestowed the title of Prince and Princess on his ancestors. Pope Paul V was one of his ancestors and at that time a Pope could bestow a Papal title on anyone he felt worthy. Although the title does not grant the family any true royalty, the Borghese name is a well-known name in Italy. The family comes from considerable wealth, having their family crest displayed at St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as a museum, park and street named after the family.

His Grandmother, Princess Marcella Borghese, founded the Borghese cosmetics line in 1958. Her company, the Princess Marcella Borghese Cosmetics Line, eventually incorporated into cosmetics giant Revlon. In 1991, a group of Saudi Arabian investors bought the company.

In 1997, Lorenzo returned to Manhattan where he worked with his Father’s cosmetic company, GT Partners, a private label Italian cosmetics company. GT sells their line to major department stores.

In 2001, he founded the Royal Spa Treatment, a bath and body skin line for pets, after noticing his pet Black Labrador (Belle) had a skin reaction to other products currently on the market. His line of nearly 100 all natural luxury pet products are available in pet boutiques nationwide and the Home Shopping Network, as well as his website.

While the development and manufacturing of his Royal Treatment Spa products remain in Italy, he works out of his New Jersey office overseeing his cosmetics empire. He has a hands-on approach to his business, personally involving himself in every aspect of development of new products. In addition to his duties to his pet cosmetic company, he also is managing partner in his father’s company as well as executive vice-president of Multimedia Exposure (of which his brother is CEO) and the founder and president of nuzzleplanet.com, a social networking website dedicated to pet owners.

His association with his brother’s company MME, and his family’s background in the cosmetics industry has allowed Lorenzo the unique opportunity to manufacture and market a product line that, even though it is common, he was still able to create a niche market.

He gained fame and notoriety in the fall of 2006 when he starred in the 9th season of ABC’s popular reality show, the Bachelor. His appearance on the series gave him worldwide coverage making him easily recognizable to millions of fans as ‘Prince Lorenzo’. As a result of his appearance on The Bachelor, he also has made appearances on numerous television news programs and talk shows, such as Access Hollywood and Live with Regis and Kathy Lee.

Born in Hyderabad, India on November 26, 1961, and the son of Lt. General F. N. Bilimoria. As a child Karan was fascinated by stories of his great-grandfather DD Italia, who started a liquor business from scratch and became a member of the House of Lords in India. He attended several different schools growing up, the result of being born into a military family.

He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Osmania University in 1981, and went to work as an accountant for Ernst & Young, the following year. For the next four years he trained and became a chartered accountant. Meanwhile, he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge.

Having a Law and Accounting degree behind him, he wanted to venture into business for himself and began selling polo sticks made in India to retailers in the UK. His family was not supportive of his business venture, because they believed he was well educated and able to secure a good job. Nevertheless, Karan chose to find a suitable business that would fulfill his dreams.

That idea came along in 1989, he wanted to manufacture a beer that was less gassy than traditional beers on the market, and a brew that would compliment the curry-laden diets of his native countrymen.

He was 27 years old, over £20,000 in debt and no experience in brewing. Nevertheless, along with his partner, Arjun Reddy, they formed Cobra Beer. Arjun’s Uncle Keshow Reddy, introduced the two to Mysore Breweries in India, and soon their new beer was being brewed and readied for sale.

Having some experience in sales from his previous polo venture, Karan drove his battered old car around India loaded with samples, visiting pubs, and restaurants to sell his new brew. He hit an unexpected hurdle when he soon discovered many of the owners he was trying to sell to did not drink due to religious reasons. Karan then offered his beer to regulars of the establishments, and it was an instant success.

He first had Cobra brewed in Bangalore, India until 1997, when he decided to begin brewing under license with Charles Wells Brewery (the largest brewery in the UK), to capture the UK market.

Karan built the business, in his own words stating “I’ve done every single thing in the business, I’ve delivered the beer, I’ve done the books, done the marketing, every single thing. It’s a wonderful position to be in.”

His hands on approach helped Cobra beer enter a very competitive worldwide market and today, the company imports its product to more than 50 countries. He introduced General Bilimoria Wines (named after his father) in 1999. Sales as of 2006 had skyrocketed to over £96 Million.
In 2005, Cobra Beer launched CobraVision, a program to allow amateur filmmakers to screen their films during commercial breaks on UK TV. This competition led to an annual show in London and the CobraVision Awards.

In 2005, Karan became the UK’s youngest university chancellor at the time as the Chancellor of Thames Valley University.

In 2006, Karan became the Host of UKTV’s The Big Idea, where aspiring entrepreneurs competed for a £100,000 prize by pitching their business ideas to a panel of experts.
He published a book in 2007 called ‘Bottled for Business: The Remarkable Success Story of Cobra Beer’.

Today he is know as Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea and has reached the same acclaim and prestige as his great-grandfather of whom he loved to hear stories about when he was a young boy.

John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest Americans in history. He was born on July 8, 1939 in Richford, New York. Although he was born in Richford, Rockefeller was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He went to Cleveland Central High School. Even at a young age Rockefeller was doing business. He would buy candies and sell them for a profit. At age 16 Rockefeller became a clerk in a commission house. With his mind set on owning his own business Rockefeller saved all his money and in 1850 went into business with an Englishman named Maurice Clark. The company was Clark & Rockefeller Produce and Commission. It sold implements, fertilizers and household goods.

Although it was fairly successful it did not bring him to his goal. In 1862 after hearing that Samuel Andrews developed a cheaper and more efficient way of refining crude petroleum, Rockefeller sold his business. He invested it in a new company that he set up with Andrews. The company was called Standard Oil. Rockefeller encountered a problem with transporting his oil. The prices were too high. To send oil to Cleveland it cost forty cents a barrel. Sending it to New York cost two dollars a barrel. Rockefeller made a deal with the railroad company and the prices dropped to thirty-five cents to Cleveland and a dollar and thirty cents to New York. As a result his oil prices were reduced and sales increased dramatically.

Within only a year four out of thirty of his competitors were out of business. Eventually oil refining in Cleveland was monopolized by Standard Oil. For a million dollars Rockefeller bought out Andrews and worked on his goal of controlling the oil industry throughout the United States. By 1890 Rockefeller’s company became an immense monopoly. He could set his own terms of business and even prices because there were no competitors. Other companies had no choice either they got swallowed up by the Standard Oil company or they got crushed. In 1896 Rockefeller was worth about $200 million.

In 1911 the Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil monopoly because of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Rockefeller soon became one of the most hated men in America. Being a devout Baptist Rockefeller started to give his money away. He even set up a project to help mankind called the Rockefeller Foundation. Rockefeller gave over $500 million in aide to medical research, schools, and Baptist churches. Rockefeller died on May 23, 1937. By then he was a popular national figure.

Jenna Jameson was Born Jennifer Marie Massoli on April 9, 1974 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her father was a police detective with the Las Vegas Police department, and her mother was a showgirl. In 1976, her mother died from skin cancer, leaving her father and grandmother to raise her. As a child she entered several beauty pageants and took up ballet class.

According to her autobiography, The family moved to a cattle ranch in Fromberg Montana where in October 1990, she was beaten with rocks and gang raped by four boys after a football game. She also claims she was raped a second time, that same year, by her boyfriend’s biker uncle, Preacher. Scared to tell her father, she left home and moved in with Jack in her first serious relationship. They later moved back to Las Vegas, where Jenna sought employment as a showgirl, like her mother.

She found employment at the Vegas World show; however, she quit after two months because of the brutal schedule and low pay. Her live-in boyfriend, Jack, encouraged her to apply for a job as a stripper, and in 1991, at 17 years old, she began dancing in Las Vegas strip clubs using a fake I.D. She applied at The Crazy Horse Too strip club, and was told they would not hire her because of the braces on her teeth. That night, she removed them with a pair of needle-nose pliers and the following day they hired her. Within six months, Jenna was earning about $2,000 per night.

A bout with drug addiction from 1991 until 1994 slowed her career considerably. She went to live with her father in Redding California in 1994 to detox.

On December 20, 1996, Jenna married porn star Brad Armstrong (Rodney Hopkins). They were only together for 10 weeks, informally separating in March 1997, and divorcing in 2001.

In the summer of 1998, Jenna met Jay Grdina a former pornographic studio owner and heir to a wealthy cattle-ranching family. Jay began his pornographic film production career after college. The two fell in love and developed a hugely successful business relationship. Since 1998, Jay is the only on-screen male sex partner to Jenna, acting under his stage name, Justin Sterling. Jay proposed in December 2000 and they married June 22, 2003.

Jay helped Jenna further her career, by 2001, she was earning $60,000 for a day and a half of filming a single DVD, and $8,000 per night dancing at strip clubs. In 2000 Jenna and Jay formed ClubJenna as an Internet pornography company. ClubJenna.com provided explicit diaries, relationship advice, and even stock tips to paid members in addition to pictures and videos. Within three weeks, the site was turning a profit.

The business later diversified into multimedia pornographic entertainment, first by administering other porn stars’ websites, then, in 2001, by production of pornographic films. The first ClubJenna film, Briana Loves Jenna (2001), co-produced with Vivid, cost just under $300,000 to make, and grossed over $1 million in its first year.
Jenna’s films averaged sales of 100,000 copies, compared with industry standard pornographic films, which would sell about 5,000 copies. Her success in ClubJenna turned into a multimillion-dollar enterprise grossing more than $30 million in 2007.

In 2008, Jenna announced her retirement from pornography, yet she will continue the more than 150 websites owned by ClubJenna.

Jamie Mitchell received first class honors in obtaining his Masters in Philosophy, politics, and economics from Brasenose College, Oxford University in July 1994. After a brief summer, Jamie went to work for McKinsey & Co in London as a business analyst, until July of 1996, when he decided to attend Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar to obtain his Masters in Business Administration (MBA). He graduated in June 1999.

Immediately after receiving his MBA, Jamie founded Vesta Capital Advisors, the group is a venture capital firm that manages about $20 million in assets. He grew his venture capital company and at the same time started another company, E-start. E-start was similar to an American company (garage.com); their primary purpose was to connect entrepreneurs with venture capitalists. An entrepreneur could apply on the e-start website with their business idea to find a venture capital firm to invest.

During his venture capital days, he also served as a consultant at HM Treasury and was a member of the Governing Body at Brunel University.

In 2002, Jamie abandoned the E-start Company, and concentrated his efforts as managing director of Vesta, until 2005, at which time Jamie sold his stake in Vesta Capital to Frontiers Capital. However, he remains on the investment committee. That same year he became the interim CEO of Envisional LTD, a consumer goods industry.

He also served as the President of English Tech Tour, a non-profit entity in the venture capital and private equity industry for about 5 months. The English Tech Tour promoted and sponsored a 2 ½ day event wherein 75 delegates from international venture capital firms and tech companies toured England, meeting with local companies and putting together 24 deals.

At the conclusion of the English Tech Tour, Jamie became managing director of Innocent Drinks, touted as one of the fastest growing companies n the UK. The company manufacturers and sells all natural fruit smoothie drinks throughout the UK from its headquarters at Fruit Towers in Shepherds Bush.

According to the Innocent Drinks website, the company started in the summer of 1998. The website tells the founders story, “when we had developed our first smoothie recipes but were still nervous about giving up our proper jobs, we bought £500 worth of fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them from a stall at a little music festival in London. We put up a big sign saying ‘Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?’ and put out a bin saying ‘YES’ and a bin saying ‘NO’ and asked people to put the empty bottle in the right bin. At the end of the weekend the ‘YES’ bin was full so we went in the next day and resigned.”

Currently, in addition to his duties at Innocent Drinks he is a teaching fellow at the London Business School, where he is a part-time lecturer in the New Venture Development and Entrepreneurial Management courses at the school. He also is on the investment committee for the Vesta Capital portfolio, and the on board of EGS LTD.

James Caan was Born in 1960 as Nazam Khan, in Lahore Pakistan. He legally changed his name after realizing that it was a more effective way to get his clients attention. It started out as a joke, when he remarked to his friends that he could spell his name differently and they started calling him James Caan (most likely after the Hollywood actor).

In 2003, James graduated from Harvard Business School’s prestigious Advanced Management Program. That same year he received Price-Waterhouse-Coopers’ Entrepreneur of the Year Award. (He had been on their shortlist in 2000.)

His career started in 1985, when he founded the Alexander Mann group; a UK based human resource outsourcing company. He described Alexander Mann as an executive headhunting firm with revenues of more than £300 million. He eventually sold this profitable company to a private equity firm in 2002 for an undisclosed amount.

In 1993, James, with partner Doug Bugie, co-founded executive head-hunting firm Humana International, taking the business to over 147 offices across 30 countries. In 1999, he Sold Humana International to CDI International, a New York listed company

In 2001, he won the Enterprise of the Year Award for his outstanding business success and most recently a Resident Entrepreneur Mentor for MBA students at London Business School. That same year, he also received the ‘BT Enterprise of the Year’ award for outstanding success in business.

In 2004, James founded London-based private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw, a private equity company that specializes in buyouts, venture capital, turnarounds and real estate investments and development opportunities throughout the UK and Europe. Hamilton Bradshaw would soon become one of his most profitable ventures, and in 2007, Hamilton Bradshaw bought recruitment specialist Eden Brown with revenues at over £180 million. Within the first 6 months, the company profits have jumped by 70% through a combination of investment and greater efficiency.

In 2005, Asian Power 100 named him one of the 100 most influential Asian people in the UK. In 2006, James acquired the failing sandwich chain ‘Benjys’ from administrators Deloitte. After realizing the chain could not survive in an over-saturated market, he turned the company over to fellow administrators KPMG in February 2007.

Currently he is the CEO of private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw and an investor on the fifth season of Dragons Den on BBC TV. His current net worth is over £73 million, and appears on the Sunday Rich List at 1096th. He set up the James Caan Foundation to provide education for underprivileged children.

In addition to his business holdings, James also owns property in London and France worth more than £12m. In 2008, he published his autobiography, ‘The Real Deal’.

When asked about his upcoming role on the Dragons Den, James commented,  “I’m thrilled to be invited to be in one of the highly coveted ‘dragon’ positions. In business I make a point of investing in people, as I’m a great believer that it is people who create a success in business through their passion and conviction.”

J. P. Morgan inherited a love for banking through his admiration of his father. He started banking in his father’s firm in 1856. He worked in many different branches in many different cities. Some banks included Duncan, Sherman and Company of New York City and Drexel, Morgan and Company of New York. Although he was involved with many different banks he still acted as an agent in his fathers New York firm.

Morgan achieved great efficiencies when he was involved in railroad financing. He reorganized many railroads such as the New York, West Shore and Buffalo. Philadelphia and Reading as well as Chesapeake and Ohio were also included. In 1887 congress passed an act called the Interstate Commerce Act. Morgan than gathered railroad Presidents together to write agreements for maintenance. It was the first of their kind, therefore creating a community of interest which made great consolidations for competing lines.

Morgan was very attentive to his church, Protestant Episcopal Church. He was a born leader and a very influential one at that. He was married then remarried a year after his first wife died. He had four children as a result of two marriages. Upon his death he returned to Rome in the city of his birth.

At his father’s death his son, J. P. Morgan Jr. although not as influential, took over the business. Three entities came out of the House of Morgan which was required by the Glass-Steagull Act.

Morgan’s interests were many. He had a large library of most influential reading and also collected pictures and many other artifacts.  Metropolitan Museum of Art pieces have been loaned or given as gifts as Morgan was the President of the museum. There are also many timeless pieces hung in his homes. In his respected memory J. P. Morgan Jr. dedicated a library called Pierpont Morgan Library and kept his private librarian Belle da Costa Greene as its director. Morgan was a benefactor of many things such as Harvard University especially its medical school.

He financed a couple different things. Like Nikola Tesla for his radio experiment and as he failed Morgan pulled out. He also was photographer patron to Edward S. Curtis. He offered Curtis a great sum of money for a Native American series which helped Curtis a great deal to go on to publish a 20-volume work.  It was something the man never forgot.

Born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, Hugh Hefner was the oldest son of Glenn and Grace Hefner. Attending Sayre Elementary School and later Steinmetz High on the West Side of Chicago, he was noted an average student despite his purported high IQ of 152. He involved himself more in extracurricular activities, rather than regular studies. Hugh was the founder of the school newspaper, and indulged himself in writing, cartooning and serving as president of the student council.

After graduating high school, he joined the US Army in January 1944; he served as an infantry clerk and drew cartoons for various Army newspapers. Upon his discharge in 1946, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago for a summer course in art, and in the fall, he attended the University of Illinois in Champaign where he earned his bachelors degree. While at the University of Illinois, he was the editor of a campus humor magazine, Shaft, where he introduced a new feature called ‘Coed of the Month’. Hugh also drew cartoons for the Daily Illini, a local newspaper.

In June 1949, he married Mildred Williams, and during the 10 years of marriage, had two children, Christie (1952), and David (1955). At this time, he was interested in pursuing a career in cartooning, and after failing to be able to sell any of his ideas, he published a satirical cartoon book about Chicago, titled ‘That Toddlin’ Town.’

His first steady job after college was as an assistant personnel manager for the Chicago Carton Company, the following year he worked as an advertising copywriter for a local department store. In 1951, he landed a job that would propel his career into the publishing business, working for Esquire magazine as a promotion copywriter for $60 a week.

Esquire moved their headquarters to New York, and when Hugh asked for a $5 a week raise to make the move, they denied him. Hugh decided to stay in Chicago and start his own magazine. H enlisted the aid of a fellow copywriter at Esquire, however they were unable to raise the necessary capital. Then in 1952, he took a job as the newsstand promotion director for Publisher Development Corporation. To better support his family, he took a job as circulation manager of Children’s Activities magazine in January 1953.

Hugh soon became obsessed with the idea to start a sophisticated men’s magazine that would reflect the views of the post-war generation. In the summer of 1953, he convinced friends and family to invest more than $8000, and with a small loan from a bank using his furniture as collateral, he found a printer willing to print his first copy, and a distributor to distribute it.

The first issue of his magazine, Playboy, featured a cover shot of Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 calendar shoot. This first issue had no date, as Hugh was not even sure if he could produce subsequent issues. It hit the newsstands in December 1953, and sold more than 50,000 copies.

Hugh reinvested all the profits back into the publication and set out to hire an enthusiastic editorial, art, promotion, and advertising staff to assist him. His magazine grew at an unbelievably astonishing rate. By 1960, Sales were more than a million copies a month and to celebrate, Hugh held the first Playboy Jazz Festival at the Chicago Stadium, later noted to be the largest and greatest single weekend in the history of jazz.

Over the next 50 years, Hugh would see his magazine become an international sensation, as he built and developed his empire. In 1975, he made Los Angeles his permanent home, where he owns a five-acre estate in Holmby Hills known as the Playboy Mansion.

He was instrumental in film and television, and earned a star on Hollywood’s walk of fame. In addition to being a member of several civic organizations, he supports jazz, education, and cinema through his donations.

In the mid-1980s, his daughter Christie took over as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Playboy Enterprises, however, Hugh remains as chief creative officer and editor-in-chief. The Playboy Enterprise includes print media, cable television, video production, licensing, and online ventures.

In 2006, he opened a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he celebrated his 81st birthday in 2007. Hugh remains a constant figure on the celebrity scene in Hollywood as well as at his Playboy Mansion, where he continues to host weekly parties. Currently a feature film about his life, produced by Brian Grazer for Universal Pictures, is in the works.