Sam Nazarian

Sam Nazarian (; born 1975) is a Persian-American businessman, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of SBE Entertainment Group.

Biography

Early life

Nazarian was born to a Persian Jewish family in Tehran in 1975. The Nazarian family immigrated to the United States following the Iranian Revolution.Bloomberg: "Sam Nazarian Wants You to Sleep with Him" By Karl Taro Greenfeld
December 01, 2011 He is the son of Younes Nazarian who made a fortune along with his brother Izak Parviz Nazarian as an early investor in Qualcomm. He was raised in Beverly Hills, California where he attended Beverly Hills High School and later studied at the University of Southern California.

Career

Telecommunications

His first entrepreneurial venture was in 1998, when he invested a little bit of money into Platinum Wireless, a telecommunications business specializing in the distribution of Nextel software. Within one year of its founding, Platinum Wireless was the number one Nextel distributor in Southern California. He then entered the real estate industry by diversifying his family's assets into real estate holdings, beginning with the establishment of 3Wall Development in 1999. Under Sam's guidance 3Wall became one of Southern California's largest owners of multi-family housing.

Hospitality

SBE, a company Nazarian founded, owns several Los Angeles nightclubs and lounges: ''Nightingale Plaza'', ''Hyde Sunset, and Hyde Staples Center''. As clubs tend to wane in popularity quickly, Nazarian typically only keeps his clubs open for eight months to a year, closes them for extensive renovations, and then reopens them (often under a new name, preferably short) to keep the brand fresh. SBE generally owns each of its venues outright giving it the flexibility to quickly adjust to the vagaries of the market. These venues continue to see a high level of popularity and celebrity patronage, as well as being frequently visited by the characters of HBO's '' Entourage''. Nazarian made an appearance as himself greeting the main characters of the show in the episode " No Cannes Do". Nazarian's SBE brand has also been featured on episodes of '' The Hills''. Nazarian owns the Hyde Lounge at Staples Center in Los Angeles and the Hyde at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami. In 2014, SBE agreed to lease the top two floors of 5900 Wilshire, a skyscraper in Los Angeles.

Restaurants

Nazarian has secured partnerships with Philippe Starck and chefs Katsuya Uechi, José Andrés and Michael Mina. His partnership with Katsuya and Starck resulted in the restaurant Katsuya, with locations in Brentwood, Hollywood, Glendale, downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Diego. XIV, in partnership with Chef Michael Mina, opened on the Sunset Strip in October 2008. Nazarian opened The Bazaar with José Andrés, which is integrated into SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, in 2008. SBE is also invested in hamburger chain Umami Burger.

Hotels

SBE owns and operates several hotels including SLS Brickell, SLS Lux, Redbury South Beach and Redbury New York.

Producer

Nazarian has served as executive producer for the films '' Waiting...,'' '' Down in the Valley'', '' Five Fingers,'' '' The Last Time'', '' Pride'', ''Mr. Brooks'' and '' College''.

Honors

In 2006, Nazarian was honored as the youngest executive to be named one of the "Top 100 Most Powerful People in Southern California" by '' West,'' the '' Los Angeles Times Magazine,'' and was named among "The Influentials". Since 2008, Nazarian has served on the board of directors of the Southern California Institute of Architecture. The Beverly Hills High School basketball court was renamed "Sam Nazarian Court" after Nazarian, a 1993 Beverly Hills High School graduate, made a $200,000 donation to the Beverly Hills Athletic Alumni Association. In July 2009, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Nazarian to the Board of Airport Commissioners of Los Angeles World Airports. In 2014, Nazarian was named to ''Fortunes 40 Under 40 list.

Personal life

Nazarian is married to Montenegrian model Emina Cunmulaj;New York Daily News: "King of clubs Sam Nazarian throws an ace party for Mexico wedding to model Emina Cunmulaj" BY Marianne Garvey
June 23, 2015 they have two daughters and a son.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazarian, Sam
Living people
1975 births
American casino industry businesspeople
American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies
American telecommunications industry businesspeople
American film producers
American hoteliers
American investors
American people of Iranian-Jewish descent
American real estate businesspeople
American restaurateurs
Beverly Hills High School alumni
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Iranian emigrants to the United States
Iranian Jews
Sam
Nightclub owners
People from Beverly Hills, California
Businesspeople from Las Vegas
People from Tehran
University of Southern California alumni
Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States
Jewish American philanthropists