ERIE — In celebration of “Shark Week,” the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA) is proud to announce that world-renowned businessman, investor and TV personality Kevin O’Leary, best known as one of the investors or “sharks” on the hit ABC TV series “Shark Tank,” will be the keynote speaker at the Association’s 111th Annual Event, starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, October 5, at the Bayfront Convention Center, 1 Sassafras Pier.
The event, which will follow the MBA’s annual Manufacturing Day celebration earlier in the day, will showcase O’Leary’s business advice and journey to become the chairman of both O’Leary Funds and O’Shares Investments.
“Kevin O’Leary is one of the most recognizable business leaders today with an incredibly diverse business and investment background,” said MBA Marketing Director Tammy Polanski. “His presentations are highly regarded and met with great enthusiasm worldwide. He is considered one of the top business speakers throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. We are thrilled that he has agreed to share it with our members.”
According to O’Leary’s official biography, as the son of a travelling international business expert, O’Leary had the opportunity to live and be educated in Cambodia, Cyprus, Tunisia, Ethiopia, France and Switzerland.
After completing his master in business administration, O’Leary founded 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.”
O’Leary founded SoftKey Software Products (later called The Learning Company) 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 American families began to buy software for education and entertainment. SoftKey soon became a catalyst of consolidation in the software industry, raising over $1 billion in financing and completing a series of aggressive acquisitions, including WordStar International, Spinnaker Software, Compton’s New Media, The Learning Company, Creative Wonders, the Minnesota Educational Computer Company, Mindscape and Broderbund. By 1998, O’Leary’s company was the undisputed world leader in educational, reference and home productivity software and the world’s second largest consumer software company, with annual sales over $800 million, 2,000 employees and offices in 15 countries. In 1999, Mattel acquired the company for $4.2 billion.
In 2003, O’Leary co-founded Storage Now, a leading developer of climate controlled storage facilities. Through a series of development projects and acquisitions, Storage Now soon had operations in 11 cities, serving such companies as Merck and Pfizer, and was acquired by In Storage REIT in March 2007 for $110 million.
In 2007, O’Leary became a founding investor and director of Boston-based Stream Global Services Inc., focused on the growing out sourcing business services market.
Today, O’Leary is the chairman of O’Leary Funds, a Canadian mutual fund company with $1 billion under management, and the chairman of O’Shares Investments. He is also the founder and chief sommelier of O’Leary Fine Wines, an award-winning wine label, as well as a member of Boston’s 107-year old Hamilton Trust. In addition to “Shark Tank,” O’Leary is a regular contributor on ABC, CNBC and CTV, and a bestselling author of two books: Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women and Money, and Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money.
O’Leary holds a B.A. in environmental studies and psychology from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, where he serves as a board member.
A sellout each year, the Manufacturer & Business Association’s Annual Event is the tri-state region’s premier business networking event, featuring the nation’s most prominent figures in business, politics and journalism. Among the most recent speakers are: President George W. Bush, Jack Welch, Carly Fiorina, Willie Robertson and 2015 keynote speaker T. Boone Pickens.
This year’s Annual Event is sponsored by UPMC Health Plan, PNC, Ridg-U-Rak, Inc., Logistics Plus, Reddog/PHB Inc. and McInnes Rolled Rings, as of press time.
Ticket packages include tables of 10 – $2,500 premium and $2,250 preferred. Individual tickets are also available at $275 for general seating.
For more ticket information, contact the Association at 814/833-3200 or 800/815-2660 or visit www.mbausa.org.
