10 Things You Didn’t Know about Marc Lasry
Marc Lasry has a lot of money. You might already know that. On the other hand, you might be hearing his name for the first time. Most people who do have any knowledge of him would have to admit that their knowledge is fairly limited. Therefore, you might know that he’s a billionaire who works with hedge funds and starts a lot of businesses in that particular arena. However, you may not really know who he is or what he’s all about. If you want to find out some things about him, read on.
1. He hasn’t always lived in the United States
Until he was seven years of age, he lived in Morocco with his parents. At that time, he and they immigrated to the US. According to Lasry, he still remembers to this day how different life in Morocco was compared to his life in the United States. He also comments that this is something that eventually shaped him into the man he is today, not to mention giving him his drive to succeed in the business world.
2. He also has a sibling
Lasry has a sibling, a sister. In addition to being fairly close as a family, the two of them have actually gone into business together in the past. It was almost immediately after Lasry graduated from law school that he and his sister started a business together which specialized in bankruptcy law for individuals who were facing financial hardship.
3. Years later, they would reunite in business
After a time, Lasry left the bankruptcy law firm that he and his sister had started in order to work in trade claims. Over time, he developed his own business in the field and eventually decided that he wanted to work with his sister once again. It didn’t take long for her to agree and in a relatively short amount of time, the two of them were well on their way to creating a new business in his chosen field.
4. He turned down a position most people would practically kill for
Lasry was offered a position as a United States ambassador to France by the federal government. After much consideration, he eventually made the decision to turn down the offer. He stated that it was because of business reasons. As it turns out, he was very much involved in generating hedge fund capital at the time and simply did not see a way that he could make both venues work for him at the same time. Since his time and energy was already invested with the venture capital endeavors, he made the decision to turn down the offer to become the ambassador to France and continued to concentrate on his individual business efforts.
5. He has distinguished himself in the hedge fund world
Saying that he has become a distinguished individual in the hedge-fund world is something of an understatement. In 2014, Forbes Magazine listed him as one of the top 25 top hedge-fund earners of all time. At that time, he had earned more than 280 million dollars for his hedge fund endeavors in 2014 alone.
6. He also likes sports
Around the same time as the Forbes article, he also purchased the Milwaukee Bucks, an NBA team that he purchased for a staggering 550 million dollars. That’s enough money to make most people’s heads spin but for him, it seemed to be a relatively small amount of money. The truth is, he’s always had a vested interest in sports and this gave him the perfect opportunity to create something that combineed his love of business and his love of sports into a single entity.
7. He’s not exactly a Trump supporter
Almost immediately after he purchased the NBA team, he made headlines by siding with a very small group of NBA teams in saying that he nor his team would ever stay at a venue owned by Donald Trump. This is something that he has stood by over the years. To this day, he still has not stated at any facility owned by Trump, nor has anyone that is associated with his team.
8. He believes in supporting education
Lasry has long been associated with a number of philanthropic efforts. Recently, he and his wife decided to make a rather large contribution to Clark University in order to construct an entirely new bioscience facility. By the time it was all said and done, more than five million dollars had been donated. This will allow the university to focus on new endeavors in bioscience that could have very important results for all of mankind in the future.
9. He also extends his philanthropic efforts elsewhere
Lasry wants to make the world a better place, at least his corner of it. Considering his rather large financial resources, many people would consider his corner of the universe to be rather large, indeed. While donating a great deal of money to Clark University, Lasry and his wife have also worked tirelessly to donate resources to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. This is something they continue to actively do to this day.
10. He’s often considered a family man
For some, it’s hard to understand how a person can be so successful in business while simultaneously experiencing a similar level of success with their own family. After all, there is only so much time in the day and it seems virtually impossible to do it all with the same level of dedication. That being said, Lasry seems to have figured out the secret to it all. He and his wife have five children together and by all accounts, he seems to dedicate as much attention to his family as he does to all of his business ventures. He definitely knows how to have fun and he works hard to impart his values to his children as they grow. He even decided to surprise them by playing in an All-Star basketball game recently, further proving to his children and the world that it is possible to have more than one interest and it’s also possible to have fun from time to time.