Wes Edens Biography

Wes Edens (Wesley Robert Edens) is an American businessman, private equity investor and sports team owner best known for been co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, along with Marc Lasry.

He is also the founder of New Fortress Energy, and also owns the League of Legends team FlyQuest. In July 2018, a group consisting of Edens and Nassef Sawiris injected cash into English Championship club Aston Villa, becoming majority shareholder

In his teenage years, Edens was a competitive skier. He received a B.S. in Finance and Business Administration from Oregon State University in 1984.

Wes Edens Age

He was born on 30 October 1961 in United States. He is 61 years old as of 2022.

Wes Edens Height

Edens stands at a height 6 feet 2 inches tall.

Wes Edens Family

Edens was born to his loving parents in the United States, however not much is know about his family apart from that his mother’s name is Barbara Edens.

Wes Edens Wife

Edens is married to Lynn Edens Edens and together they have four children.

Wes Edens Daughter

Edens has two daughters Mallory Edens and Madison Edens. His youngest daughter Mallory received significant, controversial media attention following her appearance as the Milwaukee Bucks’ team representative at the 2014 NBA Draft lottery.

Wes Edens Net Worth

Edens has a net worth of $4.2 billion which is acquired from his career as a businessman, private equity investor and sports team owner.

Lehman Brothers and BlackRock

Edens started his career in 1987 at Lehman Brothers, where he was a partner and managing director until 1993. Edens then went to BlackRock’s private equity division BlackRock Asset Investors, where he remained until 1997 as a partner and managing director.

Fortress Investment Group

Edens was one of five principal partners; Robert (Rob) Kauffman, Michael Edward (Mike) or (Novo) Novogratz, Peter (Pete) Briger, Jr., and Randal (Randy) Nardone—who founded Fortress Investments in 1998.

His investment style was described in a 2007 The Wall Street Journal article as one based on “contrarian bets, creative financing and a knack for building business from investments.”

On February 9, 2007, Fortress became the first publicly traded buyout firm with Eden and his partners taking the company public through its initial public offering. It had sold an 8% share to the public for $600 million by 2009.

By 2007 Fortress assets under management included both private equity and publicly traded alternative investment vehicles, fourteen private equity funds, two real estate vehicles, and four hedge funds, and went public.

When the Japanese financial holding company, Nomura Holdings acquired 15% of Fortress for $888 million in December 2006 with proceeds going to the five principals, Edens and his partners became paper billionaires.

He became Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors at Fortress in 2009, and helped the company, which saw its stock price fall to below one dollar after the subprime mortgage crisis, resurge by offering subprime lending. Edens served as Chairman of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC from 2015 to May, 2016.

In January 2017, Fortress announced the creation of an eSports (professional video gaming) team called FlyQuest. The team currently a League of Legends team that competes in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS).

Springleaf Financial Services

Wes Edens, who runs Fortress’s private equity business, was the catalyst at Fortress behind the purchase of subprime lender Springleaf Financial Services—then known as AIG’s American General Finance, which made Fortress Springleaf’s majority stakeholder.

By 2015, the value of Springleaf Holdings Inc. had ballooned to “$3.5 billion, putting the firm’s gain at more than 27 times Fortress’s original investment of $124 million in 2010.”

Edens was announced as the “new king of subprime lending” by The Wall Street Journal. He is chairman of the subprime lender Springleaf Financial Services, formerly known as AIG’s American General Finance.

In August 2010, Fortress acquired 80% of Springleaf for $125 million and used Springleaf and Nationstar to “build out a financial-services business within its private-equity unit, which manages $14.3 billion in assets.”

Milwaukee Bucks

In 2014, Edens and Marc Lasry purchased the Bucks from Herb Kohl for $550 million, promising to keep the team in Wisconsin and build a new arena to replace the BMO Harris Bradley Center. As of February 2018, the NBA franchise was valued at nearly double that amount, $1.075 billion.