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Terence "Kevin" Thomas O'Leary (born 9 July 1954) is a Canadian businessman, investor, journalist, writer, financial commentator and television personality. Hailed as Canada's business equivalent of Donald Trump, O'Leary is one of Canada's most prominent entrepreneurs, investors, and financial pundits.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary - Canada's equivalent to Donald Trump )〕 He is the Co-founder and Chairman of O'Leary Funds and the co-founder of SoftKey. He has also previously served as a business journalist on CBC's ''The Lang and O'Leary Exchange'' with Amanda Lang and hosted ''Redemption Inc.''〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kevin O’Leary – from Dragon’s Den to Redemption Inc. )〕 He is mostly recognized as a tough "Shark" investor on the ABC reality television series ''Shark Tank'' as well as a venture capitalist "Dragon" on CBC's ''Dragons' Den''. Initially aspiring to become a photographer, O'Leary developed an interest in business and investing at a young age watching his mother invest her weekly paycheque into various stocks and bonds. He attended the University of Waterloo in Ontario, obtaining an Honours bachelor's degree and upon receiving his MBA from the University of Western Ontario, he set his sights towards carving his niche as a successful businessman. O'Leary began his career in the early 1980s as an assistant brand manager for Nabisco Foods where he successfully increased market share for Nabisco's biggest cat food brand. He later went on to co-found Special Event Television, a moderately successful television production company that produced original sports programming such as "The Original Six", "Don Cherry's Grapevine" and "Bobby Orr and the Hockey Legends". In 1986, O'Leary co-founded SoftKey Software Products, a leading technology company that sold software geared towards family education and entertainment. SoftKey became a major force in the global educational software industry, where during the late 1980s and 1990s, it acquired many rival companies such as Compton's New Media, The Learning Company and Brøderbund. O'Leary's shrewd business acumen helped propel the company into the world leader in the development of educational, reference, and home productivity software, garnering annual sales of over $800 million, 2,000 employees and subsidiaries in 15 countries. SoftKey later changed its name to The Learning Company and was acquired by The Mattel Toy Company in 1999, with the sale making O'Leary a multi-millionaire in the process. ==Early life and education== O'Leary was born in Montreal, Quebec to a Canadian father of Irish origin who worked as a salesman and a Canadian mother of Lebanese origin who was a seamstress turned small businesswoman and investor.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kevin O'Leary: The natural - Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News )〕〔Allemang, John. ("Kevin O’Leary: The shark who swims alone" ). ''The Globe and Mail''. 23 September 2011〕〔Schlesinger, Joel. ("The dragon's pen: Reality TV villain writes about life and money in new autobiography" ). ''Winnipeg Free Press''. 1 October 2011〕 O'Leary's maternal grandfather, Joseph Bookalam, the Anglicized version of the name from Yusef Bukalam or Abukalam meaning in Arabic the father (abu) of the speech (kalam), was a successful businessman who immigrated to Canada in 1904 from a small village in Lebanon at the age of 16. Bookalam had an uncle in Cobalt, Ontario who was a general store owner and worked at the store for three straight years handling inventory and serving customers where he eventually saved enough money that provided enough seed capital to buy a horse and sleigh in order to launch his career as a roving salesman. Bookalam later married O'Leary's maternal grandmother Akaber, who was coincidentally from the same village that Joseph came from and had four children. Bookalam later moved to Montreal and amassed substantial savings from his career as a roving salesman, which provided enough startup capital for him to establish Kiddie Togs, a successful clothing store which made high end children's winter clothing.〔 After Bookalam's untimely death, O’Leary's mother ran the business successfully for many years when working as the store's seamstress. O'Leary's parents divorced when he was a child and his father died shortly thereafter. As a result of a broken marriage, he witnessed his mother stagger under the emotional and financial problems and his mother later remarried an economist of Egyptian origin who worked with the UN’s International Labour Organization.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Dragons' Den star Kevin O'Leary has another passion—photography - Macleans.ca )〕 Due to his stepfather's international assignments, O'Leary lived in many places across the world, moving around every couple of years. He spent time in countries such as Cambodia, Tunisia, and Cyprus, where he often went out into the communities and learned about world cultures.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Shark Tank : Week 19: LuminAID, Taaluma Totes, Keen Home, Scholly - Season 6 Episode 19 Recap - ABC.com )〕 He attended Stanstead College and St. George's School.〔 O'Leary developed an interest in business and investing at a young age and cites his mother, Georgette, with endowing his interest and facility for business. Despite his mother being a seamstress, Georgette was a seasoned investor, investing a third of her weekly paycheque into large cap dividend paying stocks and interest bearing bonds, ultimately achieving high end returns in her investment portfolio. Since Georgette kept her investment portfolio a secret, O'Leary only discovered this as executor of her estate after she died.〔 One of the earliest lessons O'Leary learned in investing was when he was a young boy and his mother would always tell him to "never spend the principal only the dividends." Many of his mother's investment lessons stem from his mother where one was to save one-third of your money, spend only the interest while protecting the principal. This lesson is what O'Leary would later employ decades later with his mutual fund management company, O’Leary Funds.〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=T. Kevin O'Leary )〕 At Nepean High School in Ottawa, O'Leary was a member of the photo club and bought himself a Soviet Zenit camera and began to develop his own photos.〔 He also worked odd jobs after school to supplement his income, one of which involved washing trucks and working at an ice cream shop. While working at a Magoo's Ice Cream Parlour he engaged in a life changing experience. During his second day of work, the store owner commanded Kevin to get down on his knees and scrape the gum off the floor. His response was "No", at which point she instantly terminated his employment and told him to "get out of her ice cream parlour". Kevin states that he did not even know what the word "fired" meant. Minutes later he was on his bicycle on his way home ashamed and in shock that someone else could have that kind of control over him. O'Leary has stated that the impact of this experience still guides him in his business decisions to date and since then he has made a personal conviction to be self-employed for the rest of his life.〔["The Road to Riches." Dragons Den Canada. CBC. Toronto, Ontario, 17 March 2010〕 After graduating, he studied for two years at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean.〔Campbell, Colin. [http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/10/05/on-his-unconventional-childhood-what-steve-jobs-is-really-like-and-what-don-cherry-taught-him/ "In conversation: Kevin O’Leary"]. ''Maclean's''. 5 October 2011〕 After graduating from high school, O'Leary aspired to become a photographer. However, his step-father advised that being a photographer was not a financially viable and stable career path; only a small percentage of photographers achieve fame and fortune, or even have a stable income . Taking a reality check and refocusing his career options, he was unwilling to take the risk of a second job to support his dreams. O'Leary then put his artistic aspirations on hold to attend university at the insistence of his father,〔 where he continued to develop an interest in business and investing.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kevin O'Leary's best advice from his 20s - Business Insider )〕 He attended the University of Waterloo, where he received an honours bachelor's degree in environmental studies and anthropology in 1977.〔O'Leary, Kevin. (2012) Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money. Doubleday Canada, page 106〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title= T. Kevin O'Leary )〕 He also earned an MBA in entrepreneurship from the Ivey Business School at The University of Western Ontario in 1980.〔〔 While working towards his MBA at the University of Western Ontario, O'Leary proposed to his professors that he produce a documentary for his thesis where the subject would be to illustrate what he had learned during his two years at Ivey. In addition, O'Leary agreed to let Western use his documentary as a recruitment tool which later became a huge success that set him apart from his classmates upon graduation. In addition, O'Leary cites the success as giving him the necessary skills for one of his first business ventures, Special Event Television. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kevin O'Leary」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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