Saul Steinberg (business)

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Saul Phillip Steinberg (born Brooklyn, August 1939) is a Jewish American businessman who first became wealthy in the 1960s by leasing IBM computers. He proved so creative at the practice that his company, Leasco, became valuable enough that in 1968 he could use its stock to buy Reliance Insurance, a 150-year-old Philadelphia firm. He was just 29 years old. At the time, Forbes reported that he made more money on his own that year than anyone in America under 30.

Steinberg finished a degree from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating within two years because he could not afford the remaining years even on scholarship and while working two jobs. He graduated from the Wharton School at age 18, and has not only been a major benefactor of the school, but was also the head of the board of Wharton for over 15 years. In his 15-plus years as head of Wharton the school became ranked as number 1 in the nation.

Steinberg used Reliance as his base of operations. In 1969, he mounted a takeover of Chemical Bank, then one of the nation's largest financial institutions. Chemical and its allies in the establishment beat him back. President Nixon personally called Steinberg to dissuade him from continuing with his acquisition. In a now famous quote in Business Week, Steinberg said, "I always knew there was an Establishment ... I just used to think I was a part of it." For the next 30 years Steinberg used Reliance, and its steady cash flows, to finance numerous acquisitions and attempted acquisitions, including Flying Tigers, Days Inn, Telemundo, Frank B. Hall, Pargas, the Disney Company, and many others, in the process gaining a reputation as a mean corporate raider of legendary proportions (see below article in Fortune Magazine).

After having a massive stroke, Saul handed over control of the company to his brother Robert Steinberg after which Saul had limited involvement in the company. Robert managed to take down a 5 billion dollar company within four years. It filed for bankruptcy in 2001, a year after Steinberg was forced to sell his fabled art collection and sell his duplex apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan for $37m to Stephen A. Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group. Since then he has made a come back with his large stake in the up and coming company Wisdom Tree Investments which is run by his son Jonathan Steinberg. He now resides in a town house which has an estimated value of 12 million dollars. His full business biography is featured in "Master Investors."

In April 1988, in a match made in corporate heaven, his daughter, Laura Steinberg, a Warner Bros. story analyst, married Jonathan Tisch, son of Loews President Preston Tisch and nephew of then-CBS President Lawrence Tisch, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur. He also has four other children from three separate wives and two children from his current wife Gayfryd Steinberg; his children from his most recent wife include, well known new york socialite, Holden Steinberg and Rayne Steinberg whom he adopted when marrying Gayfryd. Holden has followed in the footsteps of her mother being featured in vogue, hamptons, and avenue she is also a frequent topic of discussion on page six of the new york post for her exessive life style and outlandish stunts in the vip areas of new york's most famous night clubs. She now attends Wharton following in her father's footsteps and differentiating herself from socialites like Paris Hilton she is by far Saul's most well known child and has been in the limelight since the age of thirteen. She has been linked to several celebrities including Jared Leto, John Mayer, and indie film star Micheal Pitt. Saul was previously married to Italian beauty Laura Sconnochia Steinberg and had one child, Julian Steinberg from that marriage. His children from his first wife Barbara Steinberg, his high school sweetheart, include Jonathan, Laura and Nicholas. His daughter-in-law is CNBC host Maria Bartiromo, married to son Jonathan "Jono" Steinberg.

  • Gross, Michael. 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building, New York: Broadway Books, 2005.

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