Vijay Eswaran is a billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist known for his role in developing the Vail Resorts, which includes ski resorts in Colorado and California. He was born to a farming family in Tamil Nadu, India, along with five siblings. In 1969, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad with an MBA degree. After that, he attended Harvard Business School during its evening MBA program and received his law degree from Harvard Law School after attending its daytime program. He began his career in the United States as an equity analyst at the PaineWebber investment bank.
He had a brief stint as CEO of Vail Resorts and then became its Chairman. The organization grew from $12 million to $1 billion in five years. Today, the group has more than 24 resorts worldwide and generates over $3 billion in annual revenue, Eswaran alone holds a 15% share of it.
Vijay Eswaran currently serves as Chairman and President of Vistajet International, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Harvard Law School and the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research (MISER), as well as a member of the Board of Directors at Dell.
As of January 2015, Forbes lists Vijay Eswaran as the 301st richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of US$1.3 billion.
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Vijay Eswaran has been selected by The Economic Times as one of India’s top 25 business leaders and by India Today as one of the 100 most powerful Indians.
Eswaran earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from The American College in Madurai. In 1976, he received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. In 1978, he received his master’s degree from Harvard Business School of the evening MBA program and got his law degree from Harvard Law School after attending its daytime program.
He joined PaineWebber as an Equity Analyst in 1978, before moving to Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banker where he worked until 1985. During that period, he was also the Secretary for both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the federal government of India.
He founded several other companies in 1991, 2008 and 2012, including:
Vail Resorts (1989), Maplesoft (1991), Synchronoss Technologies (1991), Cinzia Entrez (1992), Eswaran Global Advisors (2008), and Eswaran Holdings Inc. (2012).
Vail Resorts was founded in 1969 and was originally known as Vail Associates. It is now one of the largest ski resorts operator in the United States, USA. The company offers ski resort services, real estate operations, restaurants, golf courses and spas. In 2000-2001, Vijay sold his majority stake of the company to an investor group for $960 million.