75 Facts About Kevin O'Leary

Kevin O'Leary co-founded SoftKey Software Products, a technology company that sold software geared toward family education and entertainment.

Kevin O'Leary dropped out in April 2017, one month before the election, citing a lack of support in Quebec.

Kevin O'Leary was born on 9 July 1954, in Montreal, one of two sons of Georgette, a small-business owner and investor of Lebanese descent, and Terry Kevin O'Leary, a salesman of Irish descent.

Kevin O'Leary has dyslexia, which he argued helped him in the world of business.

Kevin O'Leary's parents divorced when he was a child, largely due to his father's alcoholism.

Kevin O'Leary's father died shortly after that, when O'Leary was only seven.

Kevin O'Leary attended Stanstead College and St George's School, both in Quebec.

Kevin O'Leary's mother was a skilled investor, investing a third of her weekly paycheque in large-cap, dividend-paying stocks and interest-bearing bonds, ultimately achieving high returns in her investment portfolio.

Kevin O'Leary kept her investment portfolio secret, so O'Leary only discovered his mother's skill as an investor after her death when her will was executed.

O'Leary had aspired to become a photographer, but on the advice of his stepfather who prompted the young Kevin to be more realistic with his future career aspirations, ultimately led him to attend university, where he continued to develop his interest in business and investing since his youth.

Kevin O'Leary received an honours bachelor's degree in environmental studies and psychology from the University of Waterloo in 1977 and an MBA in entrepreneurship from Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario in 1980.

In 1978, between the first and second years of his MBA program, Kevin O'Leary was selected for an internship at Nabisco in Downtown Toronto and then worked as an assistant brand manager for Nabisco's cat food brand.

Kevin O'Leary attributed his future business success at The Learning Company as a result of the extensive marketing skills that he honed during his assistant brand management days at Nabisco.

Kevin O'Leary achieved limited success with minor television shows, soccer films, sports documentaries, and short in-between-period commercials for local professional hockey games.

Kevin O'Leary started Softkey in a Toronto basement in 1986, along with business partners John Freeman and Gary Babcock.

Kevin O'Leary was a publisher and distributor of CD-based personal computer software for Windows and Macintosh computers.

Desperate to secure funding, Kevin O'Leary turned to using the proceeds that he gained from selling his SET share while convincing his mother to lend him $10,000 in seed capital to establish SoftKey Software Products.

Kevin O'Leary blamed the technology meltdown and a culture clash of management of the two companies for the failure of the acquisition.

In 2003, Kevin O'Leary became a co-investor and corporate director at StorageNow Holdings, a Canadian developer of climate-controlled storage facilities controlled by Reza and Asif Satchu.

Kevin O'Leary later sold his shares which yielded a windfall profit exceeding $4.5 million through realized capital gains, with his initial stake being originally valued at $500,000.

In May 2005, Reza Satchu and Kevin O'Leary's operating partner, Wheeler, filed a $10-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit, charging that they had altered an agreed-upon compensation deal and illegally reduced Wheeler's share of the profits.

In March 2007, Kevin O'Leary joined the advisory board of Genstar Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on investing in health care, industrial technology, business services, and software.

Kevin O'Leary is the company's chairman and lead investor, while his brother Shane O'Leary serves as the director.

At the time of the agreement, Kevin O'Leary Funds reported taking steps to correct the violations.

On October 15,2015, O'Leary Funds was sold to Canoe Financial, a private investment-management company owned by Canadian businessman W Brett Wilson.

Kevin O'Leary is an active gold investor, with five percent of his financial portfolio invested in physical gold.

Kevin O'Leary advises diversification in multiple industry sectors while dedicating no more than 20 percent of one's financial portfolio being concentrated in one sector.

Kevin O'Leary initially expressed skepticism about cryptocurrency, describing bitcoin as "a digital game" and "useless currency" in 2019.

Kevin O'Leary claimed on CNBC that he was paid $15 million for the spokesman role, adding that he lost $9.7 million in digital assets, the remainder allotment in various fees and taxes, and a further million dollars' worth of equity after the company's insolvency.

Kevin O'Leary has been an advocate of cryptocurrency investing and personally owns coins in the cryptocurrencies Ether, A4M Ethereum Blockchain, Polygon, SOL, Bitcoin, and Pawthereum.

In 2006, Kevin O'Leary appeared as one of the five follow-up venture capitalists on the then-new show Dragons' Den on CBC, the Canadian installment of the international Dragons' Den format.

For several years, they appeared on both shows, although Herjavec left Dragons' Den in 2012, and Kevin O'Leary left in 2014.

Kevin O'Leary has said that the nickname serves both as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his reputation for being mean, as well as a reflection of his view that his blunt assessments are helpful to misguided, naive, and inexperienced entrepreneurs.

Kevin O'Leary had already referred to himself as "Mr Wonderful" in a 2006 casting video for Dragon's Den, predating either show.

Besides his acerbic demeanor, domineering imposition, and blunt television persona, Kevin O'Leary has gained a reputation on both shows for preferring deals in which he loans the entrepreneurs money in exchange for a percentage of future revenue, rather than taking a share of the company.

Notable deals in which Kevin O'Leary has been involved on Shark Tank include investments in Talbott Teas and GrooveBook, the latter with Mark Cuban.

In 2008, Kevin O'Leary worked as a co-host for the Discovery Channel's Discovery Project Earth, a show that explores innovative ways to reverse climate change.

In 2009, Kevin O'Leary began appearing with journalist Amanda Lang on CBC News Network's The Lang and Kevin O'Leary Exchange.

Kevin O'Leary co-produced and hosted the 2012 reality show Redemption Inc.

On May 5,2015, Kevin O'Leary made an appearance on the game show Celebrity Jeopardy and received $10,000 for his charity despite finishing 3rd and in negative points after both Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy rounds.

In 2018 Kevin O'Leary hosted the podcast Ask Mr Wonderful for seven episodes.

In 2021, Kevin O'Leary appeared with Katie Phang and Ada Pozo on CNBC's Money Court, where they adjudicated financial disputes.

Kevin O'Leary is currently a member of ARHT Media's Board of Advisors.

Kevin O'Leary has an acting role in the upcoming 2025 movie Marty Supreme.

In February 2016, Maxime Bernier, a Conservative Quebecois politician, criticized Kevin O'Leary, calling him a "tourist" for wanting to be prime minister without being able to speak French.

Kevin O'Leary stated that he was taking French lessons, and he promised to learn French in time for the next federal election.

On January 18,2017, Kevin O'Leary officially entered the Conservative leadership race.

That same day, his former Dragons' Den co-star Arlene Dickinson stated that she found Kevin O'Leary to be too "self-interested and opportunistic" to be qualified for the office of prime minister.

On February 1,2017, Kevin O'Leary posted a video of himself shooting in a Miami gun range.

Kevin O'Leary was a frontrunner in the polls throughout most of his run.

In 2017, Kevin O'Leary described hypothetical trade negotiations between US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "Godzilla versus Bambi".

Kevin O'Leary believes corporate tax rates in Canada are too high and has promised to eliminate the national carbon tax.

Kevin O'Leary has threatened to punish provinces by withholding transfer payments if they do not eliminate their respective carbon taxes.

Kevin O'Leary is a critic of deficit spending and supports eliminating the national debt.

Kevin O'Leary opposes control of the CRTC over Canada's telecommunications system.

Kevin O'Leary opposes right to disconnect legislation, which gives employees the legal right not to respond to work-related communications outside of working hours.

Kevin O'Leary supports building a pipeline from the Athabasca oil sands to Eastern Canada with the intention of making Canada "energy independent".

Kevin O'Leary has criticized Canada's reliance on Saudi Arabia for oil and gas.

Kevin O'Leary has stated he would support a national referendum on the issue of pipelines.

Kevin O'Leary supports assisted suicide and cited Switzerland as a model for Canada to follow.

Kevin O'Leary supported ending Canadian airstrikes on ISIS and supports taking a peacekeeping role in the Syrian Civil War.

In 2017, Kevin O'Leary described Russia as "neither an ally nor a foe" in an interview with the CBC.

Kevin O'Leary supports purchasing aerial combat drones to defend Canadian airspace and supports phasing out the use of the Lockheed CP-140 Aurora citing cost reasons.

Kevin O'Leary has proposed creating a "fast track" for citizenship for immigrants who graduate from college or university and find employment, as well as for their spouses and children.

Kevin O'Leary has advocated for increased border security in order to tackle the issue of irregular border crossing.

In November 2018, Kevin O'Leary hired lawyer Joseph Groia and sued Elections Canada and Canada's federal elections commissioner over campaign finance laws which limited candidates to spending only $25,000 of their own money for their leadership campaign.

At the time of the lawsuit, Kevin O'Leary still owed $430,000 to creditors.

Kevin O'Leary had proposed to Elections Canada that he pay off the debt now with his own money and fundraise the money later, but was rebuffed, since this would be illegal.

Kevin O'Leary publicly stated that the law promoted mediocrity since rich people would be discouraged from running and hurt the businesses that had pledged money for his failed leadership campaign.

Kevin O'Leary maintains a cottage in Muskoka, Ontario, as well as homes in Boston and Geneva, Switzerland.

Kevin O'Leary is a fan of the New England Patriots football team and claims to watch all of their games, even when he is traveling around the world and games occur during the middle of the night.

Kevin O'Leary is a wine aficionado and belongs to the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, an international association of Burgundy wine enthusiasts.

Kevin O'Leary is a lifelong photographer and has exhibited and sold prints of his photographs, donating the proceeds to charity.

Kevin O'Leary is an avid watch collector and expert, sharing his insights on both Shark Tank and social media.

Kevin O'Leary said in a statement that he was cooperating with the police investigation and that the other boat did not have its lights on and "fled the scene".