Wesley Edens, 61, is worth an estimated $3.5 billion, according to Forbes.Aston Villa co-owner Wes Edens during the Premier League match at Villa Park, Birmingham.
He grew up on a ranch in rural Montana and studied finance at Oregon State University.Wes Edens in 2014.
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Edens' father worked as a psychologist and his mother was a teacher. He grew up mountain climbing and participating in ski-racing competitions as a teenager, and he continues to scale mountains across the world, according to his company bio.
"Montana is an incredible part of the world," Edens told NBA analyst Ric Bucher on a 2019 episode of his podcast, "Bucher and Friends." "I love going back there, much of my family still lives back there, but I knew very clearly from a pretty young age that there were other things for me."
Edens worked as a partner at Lehman Brothers and BlackRock before founding his own firm, Fortress Investment Group, in 1998.Wes Edens speaks at an event in 2015.
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When Fortress went public in 2007, Edens became a billionaire, alongside the company's four other founders. But the company faced financial difficulties during the 2008 economic crisis, when its stocks tanked to below $1 per share, the Wall Street Journal reported. Edens lost his billionaire status in 2009, according to Forbes.
Edens helped the investment fund bounce back through acquiring a large stake in Springleaf Holdings Inc., the value of which rose from $124 million in 2010 to $3.5 billion in 2015.
Fortress was eventually bought by SoftBank for $3.3 billion in 2017.
In 2014, he and fellow billionaire Marc Lasry purchased the Milwaukee Bucks for $550 million.Wes Edens (left) and Marc Lasry attend a press conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2014.
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"Having each built competitive teams in the business world, we will apply that same intensity and determination as owners of the Milwaukee Bucks," Edens and Lasry said in a 2014 statement regarding their purchase of the team, published in Bleacher Report. "We are as passionate and energized as Bucks fans are about bringing home an NBA championship to Milwaukee."
The Bucks went on to win the NBA Championship in 2021 for the first time since 1971.
In February 2023, Lasry agreed to sell his 25% share of the Bucks to Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Edens also became an owner of Premier League soccer team Aston Villa in 2018 with fellow billionaire Nassef Sawiris.
Edens also helped fund the construction of a new $524 million basketball arena, Fiserv Forum, in downtown Milwaukee.Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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The arena features luxury club suites, concessions from local vendors like Klement's sausage, and a plaza with a brewery, beer garden, and sports bar.
He and his wife, Lynn, have four children: Ryan, Madison, Mallory, and Quentin.Wesley Edens and Lynn Edens in 2015.
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The couple celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in 2019.
They purchased a $20.2 million triplex in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood in 2020, The New York Times reported. They also own $18 million worth of property in North Salem, New York, a rural town known as "Billionaires' Dirt Road," according to Forbes. There, Lynn raises alpacas and sells their fleece at Little Creek Farm Alpacas.
Madison is a doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.Madison Edens (right) with her now-fiancé in 2019.
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Madison graduated from Brown University with a degree in anthropology in 2016 and studied at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She did her residency in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and matched into a cardiology fellowship there in March 2023. She announced her engagement on Instagram in March 2022.
Edens' youngest daughter, Mallory, is a model who is reportedly dating Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb, Mallory Edens, and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at a Milwaukee Bucks game in December 2022.
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Mallory graduated from Princeton, where she ran as a Division I athlete in women's track and field, in 2018. She is currently represented by the modeling agency Women Management Los Angeles, according to her Instagram bio.
In January, Sports Gossip was the first to report the news that Mallory and Rodgers were dating, which was then confirmed by People magazine. An unnamed source told the magazine the relationship was "casual" but that they were "more than friends."
The Edens' sons, Ryan and Quentin, have remained out of the public eye.
Rodgers, who is friends with Edens, is also a minority owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.Wes Edens and Aaron Rodgers at a Milwaukee Bucks game in 2018.
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Rodgers has often been photographed sitting with Edens at Fiserv Forum.
In 2019, Mallory told ESPN that Rodgers was friends with her father and "sits next to us at so many games."
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