Nelson M. Skalbania (born February 12, 1938) is a Canadian businessman from Vancouver, British Columbia best known for signing a 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky to the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association.
In 1961, Nelson Skalbania graduated from University of British Columbia with a Bachelors in Applied Science, then received his P.Eng. in 1962. He received a Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1964 at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California (specializing in Seismic engineering).
His initial profession as a very active consulting engineer in the early 1960s expanded into an extensive real estate career in parallel with the consulting business.
Married to his second wife Eleni (the owner and operator of the luxury Wedgewood Hotel in Vancouver), he has two daughters and two stepdaughters.
Neslon Skalbania was convicted of theft and was sent to jail in 1998. Skalbania illegally used money from an investor to cover debts in his real estate firm.
Famous quotes containing the word nelson:
“The victors and the vanquished then the storm it tossed and tore,
As hard they strove, those worn-out men, upon that surly shore;
Dead Nelson and his half-dead crew, his foes from near and far,
Were rolled together on the deep that night at Trafalgar!”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)