Business
Berman grew up in Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota where he graduated in 1964 with a degree in business administration. He then went to work for his father's leather business, Berman Buckskin. When the business was sold to W. R. Grace in 1979, he stayed on as president and CEO. The company was then later sold to the Melville Corporation where it became Wilsons Leather. From 1994 to 2000 he was the chairman and CEO of the Rainforest Cafe chain of restaurant and retail stores.
Berman also played an important role in gaming companies. In 1990 he was a co-founder of Grand Casinos Inc., a company that sought to create gambling establishments outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Grand Casinos' Native American casino holdings were spun off into a new company, Lakes Entertainment, and Berman was named CEO. Additionally, Berman is the chairman of the board of the World Poker Tour and Pokertek.
He won the B'nai B'rith Great American Traditions award in 1995 and the Gaming Executive of the Year award in 1996.
Berman was one of the many investor victimized by the massive Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff, though his actual losses are unknown.
Read more about this topic: Lyle Berman
Famous quotes containing the word business:
“I am succeeding very well so far with my legging, but it is a very mean business for a man that has been well brought up to engage in. It is the only way to get a bill from Cincinnati through, so it must be done.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.... Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”
—Andy Warhol (1928–1987)