Philip Frederick Anschutz (/ˈænʃuːts/ an-shoots; born December 28, 1939) is an American entrepreneur. Anschutz bought out his father’s drilling company, Circle A Drilling, in 1961 and earned large returns in Wyoming. He has invested in stocks, real estate and railroads. He then began investing in entertainment companies, co-founding Major League Soccer as well as multiple teams, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes, and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. Anschutz owns stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings, and venues including the Staples Center, The O2, London, and the StubHub Center. Anschutz also invests in family films such as The Chronicles of Narnia and Ray. Forbes ranks him the 38th richest person in the U.S. with an estimated net worth of $11 billion as of 2014.
Life and career
Anschutz was born in Russell, Kansas, the son of Marian (née Pfister) and Frederick Benjamin Anschutz. He has one older sister, Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, who became a Colorado rancher and philanthropist. His father was an oil tycoon and land investor who invested in ranches in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and eventually went into the oil-drilling business. Carl Anschutz, Anschutz’s grandfather, an ethnic German who emigrated from Russia, started the Farmers State Bank in Russell, Kansas. Anschutz grew up in Russell, Wichita, and Hays, Kansas, where he lived near Bob Dole. In later years, Anschutz contributed to Dole’s political campaigns. He graduated from Wichita High School East in 1957, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Kansas in 1961 where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. His first cousin was the fellow Russell native and long-time news anchor Wendall Anschutz. A member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, he is a conservative Christian. He and his wife Nancy, whom he met when he was 16, have three children. Anschutz was inducted into the Kansas Business Hall of Fame in 2000 and the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2002.
Anschutz is a somewhat reclusive man who prefers to stay out of the limelight. He has granted only three formal interviews since 1979, and none at all from the 1980s until 2015. On December 6, 2015, Anschutz broke his media silence when he appeared with several of the founders of Major League Soccer to reflect on the league’s 20-year anniversary.
Source:wikipedia