Lorenzo Fertitta

Lorenzo Joseph Fertitta (born January 3, 1969) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is chairman of Fertitta Capital, director of Red Rock Resorts Inc, and former CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Lorenzo and his older brother Frank Fertitta III were raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, after their father, Frank Fertitta Jr., moved there from Texas with his wife Victoria (née Broussard) in 1960. Fertitta Jr. became a dealer at the Stardust Casino before graduating to management positions at the Tropicana, Sahara and Circus Circus casinos.

In 1976, after observing that no casinos effectively catered to the city's residents, Fertitta Jr. built The Casino, a 5,000-square-foot establishment on Sahara Blvd. The Casino would be renamed Bingo Palace before it eventually became Palace Station.

Fertitta Jr. worked at Station Casinos, a developer and casino operator in the U.S., alongside his sons until retiring in 1993. Until his death in 2009, Fertitta Jr. remained active in other family business ventures, community service and philanthropic efforts, with Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman referring to Fertitta Jr. as "one of the most successful business persons in the history of Las Vegas."

Fertitta graduated from Bishop Gorman High School, a private Catholic prep school in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1987. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of San Diego in 1991 where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. He earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University in 1993.

Since 1991, Fertitta occupied various executive positions within Fertitta Enterprises, a family investment office and entertainment company. He served as vice president from 1991 to 1993, before becoming president and CEO from June 1993 to July 2000. In these roles, Fertitta managed an investment portfolio consisting of marketable securities and real property.

Throughout their time in high school and college, Lorenzo and Frank III worked for their father, Frank Fertitta Jr., at Station Casinos. After Fertitta Jr. retired in 1993, Lorenzo and Frank III led Station Casinos to its first IPO that same year, raising $294 million and becoming principal shareholders and co-founders of Station Casinos Inc. in the process. Station Casinos was then taken private in 2007 in a management-led leveraged buyout.

On February 2, 2009, Station Casinos declared plans to file for bankruptcy. The filing came in response to a lawsuit that challenged the gaming company's debt swap and prepackaged bankruptcy proposal. Station Casinos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 28, 2009, and, with a subsequent reinvestment of $240 million, emerged from this process in June 2011 with a new ownership structure that allowed the Fertittas to retain full control.