Ronald Perelman

Ronald Owen Perelman (/ˈpɛrəlmən/; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, cars, photography, television, camping supplies, security, gaming, jewelry, banks, and comic book publishing. Perelman holds significant shares in companies such as Deluxe Entertainment, Revlon, SIGA Technologies, RetailMeNot, Merisant, Scantron, Scientific Games Corporation, Valassis, vTv Therapeutics and Harland Clarke. He previously owned a majority of shares in AM General, but in 2020 sold the majority of his shares in AM General along with significant works of art, in light of the impact of the economy on the high debt burdens many of his companies have from leveraged buyouts. In early 2020, Revlon, acquired by Perelman in the 1980s, undertook a debt deal. Previously worth $19.8 billion in 2018, Perelman is, as of November 2022, worth $1.9 billion.

Perelman was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on January 1, 1943, the son of Ruth (née Caplan) and Raymond G. Perelman. He was raised in a Jewish family in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, and is the grandson of Litvak (Lithuanian Jewish) immigrants. With family members, he managed the American Paper Products Corporation. Raymond eventually left the company and bought Belmont Iron Works, a manufacturer of structural steel.

Perelman graduated from The Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania, in 1962.

From his father, Perelman learned the fundamentals of business. By the time Ronald turned eleven years old he regularly sat in on board meetings of his father's company. A 2006 article published in the Forbes 400 discusses their rough relationship in detail.

Perelman first attended the Villanova School of Business for one semester before transferring to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in business, graduating in 1964. He earned his MBA from Wharton in 1966.

In September 2017, Forbes magazine named Perelman as one of the "100 Greatest Living Business Minds".

Perelman's first major business deal took place in 1961 during his freshman year at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He and his father bought the Esslinger Brewery for $800,000, then sold it three years later for a $1 million profit.

Throughout Perelman's tenure at the Belmont Iron Works (later Belmont Industries) he assisted his father on other deals. Their general strategy was to purchase a company, sell off superfluous divisions to reduce debt and generate profit, bring the company back to its core business, and either sell it or hang onto it for cash flow. In 1978, twelve years after Perelman formally joined Belmont Industries, he was the vice president but he still strove for more power and influence in the company. His father Raymond told him that he had no intention of stepping down anytime soon. Perelman resigned and moved to New York. The two barely spoke to one another for the next six years.