Ted Leonsis
Ted Leonsis
Main page
1405788

Ted Leonsis

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Ted Leonsis

Theodore John Leonsis (born January 8, 1957) is a Greek American billionaire businessman and sports team owner. He is a former senior executive with America Online (AOL) and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NHL's Washington Capitals, the NBA's Washington Wizards, the WNBA's Washington Mystics, and Monumental Sports Network.

Leonsis graduated from Georgetown University in 1977. He has served on the board of directors at Georgetown University and also served a brief tenure as the mayor of Orchid, Florida. As of 2026, he held a net worth of $3.9 billion.

Leonsis was born on January 8, 1957, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to a family of working-class Greek immigrant grandparents, who were mill workers, and parents who worked as a waiter and a secretary. When his high school guidance counselor evaluated his skill set, the counselor concluded that young Ted was destined to work in a grocery store.

He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, before moving to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he graduated from Lowell High School in 1973. He was first in his family to go to a university, where he attended Georgetown University to pursue his undergraduate studies majoring in American Studies, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class.

After graduating from college, he moved back to his parents' home in Lowell and began working for Wang Laboratories as a corporate communications manager and Harris Corp. as a marketing executive.

Leonsis left Harris Corporation in March 1981. He started LIST, a magazine focused on personal computing. He raised $1 million in seed capital with his partner Vincent Pica. The first issue of the magazine was published in 1982. Two years later, he sold the company to Thomson Reuters for $40 million, netting him $20 million.

In 1988, Leonsis established the PR company Redgate Communications Corporation. When the organization was acquired by America Online (AOL) in 1994, Leonsis began working with AOL as a senior executive, remaining with the company for 13 years. He held numerous positions at AOL before retiring in 2006 as the audience group's president and vice-chairman.

Leonsis is the founder, managing partner, chairman and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NHL's Washington Capitals, NBA's Washington Wizards, NBA G League's Capital City Go-Go, WNBA's Washington Mystics, and formerly the AFL's Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade. Monumental Sports owns the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., and manages the MedStar Capitals Iceplex and George Mason University's EagleBank Arena.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.