Dan Snyder, Washington Redskins
DAN SNYDER | OWNER | AGE: 53
Education: Enrolled, but never graduated from the University of Maryland.
How They Acquired the Franchise: Purchased the team from the estate of late team owner Jack Kent Cooke for $800 million in 1999, a then-record price for a U.S. sports franchise.
Net Worth: $2.3 billion (per Forbes in 2018)
Franchise Valuation: $3.1 billion (per Forbes in 2017)
How They Made Their Money: He started Snyder Communications, a marketing company, in 1989. In 1996, at the age of 32, he became the youngest-ever CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company.
In the Owner’s Words: “I have found that what drives me is the desire to prove, to myself and to my peers, that I can do what I set out to do and build something that matters,” Snyder told Fast Company in 1997. “I’ve done that by recruiting smart people—many from traditional corporate environments—and giving them a dose of entrepreneurial spirit.
“You achieve long-term success step by step. Try to achieve your goals one at a time, like you do target practice. I look at each day as a chance to move one notch above yesterday—whether it’s in service quality, delivery, speed, or any other aspect of the business. I don’t measure my “success” every day. I measure how much we have left to do.
“In that sense, business success is just a form of persistence.”
Political Donations: Snyder has made donations to candidates on both sides of the aisle, but the majority of his spending has been to Republican candidates, including $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and $112K in 2015-16 to Right to Rise, a super PAC created to support Jeb Bush.
NFL Committees: Stadium Committee; Media Committee; Digital Media Committee; International Committee; Business Ventures Committee; Hall of Fame Committee.
