Gary Tanaka

Gary A. Tanaka (born June 23, 1943 , in Hunt , Idaho ) is a Japanese - American businessman, athlete and philanthropist who founded the investment company Amerindo Investment Advisors together with Alberto Vilar in 1979 .

Tanaka was born in the Minidoka Concentration Camp in Idaho during World War II . He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then earned a PhD from Imperial College London in the UK with a dissertation on the mathematics of the transition from laminar to turbulent flow in a fluid over a solid surface. He lives in London with his wife and two children in a house that was once the headquarters of Dwight D. Eisenhower during wartime . Tanaka has two adult sons, Mark Tanaka, who also works as a fund manager (most recently from Sanno Point Capital Management) and Michael Tanaka, a well-known businessman based in the UK.

Tanaka was best known for his donation of £ 27 million (approx. € 40 million) to Imperial College , which he made in 2004 for the construction of the Tanaka building, initially named after himself, which was designed by the international architectural firm. , Planning and design studio Foster and Partners . The building houses the Imperial College Business School , and combines business school facilities with a new main entrance to the college. As a result of the investigation into Vilar and Tanaka, the school was renamed from Tanaka Business School to Imperial College Business School in August 2008 . In 2014, Tanaka was sentenced to 6 years in prison as a result of the investigation.

Tanaka as the owner of a stud farm for racing horses

Tanaka also owns a stud of exceptional pure-bred racehorses . His horses have won major races in Europe , North America and prestigious races in Asia , notably the Hong Kong Mile and the Singapore Airlines International Cup . The success of his stud is in large part due to his flair for discovering good quality foreign thoroughbreds and transferring them to the USA, where they can run for larger sums of money. Many races elsewhere are held on grass tracks, while races in the United States are typically held on cinder tracks. Not all horses make the switch, but Tanaka and his trainers have done so successfully on many significant occasions. Additional important information about Tanaka's stud farm is included in the cover story of The Bloodhorse in the March 29, 2008 issue.

Web links

• Amerindo founders Vilar and Tanaka accused of fraud: Yahoo investors in court. In: Handelsblatt. May 31, 2005.
• Culture patron Alberto Vilar faces 20 years imprisonment. In: Tagesspiegel. November 21, 2008.
• Amerindo's Tanaka Faces Prison as His Horses Win for a Friend. ( Memento from February 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Businessweek. February 5, 2010.
• Interview: Opera patron Alberto Vilar: I am the biggest sponsor worldwide. In: FAZ. May 9, 2001.
• SZ series: The big speculators (32): The patron who loved each other. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. September 8, 2008.
• Money manager Vilar gets new, longer 10-year US prison term