Scott Boras Profiled: Bloomberg Risk Takers
Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Scott Boras, Major League Baseball’s super-agent, is a controversial figure -- and he knows it. In this episode of Risk Takers, Boras discusses how he discovered clients Alex Rodriguez and Greg Maddux, and got them record-breaking deals. His clients, including Maddux, Johnny Damon, and Jayson Werth, tell Risk Takers about the full service that Boras offers, contract negotiations, and improving their performance and marketability. Find out how Boras, one of the most influential figures in baseball, continues to have a big impact on America’s favorite pastime. Tuesday at 9P ET/PT. (Source: Bloomberg)
Risk Takers Videos
Featured Risk Takers
- Scott Boras
- Michael Burry
- Elon Musk
- David Neeleman
- Michelle Rhee
Airs on 8/9/11
Scott Boras, Major League Baseball’s super-agent, is a controversial figure -- and he knows it. Boras was the first agent to negotiate a contract worth over $200 million. His roster of clients has included Greg Maddux, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and Carlos Beltràn. Boras’ beginnings go back to his youth, when a knee injury forced him to find another way to have an impact on the sport he loved. Often reviled in the press for raising salaries to astronomical heights, Scott Boras continues to break records. Boras tells Risk Takers how he discovered clients Alex Rodriguez and Greg Maddux, and got them record-breaking deals. Boras is one of the most influential figures in baseball, and continues to have a big impact on America’s favorite pastime.
Airs on 7/19/11
Few predicted the real-estate crash in 2008; many in the financial world helped blow up the bubble. Michael Burry saw the danger and figured out a way to bet against it. When the economy collapsed, he and his investors made nearly a billion dollars shorting the mortgage market. A central figure in Michael Lewis’ best-seller, The Big Short, Burry may be one of the smartest investors of our time. An unlikely multi-millionaire, Burry has Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition related to autism that seriously inhibits socialization. He also has a clever solution— working alone in a tiny office, never meeting his clients, and communicating with them online. Burry, a lone-wolf investment savant, was the first to seize the opportunity to turn an unstable housing market into profit.
Airs on 8/2/11
Elon Musk helped create PayPal, built America’s first viable fully electric car company, started the nation’s biggest solar energy supplier, and may make commercial space travel a reality in our lifetime. And he’s still in his 30’s. Musk combines technical and business talent with what he and his colleagues say is his passion to make the world a better place. Not only is Musk an entrepreneur, but he’s also often the chief engineer and designer of the products his companies produce. Born in South Africa in 1971, Musk taught himself computer programming at the age of ten, and by twelve had sold his first commercial software. One of the greatest innovators of our day, Musk continues to create companies that are sure to alter the course of the 21st century.
Airs on 7/12/11
David Neeleman’s story is an incredible roller coaster ride of successes, failures and up-and-coming innovations. Neeleman, a college dropout, has revolutionized the airline industry changed the way we fly. Best known as the founder of JetBlue, he invented ticketless air travel and has remarkable stories of the four airlines he created and the remarkable flukes of fortune that led him to be forced out of three of them. Most famously, amidst controversy following a devastating blizzard in 2007, Neeleman was fired from Jet Blue. But he has since risen to greater heights, launching Azul airlines in Brazil. Neeleman suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder, which to many would be a handicap, but in his eyes it actually helps to drive his creativity.
Airs on 7/26/11
Michelle Rhee was hired to take charge of the toughest school system in the country when America had fallen to twenty-fifth place in global educational rankings. Her take-no-prisoners approach was criticized by many educators, but it seemed to produce quick results. Compassion for education reform led her to found The New Teacher Project, dedicated to supplying outstanding teachers to disadvantaged children. Soon, she was the Schools Chancellor in Washington D.C., known for some of the lowest performing schools in the nation. Rhee continues to transform public education through StudentsFirst, making children the center of education reform. Over the course of her career, Rhee closed 15% of D.C.’s public schools, fired teachers and started to raise the standards of American education.
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