NFL’s Jaguars Billionaire Rises From Dishwasher to Takata Suitor

The emergence of Shahid Khan, the NFL team owner who made his fortune selling car bumpers, in the race to rescue embattled Japanese air-bag manufacturer Takata Corp. pits the billionaire against more established parts suppliers and some of the world’s biggest buyout firms.

Pakistan-born Khan, 66, migrated as a teenager to the U.S., where he started washing dishes for $1.20 an hour. He later built Urbana, Illinois-based Flex-N-Gate Corp. into an auto-parts supplier that ranks him among the richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of about $5 billion. Along the way, he bought the Jacksonville Jaguars in Florida and the London-based Fulham Football Club, and landed on a cover of Forbes magazine in 2012 as the “Face of the American Dream.”