Biography: Robert L. Johnson

Episode 410:
THE DREAM TEAM:
Turning Big Ideas into Multibillion Dollar Businesses

Featured Guest:
Robert L. Johnson
Majority Owner, Bobcats Sports and Entertainment, LLC
Founder and Chairman, The RLJ Companies, Inc.

Robert L. Johnson is the Founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET). In 2000 he sold BET to Viacom for approximately $3 billion and remained the Chief Executive Officer through 2005. In 2001, Mr. Johnson started and became Chairman and CEO of The RLJ Companies, an innovative business enterprise that provides strategic investment and direction in and for a diverse portfolio of companies in the financial services, real estate, hospitality, professional sports, film production, gaming and recording industries.

Core assets of The RLJ Companies include:

• RLJ Development, a privately held hotel investment company, which acquires and develops upscale select-service hotels, including Hilton-branded and Marriott-branded hotels in major North American urban markets. In February 2006, RLJ Development entered into an agreement to acquire 100 hotels for approximately $1.7 billion, bringing total holdings to 111 hotels. Combined, RLJ Development and RLJ Urban Lodging Fund comprise America's largest African American hotel investment group with assets which will exceed $2.5 billion.
  
  
• RLJ Urban Lodging Fund, a private equity hotel investment company, acquires and develops upscale focused, service hotels and compact full-service hotels in urban markets. With $315 million in commitments to date, the RLJ Urban Lodging Fund has acquired 14 hotels with a total value of $400 million.
  
  
• RLJ Select Investments LLC, a hedge fund of funds business developed in association with Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM), the asset management division of Deutsche Bank AG. RLJ Select will offer parallel multi-strategy hedge fund of funds that invest in a variety of hedge fund strategies within the major categories of Relative Value, Event Driven, Long/Short Equity, and Global Macro products.
  
  
• RLJ Equity Partners, LLC, a private equity fund formed in association with The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm with $35 billion under management. RLJ Select Investments will provide investment products and services to public and private pension funds and other institutional investors. RLJ Equity Partners will make expansion and buy-out investments in the high end of middle-market companies, with a focus on the media, financial services and professional services sectors.
  
  
• RolloverSystems, a financial services company in Charlotte, NC, is the leading provider of outsourced retirement plan rollover services for financial institutions, plan sponsors, and third-party administrators. The company's unique technology platform matches eligible retirement plan participants with a network of top-tier financial institutions offering rollover IRAs.
  
  
• The Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA, Charlotte Sting of the WNBA and Charlotte Arena Operations, LLC, a major entertainment and media venue in Charlotte, NC, is the first major sports franchise owned by an African American. Robert L. Johnson made history as the first African-American to become the majority owner of a professional sports organization when the NBA Board of Governors granted him the expansion NBA Charlotte Bobcats and WNBA Charlotte Sting franchises on January 10, 2003. In 2003, Johnson was named by Sports Illustrated as the most influential minority in sports, while The Sporting News tabbed him the second-most powerful owner in sports.
  
  
• Casino and Gaming Entertainment (C.A.G.E.) is a video lottery gaming company headquartered in Puerto Rico and operating throughout the Caribbean.
  
  
• Three Keys Music is a jazz recording company and part of the Marimelj Entertainment Group, a multi-faceted entertainment company that represents contemporary jazz musicians.

Johnson is a graduate of the University of Illinois and holds a master's degree in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.