BRUNO FRANCO

Dan Snyder is known for many things. For one, he is a self-made man. He was a college dropout who came from a modest family but through sheer determination became a millionaire at 20 years old, an age where most of us are still poring over books. He also put up an advertising firm: Snyder Communications which became a publicly held company around mid-90s, giving him the distinction of being the youngest head honcho of an NYSE-quoted firm; he was thirty-two then.

Today, Daniel Snyder is best known for being the current owner of the second most valuable team in the National Football League, the Washington Redskins. Snyder bought the team for eight hundred million dollars almost 12 years ago, back then it was regarded as the biggest financial transaction in the sporting world. Although extremely expensive, buying the team was a wise business decision.



Currently, the team is valued at $1.6 billion, which is already more than double of the amount Snyder paid to acquire it. The Redskins franchise’s accelerated growth is brought about by several factors, most notably Snyder’s decision to sell the naming rights of the team’s home stadium to FedEx for $200 million, by increasing the stadium’s seating capacity, adding more suites and club seats, and by making big sponsorship arrangements with companies like Sprint and Coca-Cola.

Dan Snyder also has several other business ventures. He owns Red Zebra Broadcasting and acquired Johnny Rockets and Dick Clark Productions. He also became an executive producer of the 2008 movie Valkyrie, which stars Tom Cruise.

What a lot of people don’t know is that Dan Snyder is a very active philanthropist. He contributed 6 million dollars to the ER department of the Children’s National Medical Center where his first-born child stayed in for some time right after birth. He is also a benefactor of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He also gave more than a million bucks to the families affected by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

With Snyder at the helm, the Redskins Charitable Foundation is able to positively affect the lives of young people living in the greater Washington area particularly with regards to education. One of their most notable programs, is 4th & Life which includes a player-led interactive forum aimed towards teaching high school students tips to stay on the academic track and prepare for college.