Emma Navarro’s stunning performances at Wimbledon 2024 have thrust her into the global spotlight, but the young tennis star’s success is in part thanks to the support and resources provided by her billionaire father, Ben Navarro.
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Benjamin W. Navarro is an American billionaire businessman, the founder and chief executive officer of Sherman Financial Group, LLC, which owns Credit One Bank.
Early Life
Ben Navarro was born on November 1962, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States of America. He is 61 years old as of 2024. He is one of eight children of Frank Navarro, a college football coach for Williams College who posed for the Norman Rockwell painting The Recruit.
Ben Navarro graduated from Princeton High School, when his father was coaching the Princeton University football team. Navarro earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Rhode Island in 1984.
Career
Navarro began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for three years. In 1988, he joined Citigroup, rising to the position of vice president and co-head of mortgage sales and trading.
In 1997, Navarro left Citigroup and, in 1998, founded Sherman Financial Group, a global diversified investment services company. In 2005, Sherman bought a small bank and renamed it Credit One Bank, which has since become a major credit card issuer focused on subprime borrowers.
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Navarro’s foray into the hospitality industry came in 2021 when he founded Beemok Hospitality Collection, a company that owns and operates hotel, restaurant, and entertainment properties in the Southeast. One of its notable acquisitions was the Charleston Place, the largest hotel in Charleston with 434 rooms, in October 2021.
Navarro’s sports investments include the ownership of the Live To Play Tennis Club in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which has hosted several national and international tennis tournaments. In 2018, he was a bidder for the Carolina Panthers NFL franchise, but ultimately lost to David Tepper.
In 2018, Navarro acquired Charleston Tennis LLC, the owner of the Charleston Open, a women’s tennis event, through his company Beemok Sports LLC. In 2022, he funded extensive renovations to the Credit One Stadium, the venue for the Charleston Open, as a gift to the City of Charleston.
Furthermore, in 2022, Navarro’s Beemok Sports acquired the rights to the Western & Southern Open, a top-tier tennis tournament on both the ATP and WTA tours, featuring 19 of the top 20 players in the world.
Family, Personal Life, and Facts: Parents, Wife, Children, House, Yacht, and Jet
Ben Navarro is married to Kelly; they have four children and live in Charleston, South Carolina. Their daughter, Emma Navarro played tennis for the University of Virginia while their other daughter Meggie currently plays tennis there.
In addition to his primary residence, Navarro also owns a luxury yacht and a private jet, which he uses to travel the world and attend high-profile events, including major tennis tournaments where he can cheer on his daughter.
Net Worth
Ben Navarro has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion according to Forbes.
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