Mitch Garber

Mitch Garber
Born	(1964-09-05) September 5, 1964 Montreal, Quebec
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Business Executive/Lawyer
Net worth	$300-400 million

Mitch Garber (born September 5, 1964) is a Canadian business executive and philanthropist. He is the Chairman of Investment Canada, the government agency charged with attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment (FDI) into Canada. He is an active private equity co-investor with both TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management. He is Chairman, and co-investor of Cirque du Soleil, a TPG Capital company, since their $1.45B acquisition in 2015. He is a Co-investor and Board member of Rackspace, an Apollo Global Management company, since their 2016 $4.3B take private transaction. He is a co-investor and advisor to Career Builder, an Apollo Global Management company, since their 2017 acquisition. He is the former Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, and former CEO of Nasdaq listed Caesars Acquisition Company. He attended Bialik High School, McGill University (BA '86) and University of Ottawa (Law '89), and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa in 2017 (www.vimeo.com/mitchgarber/doctorate).

Early Career: SureFire/Terra Payments/Optimal Payments/FireOne

Upon obtaining a degree in Industrial Relations from McGill University and a law degree from the University of Ottawa, Garber practiced law in Montreal at the firm Lazarus Charbonneau from 1990-1999.^[1] Garber left Lazarus Charbonneau in 1999 to pursue his business career at SureFire Commerce Inc., an online payment processing start-up company he helped create.

In 2003, Garber engineered the merger of SureFire, then named Terra Payments Inc., with Optimal Group Inc., a NASDAQ-listed maker of robotics and related-equipment to form Optimal Payments, Inc., of which he became CEO. In 2005, Garber led the spin-off of FireOne Group Plc from Optimal Payments and subsequently floated FireOne on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM, serving as Executive Chairman.^[2] The share price of Optimal Group increased approximately 300% during his three year tenure as CEO from 2003-2006.

In 2017 led by its original co-founder Joel Leonoff, Paysafe Group, sold to CVC Capital Partners and Blackstone for 3.9 billion dollars. ^[3]

PartyGaming Plc

In 2006, Garber became CEO of Party Gaming Plc, which at the time was the world’s largest publicly traded online gaming company by market cap, revenue and player liquidity. He led the company until leaving to return to Canada in 2008. ^[4][5]

Caesars

In 2009, Garber joined with private equity firms TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management, principal owners of Caesars Entertainment following its $31 billion leveraged buyout by to lead its newly-created digital gaming and entertainment business. Garber would serve as CEO of the new entity, named Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE), and was its first private investor.^[6] .

In 2013, Garber became the CEO of Caesars Acquisition Company (CACQ), a NASDAQ-listed offshoot of Caesars Entertainment. In addition to CIE and the assets CIE owns – the World Series of Poker, U.S. regulated real-money online gaming businesses, and Playtika – other assets CACQ controls include multiple Las Vegas hotel and casinos, notably Planet Hollywood, The Cromwell, The LINQ, Bally’s, Paris, and outside of Las Vegas, the Horseshoe Baltimore and Harrah’s New Orleans.^[7]

Playtika

While CEO of CIE, Garber discovered a recently founded Israeli startup called Playtika. Founded in Tel Aviv in 2010, Playtika was a pioneer of freemium social and mobile games. In 2011, Garber led CIE’s acquisition of Playtika.^[8] Thereafter, Garber led the acquisition of three subsequent social games companies: Buffalo Studios in 2012, makers of Bingo Blitz, Electronic Arts’ Montreal-based World Series of Poker (Social) studio in 2013, to whom CIE had previously licensed the WSOP social and mobile game rights, and Pacific Interactive in 2014, makers of House of Fun. Through these acquisitions Garber positioned Playtika as one of the leading social and mobile game developers in the world.^[9] Over the course of 2011-2015, Playtika, led by Israeli games guru, Robert Antokol, grew from 15 employees to more than 1,300 across 12 global offices.

Only July 31, 2016, CIE announced the sale of Playtika to a Chinese consortium involving Giant Interactive Group, one of China's leading games companies, and Yunfeng Capital, the private equity firm of Alibaba Founder and CEO, Jack Ma, for $4.4 billion.^[10] Having initially acquired Playtika in 2011 for approximately $100 million, Garber made it one of the most successful acquisitions in the social and mobile games industry.^[11] As of August 8, 2016, it is the third-largest sale in the history of Israel.^[12]

He left Caesars on October 6th, 2017 after overseeing the successful merger of (CACQ) and Caesars Entertainment ^[13].

Cirque du Soleil

In 2015, Garber became Chairman of Cirque du Soleil following the entertainment company’s buyout by TPG Capital, Chinese private equity firm Fosun International, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada's second largest pension fund. Garber co-invested in the deal, making him a minority investor in addition to being Chairman.^[14]

Invest In Canada Agency

In March 2018 he was named Chairman of the Board of Investment Canada the federal government agency charged with promoting and facilitating foreign investment into Canada (FDI). Current FDI stands at approximately 800 billion dollars.

Philanthropy

Along with his wife, Anne-Marie Boucher, Garber commits a considerable amount of his time and money to philanthropy. Some of the philanthropic initiatives Garber and Boucher have been and are currently involved in are:^[15]

• Garber was Co-Chair of the 2016 $55 million Centraide campaign in Montreal
• Garber is Chairman of the Faculty Advisory Board of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine
• Garber has worked with the late René Angelil and Céline Dion to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis research
• Boucher and Garber established The Garber Family Post Doctorate Fellowship in Hereditary Cancer at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine
• Garber is a patron and benefactor to Aleh Jerusalem and Aleh Negev hospitals in Israel and Boucher is a Board Member
• Garber is a patron of St. Mary’s Hospital and Boucher is Chairman of the Board
• Garber is a patron and contributor to the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Boucher serves on the International Board
• Garber is a patron of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation in Israel
• Garber and Boucher are patrons of CIJA and have organized missions for non-Jewish business and political leaders to visit, learn about, and experience Israel
• Garber is a patron and contributor to Lower Canada College, where his two children attended school, and Boucher served six years on its Board
• Garber is a member of the board of Montreal International, a board of CEO’s and business leaders promoting foreign investment in Montreal

Recent television and media

In 2015, Garber joined the cast of the French-Canadian version of CBC’s hit show, Dragons' Den, called Dans l’Oeil du Dragon, becoming its first ever Anglophone judge.

In 2016, Garber was profiled by the award-winning news magazine television series, W5.^[16]

In 2016, Garber addresses the Cercle Canadien on business and politics

In 2016, Garber eulogized show business icon and friend René Angélil at his Las Vegas memorial service

In 2017, Bloomberg ranked Garber as the 7th highest-paid executive in America, with total annual compensation estimated at $91 million, alongside the likes of Tim Cook and Elon Musk^[17]

Notes

External links

• MitchGarber.com
• http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/mitch-garber-rose-from-humble-beginnings-to-head-up-a-2-5-billion-empire-1.2773973