Andre Balazs
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Andre Tamás Balazs (b. 1957) is a New York City-based Hungarian-American businessman. His company, Andre Balazs Properties ([1]), owns 10 hotels in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, including the Chateau Marmont, The Mercer, The Standard, and The Raleigh.
He also owns two apartment buildings in New York City, and he has worked with a variety of global visionaries in building his empire, including New York nightlife impresario & interior designer Serge Becker, American entrepreneur & business consultant Mic Neumann, and French design architect Jean Nouvel.
[edit] Early life
His parents were born in Hungary and left at the beginning of World War II, first settling in Sweden, then in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father, Endre, was a doctor and professor at Harvard Medical School, his mother, Eva, a psychologist.
Balazs studied humanities at Cornell University, then got a masters degree in a joint journalism and business program at Columbia University. At Cornell, he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. After college, he worked on a senate campaign and later founded a biotech company with his father. He used the money from the company to invest in New York nightclubs.
[edit] Personal life
Balazs was married to model Katherine Ford, daughter of Eileen Ford, founder of the Ford Modeling Agency. He dated actress Uma Thurman; the couple recently split.
