Jan 10, 2025 |Gimelstob Ballroom
The Kravis Center welcomes it’s Corporate Partner’s to the 2024-2025 Business Speaker Series. For the second installment of the series, the Kravis Center is excited to bring Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of BDT & MSD Partners, Byron D. Trott. Byron will be having a conversation with Paul N. Leone, Chief Executive Officer of The Breakers Palm Beach.
About Byron D. Trott
Byron D. Trott is Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank with an advisory and investment platform built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors. He is also Co-Chief Investment Officer of BDT Capital Partners, a registered investment advisor of the firm.
In 2009, Byron founded BDT & Company, a predecessor firm to BDT & MSD Partners. Prior to that, he had a distinguished 27-year career at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he was Vice Chairman of the global Investment Banking Division from 2005 to 2009. He is a director of Cox Enterprises, Enterprise Holdings, Inc., IMA Group, and Sunrise Group Holdings, LLC (“Whataburger”), and a strategic advisor to Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Byron serves on the board of trustees of the University of Chicago and the Center for Strategic & International Studies. He is also a director of Conservation International. In 2011, Byron was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and having served as President and Chairman, he now serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Association. Byron received an AB from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
About Paul N. Leone
Mr. Leone serves as CEO of the 128-year-old, privately held Breakers Palm Beach, Inc. and its parent company, Flagler System, Inc. The Breakers is the only large, historic luxury resort in the country still in the hands of its original owners and is one of the longest continuously operating businesses in the state of Florida. Leone was exposed to the hospitality industry at a young age, working in his family’s motels and restaurants.
He went on to earn his BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and became a licensed CPA. He practiced public accounting for four years with the Big Eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. In 1985, he joined The Breakers as hotel controller, rising to the position of president in 1994 at age 36.
In 2016, he was appointed CEO, the first non-family member in the history of the company to hold this post. Since his appointment, Mr. Leone has been credited with engineering and sustaining the turnaround of one of the greatest resorts in the world by creating and fostering a unique company culture and achieving best-in-class employee fulfillment, guest satisfaction, community service and financial performance. He is actively involved and widely recognized for his work with numerous civic and professional organizations, and he and his wife, Kathy, have four sons.
Speaker Luncheons are a benefit of the Kravis Center Corporate Partners and are by invitation only.
Kravis Center Corporate Partners are a group of corporate and professional leaders in Palm Beach County whose mission is to support and enable the Kravis Center to continue its extensive educational and community outreach programs. Learn more about becoming a Corporate Partner.
Corporate Partners Executive Committee Chair – James H. Coleman
Sponsored by
