Tilman Fertitta: Owner of Landry's and the Houston Rockets
Business Owner · Food & Beverage
Tilman Fertitta grew up peeling shrimp in his father's Galveston restaurant, built Landry's into a restaurant and entertainment empire, bought the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion and became US ambassador to Italy in 2025.
About Tilman Fertitta: Owner of Landry's and the Houston Rockets
Tilman Joseph Fertitta (born June 25, 1957, in Galveston, Texas) is an American diplomat, businessman and television personality. He has served as the United States ambassador to Italy and San Marino since May 2025. He owns the entertainment company Landry's and the NBA's Houston Rockets, and chaired the board of regents of the University of Houston System from 2014 to 2025. As of May 2025 his net worth was estimated at $10.7 billion, No. 248 on the Forbes 400, and Forbes calls him the "World's Richest Restaurateur". He starred in CNBC's Billion Dollar Buyer, agreed on September 5, 2017 to buy the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion, and as of April 2025 is the lead shareholder in Wynn Resorts. Fertitta is of Sicilian descent; his father, Vic, owned a seafood restaurant on Galveston Island where Tilman worked after school peeling shrimp. He attended Texas Tech University and the University of Houston, studying business administration and hospitality management, but never graduated. His first entrepreneurial experience was selling and promoting Shaklee vitamins. In the 1980s he bought Landry's restaurant in Katy, Texas, from brothers Bill and Floyd Landry, after being introduced by his cousin; the brothers, from Lafayette, had started the restaurant in the 1970s. He also founded and ran a construction and development business in the 1980s and developed his first major project, the Key Largo Hotel in Galveston. Sources: English Wikipedia (Tilman Fertitta, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Owner, Landry's and Houston Rockets; US Ambassador to Italy
Company Details
Landry's / Houston Rockets
Restaurants, Hospitality, Gaming, Sports
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