American businessman Leslie Alexander is a former stock trader from New Jersey. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from New York University in 1965, and later earned his juris doctor from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. He was a member of the California State Bar between 1978 and 2009, and has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.

Alexander began his professional trading career by trading options and bonds for Lawrence Kotkin Associates, a Wall Street firm. He later went on to form his own investment company, called The Alexander Group, in 1980. He bought the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in July 1993, and during his first season as the owner, the team won their first-ever NBA title. Their second championship was in 2005. In 2003, a new arena called the Toyota Center was opened. In 2008, he was named the best owner in the NBA by Forbes.

Between 1997 and 2007, Leslie Alexander was the owner of the Houston Comets of the WNBA. They won the league’s first four WNBA Championships from 1997 to 2000. He sold the team in January 2007 to Hilton Koch and it folded a year later.

In 1998, Mr. Alexander attempted to purchase and to relocate the stories Edmonton Oilers franchise of the National Hockey League. However, a grassroots bid by the local businessmen prevented the sale of the team.

Leslie Alexander currently owns a 20% stake in First Marblehead, a private student loan company where he started investing in 2001. He also owns a vineyard in Long Island as well as the related company called Leslie Wine which he launched in 2008. With his ventures, he was listed as one of the 400 richest people in the USA in 2006 with a value of around $1.2 billion.