"Samuel "Sam" Zell" is an American businessman. He is chairman of Equity Group Investments (EGI), a private investment firm he founded in the 1960s. The firm’s equity interests are often in asset-intensive industries such as real estate, energy, logistics, transportation, media, and health care. EGI’s holdings also include fixed-income investments in public and private companies. The firm's specialty has always been opportunistic, often contrarian, long-term investing and active ownership.

Zell is also the founder of Equity International, a private investment firm focused on building real estate-related businesses in international emerging markets. In addition, Zell maintains substantial interests in, and is the Chairman of, a number of public companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, including: Equity Residential (EQR), the largest apartment REIT in the U.S.; Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), a real estate investment trust that owns and operates manufactured home and resort communities; Covanta Energy Corporation/Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA), an international owner/operator of energy-from-waste and power generation facilities; and Anixter (AXE), a leading global provider of communications, security, and wire and cable products.

More Sam Zell on Wikipedia.

We made fortunes off of leverage (before going public), and you're not going to make fortunes in the public market off of leverage.

209

You have developers who weren't rich to begin with, who went public, and then figured out they couldn't get rich.

193

That's why we're seeing a lot of going-private transactions.

115

Creating these companies and operating under the public scrutiny has changed the real estate business pretty dramatically.

109

The residential market is going to level out for a while after years of huge gains, but that does not mean there is a bubble.

108

There is oversupply at the moment. But we have lowered supply, and over the next 18 months the situation will get better.

86