Dan Snyder has experienced an impressive rise to his current position in business, football, and beyond. He founded Snyder Communications in 1985, and when it made its way to the New York Stock Exchange, Dan became the youngest CEO of a company on the exchange at that time. Soon the company grew into a conglomerate with 77 offices all over the world that earned more than $1 billion in revenue each year.
Snyder Communications boasted a client base that included 200 enterprises on the Fortune 500, which caught the attention of a French marketing firm seeking to merge with the company. The companies merged in 2000, the largest merger that had ever taken place between two companies in the advertising and marketing industry at that time. The French firm purchased Snyder Communications for $2.3 billion.
Although Dan Snyder was a highly successful businessman, he was also a huge sports enthusiast. He had long been a fan of Washington Football specifically, and when he had the chance in 1999, he bought the team. With Dan at the head, the team had the chance to realize the successes that Dan had created for his company. Now, Washington Football is one of the world’s top sports franchises.
Philanthropy
Dan Snyder is on of Washington’s most prominent philanthropist, and he found a way to bring other philanthropists and community leaders together with his team to make a positive difference in the Washington area. He initiated the Washington Charitable Foundation in 2000 to encourage positive change in the areas of health and wellness and education. The foundation has raised $29 million to date and donated it to many grateful people, organizations and groups.
The foundation is responsible for the Loads of Love program, which helps ensure that the area’s youth can participate in Dan’s special events and workshops. It came to his attention that many of the area’s children were homeless or living in unstable conditions, so it was impossible for them to wash their clothes when they needed to do so. The foundation installed laundry facilities in schools and non-profit facilities so that the children could wash their clothes at no cost to them. There is now a Loads of Love laundry center in more than 80 non-profit facilities and schools.
When Hurricane Matthew reached the shores of the Caribbean, Dan turned his attention to that area next. In 2016, the location needed emergency supplies, so Dan arranged to have those supplies delivered by air to the Bahamas. He even personally delivered medical supplies to the hospital in Port Au Prince, Haiti, with two Washington Football players of Haitian descent joining him.
Fighting Social Injustice
Dan has long been conscious of the fact that the nation desperately needs to address social injustice, so when George Floyd was murdered in May of 2020, he donated $250,000 to a grass roots organization that set out to help raise the country’s awareness of social injustices in the D.C. area.
Dan also felt responsible for correcting a wrong that had been perpetrated on the Black community in 2016 when Ashburn Colored School was vandalized. He organized a $35,000 donation from Washington Football for the restoration effort that made it possible for the community to raise a total of more than $100,000.
FedEx Field
Under Snyder’s ownership, the Washington Football team purchased a stadium and named it “FedEx Field”, but Dan uses it as much more than a venue for holding football games. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, he offered the field as a testing site for the residents of Prince George’s County for the virus.
Dan’s foundation also formed a military appreciation organization that he named Salute, and FedEx Field hosts the many military events that this organization sponsors. He also raised as much as $100 million to make improvements for the stadium. For example, the field has more than 1,000 flat-screen television sets for fans to enjoy throughout the stadium. They also now have two video boards at each end of the field that make the previous video displays look like small television sets. There is even a private luxury suite in the Owner’s Club East and one in the Owner’s Club West.
Other Private Ventures
Mr. Snyder is also the founder of inVentiv Health and Red Zebra Broadcasting. This broadcasting facility owns radio stations that it operates in Virginia, Maryland and the D.C. area where the stations air broadcasts of the Washington Football games. Along with his football team and his companies, Dan is also a dynamic investor as well as an advisor. He was also recently honored as an entrant into the Greater Washington Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Dan and his wife, Tanya, live in Potomac, Maryland, with their three children.
Additional information: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/executives/SnydDa0.htm
