George Lindemann Biography

George Lindemann is an American businessman and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Union, a pipeline company. He also owns 19 Spanish-language radio stations.

Early life and education

George Lindemann was born to a Jewish family in 1936 in New York City. He received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

From 1962 to 1972, he served as the President of Smith, Miller and Patch, a pharmaceutical company. He sold Permalens, his family company, to Cooper Labs for $75 million in 1971, and founded Vision Cable in 1972. In 1982, he sold it to Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr. and his brother for $220 million. Shortly after, he founded a cell phone company called Metro Mobile and later sold it to Bell Atlantic for $2.5 billion in 1991. He was then the CEO of Southern Union, a pipeline company, which was sold in 2012 to Energy Transfer Equity, LP for approximately $2.0 billion. He also owns 19 Spanish-speaking radio stations. He has been the President of Cellular Dynamics and the Managing General Partner of Activated Communications Limited Partnership since 1982. He has been a General Partner of Panhandle Eastern since 1990. He sits on the Board of Directors of HI Europe Limited and on the Advisory Board of Hudson Clean Energy Partners.

Philanthropy and political activities

He has made donations to Republican candidates, such as Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ed Royce, Denny Rehberg, and Virginia Foxx. He is a supporter of the Center for Jewish History.

Personal life

He is married to Dr. Frayda B. Lindemann who serves as Vice-President on the Board of the Metropolitan Opera. They have three children:

• Adam Marc Lindemann, President of Lindemann Capital, a renowned art collector, a columnist for the NY Observer, and a former champion polo player. In 1989, he married Elizabeth Ashley Graham. Her maternal grandfather is Charles R. Denny, former chairman of the FCC.
• Sloan Lindemann Barnett sits on the Board of Trustees of the New York University School of Law and runs a natural health products business. She is married to Roger Barnett, CEO of Shaklee, the largest natural nutrition company in the United States. They have three children.
• George Lindemann Jr., is a former highly-ranked equestrian, now well-known art collector, investor, environmental advocate and philanthropist in Miami. In 1996, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison for having a once-prized horse killed for insurance money.

George Lindemann Sr. lives in Palm Beach, Florida, with further homes on the Upper East Side and in Greenwich, Connecticut. As of September 2011, he is the 736th richest person in the world, and the 220th richest in the United States, with an estimated wealth of US$ 2.1 billion. He owns a 180-foot schooner, Adela, which has won international sailing competitions. The Lindemanns are members of the Jewish Federation of Long Beach County.