Felix Sabates

Felix Sabates (born September 9, 1942) is a Cuban entrepreneur and philanthropist living in the United States.

Early life

Sabates, was the oldest of seven, three boys and four girls. As a youth and growing up in Cuba before Fidel Castro's regime conquered the Island, Felix remembers his fortunate and blessed lifestyle. Sabates’ hard-working and prosperous Cuban parents had established great wealth and prestige through wise investing and a verity of businesses which carried their family name. The successful business included Sabates import and export, Sabates jewelry and Sabates optical stores, Sabates insurance, sugar, cattle, service stations and pharmacies. Suddenly, at the age of 15, everything changed when Fidel Castro and his guerillas seized government control, establishing a communist dictatorship still in existence today. The family businesses were seized by the government and they lost all of their personal possessions to the hands of Fidel Castro. After being stripped of their wealth and faced with the struggles of Communism, the Sabates family migrated to the United States. The effects of Castro’s new imposed laws, the family strategically and intelligently escaped the Castro regime at different times. At age 15, Felix was the first member of the family to enter The United States. Soon after his arrival; he was reunited by his mother and six young brothers and sisters.

Forbidden to leave the country, it was many years later before Dr. Sabates Sr. was allowed to join his exiled family in America. Responsibility to help support his mother and siblings fell on the shoulders of Sabates. Upon their arrival to Boston, where the family originally settled, Felix found work at the local hospital washing pots and pans, and later in Columbia, Missouri, again working in a hospital. An American-based Catholic charity, active throughout Cuba before and after the Castro takeover, established Lexington, North Carolina as a resettlement site for thousands of refugees who fled the new regime. The Sabates' were among the new arrivals to that city.

In Lexington, Felix began working 12-hour shifts in a furniture factory, sanding furniture to help support the family. Four years later he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and began working at National Car Rental as a parking lot attendant and washing cars at the Charlotte Airport. His wife of over 40 years, Carolyn Pearce from Trinity, North Carolina, was also working at the Charlotte airport as an agent for Piedmont Airlines when the couple met and eventually married. While washing cars and starting a family, Felix kept his eyes open for opportunities to better himself and provide for his growing family. Seeing such an opportunity, Felix creatively persuaded the local City Chevrolet car dealership to give him a shot at selling cars. Although the dealership was not hiring, Sabates offered to work for free on the condition that if he out sells the other salesman within a month, that he would be compensated and offered a permanent sales position. Sabates was successful with record car sales. When a local newspaper article had recounted this story about the top salesman, it caught the eye of a local businessman who proceeded to offer him a different sales position with potential growth as a manufacturer's representative.

Business Success

Compelled to accept the position as a manufacturer's representative, Sabates worried that a new starting pay, considerably lower than his success with selling new cars, would be a financial burden to his family. Realizing his ambition and true potential, his wife Carolyn encouraged him to accept the job. The decision to accept would be a turning point in Sabates’ career. Sabates’ driven ambition combined with an eye for exceptional product lines, generated record breaking revenues for the company which enabled his boss and the owner of the company, Walter Riche to take an early retirement. In 1974, by age 32 and married with three children, Sabates conquered the American dream and bought the company. As the CEO and with control of the company in his hand, Sabates benchmarked a new direction for the company which focused on growing the company. Expanding offices throughout the Southeast, Mid Atlantic and South Central United States and adding a new sales force to handle the distribution of product lines for those areas of the country, Sabates positioned the company to be a viable necessity to the factories he was representing.

Sabates' potential in business-plan design and implementation became apparent immediately. Recognizing various products for having guaranteed propensity for future success, he instructed his company to carry them for distribution. Sabates’ top selling product lines that served as springboards for company included, Atari and the video game Pong and Pac Man, Teddy Ruxpin, the talking Teddy Bear, which Sabates had exclusive distribution rights nationwide. After a promise Sabates made to a large customer that he would deliver the Ruxpin bear in time for Christmas, when the popular Ruxpin bear became the gotta-have-it and then sold out before the Christmas holiday, Sabates chartered a Boeing 747 aircraft, removed the seats and filled the entire aircraft with Teddy Ruxpin bears and then delivered his promise to his loyal customer. Next, by popular demand Sabates entered the big leagues once again with distribution rights to the phenomenon of the next generation still popular today, Nintendo with games such games as Super Mario Bros.. Selling these popular products placed Sabates in the industry's Lime light creating a lasting mark of the name Felix as the example of selling power in the industry. Although Sabates had been receiving weekly purchase orders larger than most similar firms total annual sales, Sabates insisted that his company continue selling products to the same small mom and pop retailers called on when the company had first started selling products. Sabates attributes a great deal of his success to what he calls, The Core Business. Windermere, Black and Decker, Emerson Electronics, and Uniden are a few examples of other product lines which were considered far less exciting and much harder to sell. It was those less-exciting product lines sold by the company that collectively generated a more stable cash flow and also represented Top Sale's core business.

In the early 1990’s, Top Sales Company, a successful, multi-billion dollar manufacturer in the corporate world began manufacturing products to be sold in the retail channel. Compaq Computer turned to Top Sales Company for the distribution and sales and marketing of the home and small business personal PC into the well established and growing retailers of Sabates’ current business. As a positioned leader in the industry, Top Sales successfully generated billions of dollars in revenue for the computer power-house company and helped to establish the Compaq brand name to retailers and their customers throughout the United States almost overnight.At the top of his game, Felix Sabates’ Top Sales Company, became the largest, most successful manufacturer’s representative company in the United States with over $12 billion dollars in sales. Once again, Top Sales Company and their products proved to be an industry force.

With tremendous success in the 1980’s and 1990’s and after expanding internationally, Sabates turned his focus in a new direction. In a move that shocked the business world, Felix Sabates sold Top Sales Company to his employees at an undisclosed amount. The price however, was said to be much lower than he could have secured on the open market; rewarding the people that helped him to build the business and accomplish the feat of delivering over $12 billion in merchandise sales, Sabates’ generosity enabled all the employees to become an owner in the company.

Other Ventures

NASCAR

In the 1980s, Sabates established himself in another area of the business world - professional sports. In 1987, he joined the NASCAR motor sports elite with his purchase of a research and development team from a popular Charlotte businessman, Rick Hendrick. SABCO Racing was founded and a new NASCAR Winston Cup competitor entered the scene. For Sabates, it was just the beginning of a long, successful career in the NASCAR circuit that includes building one of the most visible and respected of all Winston Cup teams. In 1992, Sabates' team branched out into the Busch Series. Petty found his groove in the Winston Cup circuit, finishing in the top-five in the final point standings for the season. The team fielded both cars in the Winston Cup circuit the following year and Petty again finished top-five in total points.

As many more successful years followed, SABCO Racing changed to Team SABCO at the beginning of the 1996 season. Sabates expanded his operation and became a multi-team power-house. During those years, many famous drivers and sponsors would change hands for Team Sabco. Drivers included Sterling Marlin, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Tommy Kendall, Kenny Wallace, Bobby Hamilton, Robby Gordon, Greg Sacks, Wally Dallenbach Jr., Joe Nemechek, Jeff Green, Ted Musgrave, Jason Leffler, Scott Pruett and Jimmy Spencer to name a few.

In 2000, Sabates became heavily involved in a life long dream in the yachts industry. Sabates bought Trinity Yachts, the factory which builds Mega-Yachts over 200 feet in length with price tags as high $50 million. To allocate his time more effectively, Sabates' Team Sabco partnered with Chip Ganassi to become Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.Currently, the multi-team drivers include Dario Franchitti #40, Reed Sorenson #41 & Juan Pablo Montoya #42. In addition to the NASCAR circuit, they also own multi-team race cars in the GrandAm Rolex Series and the drivers include Scott Pruett, Luis Diaz, Stefan Johansson and Cort Wagner.After a 17 year career in NASCAR, Sabates continues to prove he has the winning formula to succeed.

Basketball and Hockey

Sabates has spread his influence across other sports, as well. In 1988, as an original owner of the New Orleans Hornets basketball team, Sabates played an intricate part negotiating with the NBA to grant franchise rights to Charlotte. Sabates sold his interest a few years later. After starting the first professional indoor soccer league in the 1980s, the grandfather of six was one of the first investors in the World Football League. Also in the 1990s, he established The Charlotte Professional Sports Team, Inc, along with Hornets executive Carl Scheer, and his NASCAR driver, Kyle Petty, and his father Richard, which returned professional hockey to Charlotte for the first time since 1977, when the ECHL] placed an expansion franchise in Charlotte for 1993. In 1996, Sabates’ Charlotte Checkers won the Jack Riley Cup championship after competing in the ECHL for just three years. The Checkers were sold shortly after their championship season at a then-record price for a minor-league professional franchise, to Tim Braswell, who sold the team in 2000 to George Shinn and Ray Woolridge, the Hornets owners.

A tulmultous 2002 ended with Hornets moving to New Orleans, and the Checkers on the verge of being sold again and potentially moved (Woolridge and Shinn eventually forced out an ECHL team in New Orleans), Sabates once again teamed with Carl Scheer to purchase the Charlotte Checkers. In November 2005, Sabates' Checker's hit an all time attendance record of 10,894.In addition, Sabates is the first and only person that had ownership in New Orleans Hornets and currently, the new expansion team, The Charlotte Bobcats.

Civic Involvement and Philanthropy

In addition to his successes in sports, Sabates also focuses much attention on civic activities. He serves on the Board of Directors for Carolinas Health Care Systems, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Applica Corporation, Simpson Products, and the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. He also was the co-chair of a North Carolina Institute of Medicine Task Force on Latino Health. [http://www.nciom.org/projects/latino/latinohealth.html]

Sabates is also well known for his many philanthropic contributions and has received several honors and awards for his generosity. Belmont Abbey College, North Carolina, has named its dining hall after him. Elon College in Elon, North Carolina, honored him with an honorary doctor's degree. He also has received a Special Blessing in writing from the Pope.

Political Affiliation

Felix and his wife Carolyn are members of the Republican Party and they support local Republicans as well as former President of the United States, George H. Bush Sr. and current president of the United States, George W Bush. During Governor Jim Martin's term in office of the state of North Carolina, Felix set another first and became the first Cuban to be appointed to a position in N.C. by Governor Jim Martin to the Banking Commission of North Carolina. Felix served for two terms under the Governors term in office.

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