Peter J. Nygård was born in 1943, in Helsinki, Finland, and is a businessman and entrepreneur, who is most famous for being the founder and CEO of Nygård International, one of the world’s largest women’s apparel manufacturers and distributors, with over 200 retail stores in the USA and Canada, and more than 12,000 employees worldwide, garnering over $500 million in annual revenue.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this women’s fashion mogul has accumulated so far? How rich Peter Nygård is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Peter Nygård’s net worth is approaching $900 million as of early 2017, and includes assets such as the luxurious 150,000-square-foot private island estate in The Bahamas, as well as private Boeing 727 jet. Yes! You read it well – $900 million, acquired through his career in the fashion business which has been active since 1967.
Peter Nygård Net Worth $877 million
Peter was born to Hikka and Eeli, both bakers and Canadian immigrants from Finland. Although he grew up in Finland, Peter was educated at the University of North Dakota in the USA. He began his professional business career in 1967 when, using his life savings boosted with a loan of $8,000, he bought 20% of the shares of a small woman’s clothing manufacturer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. After only a few years, Peter managed to buy out the remaining 80%, and rebranded company as Nygård International. This venture provided the basis for Nygård’s nowadays impressive net worth.
Today Nygård International is a standard for excellence and quality for women’s clothing, not only in Canada, but on the global market too. What began as a small manufacture, is today Canada’s No. 1 women’s apparel brand and it has offices worldwide, including Canada, USA, Asia and The Bahamas. It contains several product lines such as Peter Nygård, Nygård Slims, ALIA, Westbound, TanJay and Alison Daley, targeting women over 25 years and covering every aspects of female clothing, including footwear, outerwear, jewelry, swimwear, a variety of accessories, and even soft home furnishings. It is certain that all these “perks” have helped the Nygård brand to gain a huge dose of popularity among customers, and so assist Peter Nygård to build a successful commercial empire.
Apart from fashion and women’s good looks, part of his enormous wealth Peter Nygård has guided towards women’s health as well – he founded Nygård BioTech, a company focused on raising awareness of breast cancer as well as finding a cure for it. He gathered the world’s top class medical experts in an ultra-modern medical facility in The Bahamas to research stem cells and possible cancer cure. Doubtlessly, all these efforts have left an impact on Peter Nygård’s net worth.
In 1987, Peter build Nygård Cay, a Mayan civilization-inspired luxurious compound in The Bahamas, covering an area of 150,000 square-feet and containing tennis, volleyball and basketball courts, numerous pools and several villas, waterslides and aquariums, featuring also a 32,000 square-feet grand hall with glass ceiling. Some of the visitors who were ready to pay at least $5,000 per night, have been Oprah Winfrey, Robert DeNiro, Sean Connery as well as the former president of the USA, George W. Bush. This tropical heaven has certainly contributed to Peter Nygård’s revenues by a large margin.
When it comes to Peter Nygård’s personal life, he has seven children with four women although he has been married only once – in the 1970s he was in a short marriage with a model. Later, Peter was in several year-long relationship with Anna Nicole Smith, before dating Patricia Bickle with whom he has two children. He was also romantically connected with Kaarina Pakka, who is a mother of one of his sons.
Besides business, Peter Nygård is regularly involved in several charities including Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, and is an annual sponsor of Bahamas’ amateur sports competitions.
