Sheila Johnson
Overview
- Source of Wealth
- Cable TV, hotels
- Industry
- Media & Entertainment
- Residence
- The Plains, Virginia
- Organization
- CEO at Salamander Hotel and Resorts
- Education
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Bachelor of Arts/Science)
- Marital Status
- Married
- Children
- 2
Biography
Sheila Johnson cofounded cable TV channel Black Entertainment Television in 1979 with her then-husband Robert Johnson. Viacom bought it for $3 billion in 2001.
After her divorce in 2002, she sold her BET shares and has since invested in a portfolio of hotels known as the Salamander Collection, as well as other real estate and horses.
Her Innisbrook resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, hosts an annual PGA Tour championship.
She was an executive producer of the critically-acclaimed 2013 film The Butler, which tells the story of a former slave turned White House employee.
Through her investment in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, she owns stakes in three Washington sports teams: the WNBA's Mystics, NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals.
About
Johnson is the only black woman to own stakes in three professional sports teams.
Johnson's parents enrolled her in an all-white school in early 1950s Kentucky before desegregation was federally mandated.