Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone (born 28 October 1930) is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary authority in Formula One racing. He is most commonly addressed in tabloid journalism as "F1 Supremo". His early involvement in the sport was as a competitor and then as a manager of drivers Stuart Lewis-Evans and Jochen Rindt. In 1972, he bought the Brabham team, which he ran for fifteen years. As a team owner he became a member of the Formula One Constructors Association. His control of the sport, which grew from his pioneering the sale of television rights in the late 1970s, is chiefly financial, but under the terms of the Concorde Agreement he and his companies also manage the administration, setup and logistics of each Formula One Grand Prix. Ecclestone himself entered two Grand Prix races during the 1958 season, failing to qualify for either of them.
Ecclestone is also the ex-majority owner of the British Queens Park Rangers F.C..
Early Life
Ecclestone was born in St Peter South Elmham, a small hamlet three miles south of Bungay, Suffolk. The son of a fisherman, he attended primary school in Wissett before the family moved to Bexleyheath, Kent, in 1938. Ecclestone left school at the age of 16 to work at the local gasworks, and to pursue his hobby of motorcycles.
Personal Life
The Forbes World's Billionaires List of 2011 ranked Ecclestone as the 4th richest person in the United Kingdom, with an estimated fortune of $4.2 billion, an increase of $200 million from the previous year.
In early 2004, he sold one of his London residences in Kensington Palace Gardens, never having lived in it, to steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal for £57.1 million, at the time making it the most expensive house ever sold.
Ecclestone was married twice. His first wife was called Ivy, and they had a daughter named Deborah. He was then married to Slavica Ecclestone (née Slavica Radić) for almost 25 years. Radić was born in the town of Rijeka in Croatia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1958. She is a 6'2" (1.88 m) former Armani model who is 28 years his junior, and 11.5 inches (29 cm) taller than her husband. The couple have two daughters, Tamara Ecclestone (born 1984) and Petra Ecclestone (born 1988). The Sun newspaper announced on 20 November 2008 that Slavica Ecclestone had moved out of the family home and filed for divorce. The divorce was granted on 11 March 2009.
From : www.wikipedia.org
