Power is a word that often evokes emotion, whether it be fear, desire or anger. Most of us want power in one form or another: power in finances, power in politics, power in the casino industry. Few of us want “the other guy” to have it. How does one get power? Usually – through hard work, ingenuity, encouragement, determination – one earns it.
Michael Shustek created the Vestin Group by starting a small lending company and turning it into a multi-million dollar agency. In just five regular assembly sessions, Richard Perkins went from a freshman legislator to assembly speaker. Harvey Whittemore is considered by his supporters and critics as the most powerful lobbyist in Nevada. And Frank J. Fertitta took a small family-owned casino and turned it into a publicly-traded company with a billion dollars in yearly revenue.
Power Players? Movers and shakers? Without a doubt.
MICHAEL V. SHUSTEK
Founder and CEO, the Vestin Group
“I actually didn’t have a penny to my name in 1991, and I sold only one piece of real estate,” said Michael Shustek, founder and CEO of the Vestin Group. “I parlayed [that property] into the largest private lender in America that I know of, managing almost half a billion dollars.”
The man who moved to Las Vegas at the age of 21 to become the self-described “world’s worst craps dealer” said his success story began in 1991, when he learned the Resolution Trust Corporation was selling property at a big discount in an effort to help bail out institutions during the savings and loan crisis. Shustek said he purchased some properties from the RTC at a discount and sold them for a profit. “I found out that when I was borrowing the money in the short term, the people from whom I was borrowing the money were making just as much money as I was,” he said. “So I quickly decided to become a lender. I started out with about 10 clients and today we serve well over 6,000 clients. It started with me being a borrower who didn’t like to pay the interest payments, and now I’m the one collecting those interest payments.”
In 1993, Shustek founded Foreclosures of Nevada, Inc., specializing in non-judicial foreclosures, and also started Shustek Investments, a company that originally specialized in property valuations for third-party lenders or investors. In 1995, he founded Del Mar Mortgage. In 1997, Shustek was involved in the founding of Nevada First Bank, with the largest initial capital base of any new state charter in Nevada’s history. He has been a director of Vestin Mortgage and chairman of the board of directors, CEO and a director of Vestin Group since April 1999. He has co-authored a book, Trust Deed Investments, on the topic of private mortgage lending.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” Shustek said. “I’ve handled $1.5 billion in real estate lending transactions and my clients have never received less than 11 percent on their money. That can’t be matched by anybody. We’ve gone from a company that had [a few] investors all the way up to 6,000 now. People understand that we’re one of the biggest depositories in Nevada. And we’re growing. We’ll be a billion-dollar company by the end of next year.”
Shustek said the best part of what he does – apart from hanging out with childhood hero and Vestin national spokesperson Joe Namath – is giving back to the community. “We probably give to about 30 or 40 charities a year,” he said. “I’ve been so fortunate to have great people on my staff and great clients, that I’m always inspired to give back to the community. The Nevada Senior Olympics are called the Vestin Games now. We give to the Agassi Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs and the list goes on. Helping people out is a great thing.”
RICHARD D. PERKINS
State Assembly Speaker
Henderson deputy police chief Richard Perkins became a freshman Nevada State Assembly member in the 1993 session. He became the Democratic floor leader in the 1995 session and, when the Democrats held the majority in the 1997 session, Perkins became the majority floor leader. He was chosen as Speaker of the Nevada Assembly in 2001. Not bad for just five regular Assembly sessions.
“That couldn’t have happened without the support and confidence of my colleagues,” Perkins said. “I guess it reflects the work I’ve done in the Legislature. My colleagues have genuine confidence that I can get things done, not only for myself but for them and for the state.”
Born in Boulder City in 1961, Perkins received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in criminal justice and political science. He has been with the Henderson police force since 1984 and served as president of the police association for eight years. “In that capacity I became involved in local poltics,” he said. “From 1986 on, I was involved in local campaigns. When the Legislature redistricted our state in 1991 I found myself sitting in an open seat and the same people that I had helped all along then came to me and suggested it was my turn to participate in that capacity. Honestly, I saw elected office as an extension of the public service that I do as a police officer. So it seemed natural for me to participate, and it’s something that I’ve enjoyed doing.”
Perkins has also been a proponent for the Nevada State College in Henderson, scheduled to open its doors for the first time this September. “That project actually goes back several years,” he said. “The University and Community College System of Nevada has been studying the need for a state college in our higher educational system for many, many years. It was my role at the state Legislature to introduce a bill in 1999 to examine a needs assessment and implementation plan for that college and shepherd its funding through the 2001 Legislative session.”
The state college has had its detractors, but Perkins points out, “The focus of the college, and the reason we determined to put a great deal of effort behind it, is [for training] teachers and nurses, two of the state’s most serious labor shortages. I think if you take the politics out of the discussion and look at the college on its merits, the arguments are simple,” he continued. “We’re one of only five or six states in the country that don’t have a state college in our higher educational system. We also have the fastest-growing high school population by percentage in the country. A state college can [provide] a four-year degree more cheaply than a university can for a whole host of reasons. If we fill that niche in the undergraduate education in our state, then it also allows our two universities to grow academically, [to focus on] research programs and graduate programs and to become better recognized throughout the country. In essence, it becomes a win-win for the entire state.”
HARVEY WHITTEMORE
Lobbyist
A newspaper article in the May 13, 2001 edition of the Reno Gazette-Journal refers to Harvey Whittemore as “Nevada’s most powerful lobbyist.” The article stated, “During two decades on the job, Whittemore has developed a reputation as the best lobbyist, maybe the best ever, in the state. He’s applauded and praised, cursed and criticized. … Nevada newspapers regularly rank Whittemore one of the top 10, or close to it, most influential people in the state. A panel assembled by the Reno Gazette-Journal for the new millennium named Whittemore one of northern Nevada’s 20 leaders for the 21st century.”
Frequently representing the casino industry, the tobacco industry, the alcohol industry, and fighting for utility deregulation, Whittemore often faces harsh criticism from his opponents. However, he has also worked with Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) to help get a bill passed outlawing discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace, and he became a volunteer lobbyist for the arts when the subject of state arts funding came to the Assembly floor.
“I’m not embarrassed by representing people who are clients,” Whittemore said. “People come to us with legal problems. We solve them. Legislative advocacy is part of a larger representation of these businesses’ interests. On a personal level, I can tell you I have rejected a number of requests to represent people on issues I find personally offensive.”
Born in 1952 in Carson City, Whittemore said he spent his early years in the northern part of state, including Yerington and Reno. Later his family moved to Arizona where his father was studying for his doctorate, and finally they returned to live in Sparks. Whittemore received a degree in political science from the University of Nevada, Reno, and graduated in 1977 from the Arizona State University School of Law. He is an attorney with Lionel, Sawyer and Collins, one of the state’s most prestigious law firms, which also employs former Nevada Senator Richard Bryan and three sons of Senator Harry Reid.
What was it that sparked his interest in becoming a lobbyist? “Quite frankly it was as a result of the urgings and direction and mentoring of a number of people in the firm,” Whittemore stated. “Grant Sawyer, the former two-term governor of the state, asked that I get involved in the legislative advocacy portion of the firm’s legal services. He felt I was a natural at it.”
Among Whittemore’s many honors is being named the University of Nevada, Reno Alumnus of the Year in 2001. “I absolutely love the University of Nevada,” he said. “I was ecstatic to be named the Alumnus of the Year and it humbled me to think I was singled out, especially in light of all the other extraordinary graduates who have been named alumni of the year and have such a long history with the university. On a professional level, the greatest honor I have received is simply being a significant part of the success of the most extraordinary firm in Nevada’s history,” he added. “Each and every one of those people is very talented in their own right. Collectively, as a team, we’ve done some amazing things.”
FRANK J. FERTITTA III
Chairman and CEO, Station Casinos, Inc.
Frank J. Fertitta III is chairman and chief executive officer of Station Casinos, Inc. Fertitta has devoted his career to growing his family’s business into one of the largest publicly-traded gaming companies in the United States. His father, Frank J. Fertitta Jr., founded the business in 1976 and is recognized as the creator of the Las Vegas locals gaming market. Fertitta III learned the business from his father, gaining hands-on experience across virtually all departments of the Bingo Palace, the predecessor to the Palace Station Hotel & Casino.
“I’m very fortunate that what I do for a living is also my passion and my hobby,” he said. “It has been that way since I was young and used to go to work with my Dad on the weekends and after school at the old Bingo Palace.”
Fertitta attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas and graduated from the University of Southern California in 1984. Soon he began working full time in various positions at Palace Station. In 1985, he was promoted to executive vice present and general manager, and a year later, he became chief operating officer. In 1989, he was named president, and in 1992, was appointed Palace Station’s chief executive officer. In 1993, he led Station Casinos in becoming a publicly-traded company.
Under Fertitta’s direction, Station Casinos has grown from one property with $140 million in revenue, to 10 casinos with approximately 10,000 employees and $1 billion in combined revenue. “Even though today Station Casinos is a publicly-traded corporation, this company still has a lot of the positive attributes of a family-run business,” he said.
Because the community has been good to Fertitta and his family, he said, he has made it a priority to be involved in charitable and educational organizations. Fertitta is personally involved in the Nevada Chapter of the “I Have A Dream” Foundation, which promises youth from disadvantaged backgrounds a college scholarship if they stay in school and earn their high school diploma. Other organizations receiving assistance include Catholic Charities, The Shade Tree Shelter, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, St. James the Apostle Church in West Las Vegas and the Smart Start School Partnership Program.
Fertitta is modest, however, about being named as one of the Nevada Business Journal’s Power Players. “That’s very impressive company,” he says of Mike Shustek, Richard Perkins and Harvey Whittemore. “It’s an honor to be included in that group. Each of them has made tremendous contributions to our state. Honestly, I don’t think of myself in those terms. I just go to work every day and operate my business and try to do what I can when I see a need in our community.”