The business story
Born in Lahore in 1950; arrived in the US in 1967 to study engineering at the University of Illinois, working as a dishwasher. Bought auto-parts firm Flex-N-Gate in 1980 and built it on his one-piece bumper innovation into one of the largest private companies in America. Bought the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars (2011) and Fulham FC (2013); backs All Elite Wrestling. Net worth over US$12 billion.
Khan is an engineer before he is an owner.
Early life and background
Shahid Khan was born in Lahore in 1950 into a middle-class family; his father ran a surveying and printing business. In 1967, aged sixteen, he left for the United States to study industrial engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spent his first American night at a YMCA and paid his way through college washing dishes for around $1.20 an hour.
The hardship was real, but so was the opportunity around it. His family could send him abroad for an engineering degree at a major university, which placed him inside the world's largest auto industry and richest consumer market. Industrial engineering, the study of making production more efficient, turned out to be exactly the training his career would reward.
Building Flex-N-Gate
While still a student, Khan went to work at Flex-N-Gate, an Illinois automotive-parts maker, and moved up into management. In the 1970s he designed a one-piece, seamless car bumper formed from a single sheet of galvanised steel. It replaced multi-part assemblies and was cheaper to produce, lighter, stronger and better at resisting corrosion and dents.
In 1980, using his savings and a loan backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, he bought Flex-N-Gate outright. During the 1980s his company Bumper Works won Toyota as a customer, and the Detroit automakers followed. His timing was good: he became a leading bumper supplier for pickups and SUVs just as those vehicles took over American roads. Flex-N-Gate grew into one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, with dozens of plants and tens of thousands of employees making bumpers, lighting and structural parts.
He then turned the fortune toward sport. In 2011 he bought the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars for a reported $770 million, becoming the first member of an ethnic minority to own an NFL team. Fulham FC followed in 2013, and in 2019 he funded All Elite Wrestling, the venture led by his son Tony Khan. His net worth is estimated at more than $12 billion.
