RI’s Biggest Power Couple Is Splitting — At Stake May Be as Much as a Billion Dollars

RI’s Biggest Power Couple Is Splitting — At Stake May Be as Much as a Billion Dollars

Rhode Island’s power couple is divorcing. She has been featured in the New York Times and Fast Company and he is a regular in the Wall Street Journal.

Each has been part of building two of the most impressive organizations in Rhode Island's history.

Paul and Navyn Salem are two Rhode Islanders with impacts both nationally and globally.

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He been one of the key players at the mega private equity group Providence Equity that reports to manage $50 billion dollars. 

Today, he serves as the chairman of the board of casino giant MGM Resorts International, a company that has a market cap of nearly $15 billion. He is also one of the owners of the former Pawtucket Red Sox — now Worcester Red Sox.

The ownership in the PawSox however is just change off of the top of his proverbial dresser. The couple owns homes around the country and some are worth far more than the ownership in the Sox.

Rhode Island is home to few billionaires. According to Forbes, Salem’s business partner at Providence Equity Jonathan Nelson is the only billionaire living in the state. Nelson is reported to be worth $1.8 billion.  According to multiple Rhode Island sources in finance, Salem is worth an estimated $1 billion. Providence Equity was founded in 1989, and Salem is now listed as a managing director emeritus of the firm.

In August, GoLocal reported that under Salem's leadership, MGM laid-off 18,000 workers as the casino company tried to battle the economic impact of the pandemic. More recently, MGM had a failed effort to purchase UK-based betting company Ladbrokes for $11 billion.

 

Navyn Salem’s Global Impact in Fight Against Hunger

Navyn Salem is the founder and CEO of one most of the world’s most impactful food product companies, Edesia. 

Edesia now makes 1.5 million packets of ready-to-use, life-saving food each day. In total — the company has provided more than 10 million meals to the world’s hungriest people in war0-torn countries and those suffering from starvation.

In 2010, The New York Times Magazine wrote a feature about the critical role that Nayvn Salem plays in feeding the most needs in the world.

“In the United States, Plumpy’nut’s sole manufacturer and chief promoter is a 38-year-old mother of four from Barrington, R.I. Navyn Salem doesn’t have a background in medicine or aid work. She first glimpsed the potential of Plumpy’nut three years ago on “60 Minutes.” Since then, Salem has devoted herself to making the product for export to needy nations like Haiti. Though her Providence factory, a joint venture with Nutriset, has all the trappings of a business, selling its wares to relief agencies under the name Edesia Global Nutrition Solutions, the operation is registered as a nonprofit foundation and was established with seed money from Salem and her husband, Paul, a private-equity financier," reported the Times.

Today, Edesia under Navyn Salem's leadership operates an 83,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Quonset Business Park. According to Edesia's most recent 990 form, the company did just under $40 million in revenue in 2018.

According to Rhode Island court documents the two filed for divorce on January 19. Lawyers for the Salems have sealed all documents for the case.

The split marks one of the most high-profile divorces in Rhode Island since Clay Pell and Michelle Kwan in 2017 -- which garnered both local and national press, including Vanity Fair. 

This story was first published 1/28/21 6:17 PM