Named one of Wall Street’s “Top Ten Most Influential Technologists” by Fortune Magazine, Mr. Amanat is responsible for several important developments in the electronic brokerage industry. His company, Tradescape, was the first to provide investors a direct relationship to all nine Electronic Communications Networks and alternative stock exchanges. Tradescape quickly became an industry leader that processed over 10% of NASDAQ’s daily trading volume. By age 29, Mr. Amanat sold Tradescape to the financial services company E*Trade for $280 million. Omar Amanat is a significant contributor to technology, philanthropy, entrepreneurialism, and now even the entertainment industry.
After honing his sharp business skills at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business, Mr. Amanat worked with CyberTrader founder Philip Berber to develop a trading platform prototype that was bought by Charles Schwab for $488 million in 2000.
As a member of the Gold Philanthropists Circle, Mr. Amanat is thoroughly involved with humanitarian causes. He served as Vice Chairman of the Board for the Acumen Fund, a global venture capital fund for the poor that has been categorized as one of the top of charities changing the face of global philanthropy. Mr. Amanat is a board member of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, and is serving as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch and Malaria No More. A frequent public speaker and popular interviewee, Mr. Amanat is also committed to creating social awareness and change through a more globally empathetic media.
Since the events of 9/11, Omar Amanat has used his financial and philanthropic expertise to explore the ways in which film and television can create social change and global understanding. He serves as founder and financier for several film production companies, including one that raised $205 million to fund more than 20 feature films within the next 5 years. He is a board member of a new $1 billion Hollywood production and distribution studio. And perhaps most notably, he was the initial financier for Bridges TV, the first American TV station dedicated to bridging Muslim and non-Muslim cultures.