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Omar S. Amanat is an American businessman and entrepeneur who was previously named one of Wall Street's "Top Ten Most Influential Technologists" and has been profiled or mentioned in Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

Early life

Born in Queens, New York to Muslim parents who had emigrated from India, Sharif Mohammad and Hamida M. Amanat raised Omar Amanat in the New York and New Jersey area. Omar Amanat was an athlete in school. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School of Business undergraduate program and later became part of its Entrepeneur in Residence faculty program.

Career

He began his trading career at Datek Online, one of the pioneers in online brokerage services, which was sold by Jeff Citron to Ameritrade for $1.3 Billion. Amanat went on to found CS Block and there traded and provided feedback on the development of CyberBlock. He also helped on the design functionality of the trading platform CyberTrader, which was sold by [[Philip Berber to Charles Schwab in 2000 for $488 million.

He then became the founder, CEO and majority shareholder of Tradescape Corporation, a brokerage and technology firm. It processed over 10% of NASDAQ's daily trading volume and was one of the largest electronic brokerage firms in the United States (by trading volume) in 2002 when he sold it to E*Trade for total consideration worth $280 million including $180 million in contingent consideration. This deal made him one of E*Trade's largest shareholders. Tradescape was named as one of the "Top 50 Private Companies" in the United States by Red Herring Magazine.

Amanat sits on numerous boards including the Board of Trustees for the Harlem Youth Development Foundation, Human Rights Watch, is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Trustee of the Democratic National Committee and Malaria No More and was recently the Vice Chairman of the Acumen Fund which has been named one of the top 25 Charities in the World by Barron's .

Amanat recently co-founded a $200 million feature film company with a mission to "make films that will change the world" and also helped to create and is a founding board member of a $1 billion new Hollywood studio/production and distribution venture that produces and distributes 8-12 Hollywood feature films per year.

After entering into a sales agreement of Tradescape with E*Trade in 2002 and becoming one of its largest shareholders, Amanat was sued and sued the company seeking $1.5 billion in additional compensation for missed payments; both sides claimed breach of contract, among other claims.

Media, film production

Amanat collaborated with Muzzammil S. Hassan on the launch of Bridges TV, the Muslim television network headed by Muzzammil S. Hassan which premiered in 2004. According to Amanat:

I realized that the only way to undo misconceptions was to create our own media forum from which our stories and culture would be shared with the world. Other cultural groups have gained acceptance and increased understanding through the forum of media. Why can't Muslims do the same?

Also involved with producing films, Amanat was most recently an Executive Producer, Co-Founder, and Founding Chairman of Groundswell Productions with Michael London, which financed and produced two Academy Award nominated films in 2009 including The Visitor which received a nomination for Best Actor (Richard Jenkins) and Milk which received 8 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Gus Van Sant) and Best Actor (Sean Penn). He also Executive Produced with Ebay Founding President Jeff Skoll, via his film company Participant Productions several socially conscious films including The Visitor and Darfur Now featuring George Clooney. Other films Amanat was Executive Producer of or that his companies have helped to produce include 2008's Smart People, Appaloosa, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh among other films.

References

1. Schwartz, Nelson D. (February 19, 2001). "Can't Keep A Good Day Trader Down Online brokers like Charles Schwab, E*Trade, and Ameritrade may be suffering, but day traders are still partying like it's 1999". FORTUNE Magazine.
2. "Omar Amanat Speaker". Wharton School.
3. Kaspar, Mary Alice (November 7, 2003). "Schwab affiliate moving: CyberTrader to leave Loop 360 for Research Park offices". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
4. "E*Trade Shareholder Filing: S.E.C 10-Q Quarterly Report" (PDF). shareholder.com. June 30, 2002.
5. "Top 50 Public and Private Companies in the United States". Red Herring Magazine. April 19, 2001.
6. "Acumen Fund". Acumen Fund.org.
7. "Bridges TV (May 7, 2003 )". Sign On San Diego. 2003-05-07. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
8. WorldNetDaily.com: Muslim TV coming to America(May 02, 2003)
9. "News aljazeerah.info: First American Muslim Television Channel Announced by Bridges Network". Aljazeerah.info. 2003-05-02. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
10. "Omar Amanat". IMDB.com.

• American businesspeople
• Living people