Tilman J. Fertitta currently serves as the United States Ambassador to Italy and San Marino. He presented his credentials to President Sergio Mattarella on May 6, 2025. The Ambassador who was born in Galveston, Texas and has lived in Houston, Texas throughout his life, is an American billionaire businessman, television personality, New York Times best-selling author, and professional sports team owner.
Fertitta is the sole owner of Fertitta Entertainment which owns the restaurant giant Landry’s, the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casinos, and the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Through his restaurant and hospitality company, Fertitta owns more than 600 properties in 36 states and over 15 countries. His restaurants include a signature collection of more than 60 award-winning restaurant concepts such as Catch, Mastro’s, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Chart House, and two of New York’s most famous – Keen’s Steakhouse and The Corner Store. He also owns over a dozen popular casual dining brands such as Rainforest Café and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Fertitta’s hotel division includes two Forbes Five-Star properties, the Montage Laguna Beach Resort Hotel and The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston. Fertitta also owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets, purchased for $2.2 billion in 2017, and the eight Golden Nugget Casinos. Additionally, he is the largest shareholder with a 12.5% stake in Wynn Resorts and the largest individual shareholder in the global online gaming giant DraftKings, with this Fertitta has positioned himself as a major influence in the world’s premier luxury and gaming brands.
With a net worth of $11.3 billion, Forbes ranks him among the 100 wealthiest Americans. He starred in CNBC’s “Billion Dollar Buyer” and authored the best-selling book “Shut Up and Listen!” Additionally, Fertitta served as Chairman of the Board of Regents at the University of Houston System for over eleven years, until being appointed as U.S. Ambassador, where the Fertitta Center (sports arena) and the Tilman J. Fertitta Medical School have been named in his honor.
The U.S. Mission to Italy conducts diplomatic relations with the Republic of Italy and coordinates the activities of all U.S. Government personnel serving in Italy. Bilateral cooperation includes political, economic, commercial, defense and security, educational, and exchange activities. The Embassy and Consulates General also provides consular services, including visas for visitors to the United States and passports and other services for United States citizens in Italy. The United States Mission in Italy comprises the American Embassy in Rome and the Consulates General in Milan, Florence, and Naples.
The many agencies of the United States Government that constitute the Mission work as a team to advance American interests and promote relations between the American and Italian government and people. They shape and carry out American relations with Italy, have an active public diplomacy program, provide consular services to American citizens and visa services to citizens of Italy and other countries who wish to visit or who qualify to immigrate to the United States, and promote trade and investment between our two countries.
They work with Italian counterparts to protect shared political, economic, and security interests through multilateral organizations including NATO, the United Nations, and a host of other important bodies.
Officials of the Department of State oversee traditional diplomacy and provide consular services in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Naples.Commerce Department representatives are available to American exporters who wish to increase their activity in the Italian market, and officials of the Department of Agriculture at the Embassy in Rome offer similar services to their clients.
The formation of the modern Italian state began in 1861 with the unification of most of the peninsula under the House of Savoy (Piedmont-Sardinia) into the Kingdom of Italy. Italy incorporated Venetia and the former Papal States (including Rome) by 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Prior to Italian unification (also known as the Risorgimento), the United States had diplomatic relations with the main entities of the Italian peninsula: the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the Papal States.
With the exception of the World War II years when Benito Mussolini’s government declared war upon the United States (1941-43), the United States has had warm relations with the Kingdom of Italy and, after 1946, its successor, the Republic of Italy. Currently, the United States and Italy share strong bilateral relations. Italy is a member of NATO and is a founding member of the European Union.
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