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Eric Langan is President and CEO of Rick's Cabaret International, Inc., a publicly traded company that owns and operates adult entertainment businesses. Founded in 1983, Rick's went public in 1996, the first topless club company to be traded on NASDAQ. Mr. Langan acquired a controlling interest in Rick's in 1999 following its merger with his own publicly traded adult entertainment company, Taurus, Inc. Under his direction Rick’s has expanded its operations to New York City and North Carolina and strengthened clubs in Texas and Minnesota. He also has developed successful Internet profit centers with the premiere network of online adult auction sites and a community network for adults who enjoy the swingers lifestyle. Mr. Langan, now 37, has worked in the adult industry since he was 20 years old, when he sold his baseball card collection for $40,000 and used the proceeds to open an topless club in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. For nearly a decade, he has been an owner or manager of gentlemen’s clubs and related activities. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Adult Club Executives (ACE), the major trade organization for his industry, and is considered an expert in the adult sector.
Eric Langan spent his childhood in Peoria, Illinois, where his father was a police officer. The family subsequently moved to the Dallas area. Eric began his own entrepreneurial career at age 13 and at 16 he owned his own advertising media company, distributing flyers in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and making $40,000 in his first summer. By the next year he had over thirty commercial customers and was grossing $5,000 a week. Not surprisingly he devoted nearly all his time to business activities and high school ceased to be of interest to him. He subsequently earned his GED, but along the way acquired a first class "street" education in accounting, management, real estate and First Amendment Law.Mr. Langan has always been conscious of the primary role played by real estate in his industry. After early experiences with the impact of zoning ordinances on adult businesses, he became an expert in selecting venues for his clubs that allow them to operate within local restrictions while remaining convenient to his customers. Along the way, he has acquired real estate that appreciated in value as cities have expanded. He also has developed management screening procedures, technology and cash control systems that to monitor club activities on a real-time basis.While he will continue to focus on the existing clubs, Mr. Langan believes the future of Rick's lies in careful expansion into viable markets and in finding new entertainment niches that are ahead of the entertainment curve. An example is the recent launch by Rick's of Club Onyx, the first gentlemen’s club in the Houston area to cater specifically to the urban American professional, which has attracted an enthusiastic clientele of pro athletes, musicians and community leaders. In 2005 he directed the acquisitions of clubs in midtown Manhattan and Charlotte, NC. He believes that the gentlemen’s club industry is in the midst of a consolidation phase similar to that experienced by the casino industry in the 1990s. | 