Jason Strauss (born April 7, 1974) is an American businessman and developer who is the co-CEO of

Tao Group Hospitality Tao Group Hospitality is an American restaurant and nightlife conglomerate founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York City. The group, whose roots can be traced to as early as 2000, presently owns and operates restaurants, Nightclub, nightclub ...

, a restaurant and

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

conglomerate in which he co-founded with his childhood friend, Noah Tepperberg.

Early life

Strauss was born in 1974, grew up in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, and attended

Riverdale Country School Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is located on two campuses covering more than in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, Ne ...

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. He met Noah Tepperberg at a homecoming party thrown by Strauss. The two became friends and had a mutual interest in throwing parties. The two started doing prom parties and college parties before entering the nightclub scene. Strauss graduated from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in communications and

hospitality management Hospitality management may refer to: * Hotel management occupation, the practice of running hotels * Hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and beve ...

in 1997.

Career

Strauss moved back to New York City and in 1997 formed a special events, public relations, and marketing company known as Strategic Group whose clients included

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

. In 2003, he started the Marquee nightclub in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood with Tepperberg. The nightclub quickly grew to host over 1,200 guests a night and began Strauss' full time career in the nightclub hospitality business. He, Marc Packer and Rich Wolf, who owned Tao Asian Bistro New York nightclub, and Tepperberg partnered to open a new nightclub known as Tao Asian Bistro Las Vegas inside the Venetian in 2005. This project turned out to be the biggest success of his career.

was formed in 2009 to operate his and Tepperberg's properties. He has hosted some of the world's most famous celebrities including

Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (; ; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for Leonardo DiCaprio filmography, his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received ...

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Hilton was born in New York City and raised there partially; shuttling between Los Angeles and New York City; she is a great-grandda ...

, Swizz Beats, and

Jho Low Low Taek Jho (born 4 November 1981) is a Malaysian businessman and fugitive who is wanted by Interpol since 2016 for his key role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. Jho is alleged to have stolen over US$4.5 billion from the stat ...

, the latter was charged with money laundering. Tao Group Hospitality now runs over 80 locations across the world and it acquired the

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

restaurant

Hakkasan Hakkasan is a Cantonese restaurant originating in London with 12 locations across the world. The restaurant was founded in 2001 by Alan Yau, who was also behind the Wagamama Japanese restaurants and later the Yauatcha restaurant, also in Lo ...

in 2021, further expanding its catalog of restaurants. Strauss still plays an active role in running the Tao locations, specifically the Las Vegas location, while he and the other founders hold a collective 33% share in the company as of 2025.

Personal life

In 2005, Strauss was in a relationship with Rachel Uchitel who was a VIP hostess at Tao Asian Bistro in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. He currently resides in Las Vegas. In November 2023, he and Tepperberg helped raise over $1 million for

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

through the United Hatzalah Emergency Relief Fund, following the

Hamas attack The history of Hamas is an account of the Palestinian nationalist and Islamist – described by some as fundamentalist – socio-political organization based in the Gaza strip with an associated paramilitary force, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Briga ...

the month prior and said, "the hospitality industry is all about bringing people together. It’s what we do".

References

External links

Official websitePodcast featuring Strauss
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strauss, Jason 1974 births Living people American company founders Boston University alumni Tao Group Hospitality