Business, sports and philanthropy: The life and career of Charles B. Wang

Key dates in the life and career of Charles B. Wang

1944 — Wang is born in Shanghai, China.

1952 — His family flees to the United States and settles in Queens.

1976 — Wang founds Computer Associates International, now known as CA Technologies.

1987 — Wang acquires UCCEL Corp., valued at $800 million.

1991 — Wang moves company from Nassau County to headquarters in Islandia.

1998 — Along with co-founder Russell Artzt and Sanjay Kumar, Wang receives stock award totaling more than $1 billion; the total is later reduced.

1998 — Wang endows the Charles B. Wang International Foundation.

1999 — Wang founds Smile Train, a charity that has provided more than 1 million free cleft surgeries to children in more than 85 developing countries.

2000 — Wang buys New York Islanders hockey team with Sanjay Kumar; names Kumar as CA chief executive.

2002 — SEC and the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn launch investigation of CA accounting practices, including circumstances surrounding stock award.

2002 — The Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University opens. Wang's $52 million gift was, at the time, the largest individual donation in State University of New York history.

2004 — Wang unveils the $3.8 billion Lighthouse Project to redevelop the 77-acre Nassau Coliseum site with a new arena, minor-league baseball stadium, restaurants, retail and a 60-floor tower. Hempstead Town officials called the plan, with 2,306 housing units, too dense for the area.

2004 — Wang buys Kumar's share of the Islanders, making him sole owner.

2010 — Then-Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray announces an alternate zoning plan that cut the density of Wang's proposal by half.

2011 — Nassau County voters reject a referendum on a $400 million taxpayer-funded revitalization plan at the Coliseum site.

2012 — Wang, frustrated by setbacks, announces he will move the Islanders to Brooklyn's new Barclays Center when the team's lease expires at the Coliseum in 2015.

2014 — CA Technologies moves its headquarters from Long Island to Manhattan.

2014 — Wang announces he is selling a minority stake in the team after 16 years of majority ownership. After two years, the deal transfers majority ownership to Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky with Wang retaining a 15 percent stake in the team.

Oct. 21, 2018 — Wang, 74, dies.