Inside Jessica Pegula & Emma Navarro's Billionaire Family Empires

Who Are Emma Navarro’s Parents?

Emma's mom and dad Kelly Navarro and Ben Navarro are the cofounders of Beemok, a North Carolina-based firm they launched in 2018 to manage their portfolio of for-profit and non-profit endeavors.

Among the brands included on the for-profit side are Credit One Bank—with Ben’s bio noting he owns a "significant minority stake" in the company—as well as Beemok Hospitality Collection, which the couple launched in 2021 and features restaurant and hotel properties as well as the sports and entertainment venue Credit One Stadium. Beemok also owns the Credit One Charleston Open and Cincinnati Open tennis tournaments. On the non-profit side, Ben and Kelly have created scholarship funds, teaching awards and their mental health practice Modern Minds.

In addition to running Beemok, Ben is the CEO of Sherman Financial Group, which the University of Rhode Island alum founded with Brett Hildebrand in 1997 after working for Goldman Sachs and Citicorp. He also considered buying the Carolina Panthers before David Tepper purchased the NFL team in 2018.

As for Kelly, her Beemok bio notes she graduated from the University of Virginia and "worked in real estate finance for 10 years before assuming her favorite role of full-time mom" to Emma and her siblings Meggie, Earl and Owen.

What Is the Net Worth of Emma Navarro’s Parents?

Forbes estimates Ben’s net worth to be about $3.2 billion. However, Emma insists she doesn’t pay too much attention to what’s written about his finances online.

"There will be headlines," she acknowledged to Tatler in June of stories that mention her father's billionaire status, "but I didn’t grow up being handed things. We grew up in a sort of traditional way."

That often meant 6 a.m. wakeup calls on Saturday morning to hit the court. "Growing up, it was a priority that we learnt toughness and we learnt work ethic and how to be intentional and purposeful and live productive lives," Emma added, "so I don’t love being referred to as whoever with however much money’s daughter. It’s a label I don’t really like."

Who Are Jessica Pegula’s Parents?

Jessica is the daughter of Terry Pegula and Kim Pegula, who own the NFL team the Buffalo Bills.

The pair purchased the organization in 2014, three years after they bought NHL team the Buffalo Sabres. According to Kim’s Bills bio, she became the first female president of both an NHL and an NFL team. She and Terry, who also serves as CEO of both New York teams, co-own the local Rochester Americans from the American Hockey League and the Buffalo Bandits from the National Lacrosse League as well.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Terry built his fortune in oil and gas exploration. As his Bills bio notes, the Penn State University alum borrowed $7,500 from family and friends in 1983 to launch the East Resources Inc. It was while he was working there that he met Kim—who was born in Seoul, South Korea, and adopted by a family in Fairport, New York—at a restaurant and later offered the Houghton College grad a job. Terry and Kim married in 1993, with her becoming stepmom to his children Michael and Laura from his first marriage and the couple going on to welcome kids Jessica, Kelly and Matthew together.

In 2010, Terry sold East Resources Inc. to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion. Two years later, he founded JKLM Energy, and he and Kim opened sports and entertainment complex LECOM Harborcenter in 2014. 

Kim was forced to step back from her role as president for the Bills and Sabres after she suffered a cardiac arrest in 2022. 

"Today, my mom is still in recovery and although it is the same answer every time someone asks me, it is true, she is improving every day," Jessica wrote in a piece for The Players' Tribune in 2023. "She is dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues. She can read, write, and understand pretty well, but she has trouble finding the words to respond. It is hard to deal with and it takes a lot of patience to communicate with her, but I thank God every day that we can still communicate with her at all."

What Is the Net Worth of Jessica Pegula’s Parents?

Forbes estimates Terry’s net worth to be about $11.8 billion.

Asked about the most annoying assumption about her family’s wealth, Jessica noted at the 2024 U.S. Open, "It’s that people think I have a butler, that I get chauffeured around, I have a private limo, I fly private everywhere. I’m definitely not like that."