Longtime Indian Wells tournament director and owner Charlie Pasarell has decided to leave the tournament.
A former Top 10 player, Pasarell and his partners Steve Simon and Raymond Moore are widely credited in helping turn the California desert event into the second largest tournament attendance-wise in the United States. Pasarell first became tournament director in 1981 and oversaw the growth of the event from the construction of La Quinta Hotel Tennis Club and the Hyatt Grand Champions resort; to becoming a combined men’s and women’s event; to the development of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where the early March event is played over a 12-day period today. More than 370,000 fans attended the event in 2012.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison bought the tournament in 2009.
Pasarell is moving on to focus his time on the construction of Royal Isabella, a golf, residential, and resort community that he and his brother Stanley are developing in his native Puerto Rico.