[3] Ledecky was born in 1958 in New York City, the son of a Czechoslovakian immigrant who came to America eleven years prior to study English at Rutgers University.

Ledecky earned his bachelor's degree in 1979 and completed a Master of Business Administration in 1983, which was followed by a series of venture capital-type jobs.

[5] Ledecky still got interested in higher shares of sports franchises, partnering with Steve Stotland in 2000 to bid on the Montreal Canadiens (he lost out to Colorado businessman George Gillett Jr.).

[5] Following an unsuccessful bid at the Oakland Athletics in 2002,[7] Ledecky headed one of the groups intent on purchasing the Washington Nationals from Major League Baseball,[5] eventually losing to Ted Lerner.

[8] In October 2014, Ledecky and former Harvard roommate Scott D. Malkin entered a deal to purchase the New York Islanders from Charles Wang.