<p>George with team at the launch of Route 66 lacquer collection.</p>George Schaeffer has built OPI Products, an extraordinary nail care company, through an acute business sense and an extraordinary commitment to the professional beauty industry and its needs.  But he has actually built even more.

George Schaeffer has built the American Dream.

Schaeffer immigrated to the United States from Hungary with his family in 1956.  After receiving his college degree from City College of New York, Schaeffer began his career in the family garment manufacturing business in NYC.

With an enormous appreciation for America and a dream of an even better lifestyle, Schaeffer heeded the famous words, “Go west, young man,” and moved his family to California in 1981.

In Los Angeles, Schaeffer started on the path to what would make him a legend in the beauty industry. The path started in the most unlikely of places – a dental supply business that Schaeffer purchased called Odontorium Products Inc.

Schaeffer soon realized that the acrylic “porcelains” used to make dentures were similar to and, in fact, even better than the materials used by Nail Professionals for crafting acrylic nails.  Seizing upon the opportunity, Schaeffer applied his knowledge of dental technology to the nail industry to formulate superior products for nail technicians. [text provided by opi.com]

[right] George Schaeffer, president of OPI Products, and his daughter Nicole, host the OPI Annual Computer Giveaway to OPI employees at the company's North Hollywood, CA, headquarters.