24 Hour Fitness

24 Hour Fitness is the world's largest (by memberships) privately owned and operated fitness center chain, and third in number of clubs behind Gold's Gym and Fitness First of the UK. It currently has 425 clubs and over 20,000 employees in the U.S.A. The company has its corporate office located in San Ramon, California and a processing center located in Carlsbad, California. The founder is Mark S. Mastrov and current CEO is Carl Liebert III. 24 Hour Fitness is currently owned by the private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company, since its acquisition in a $1.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005. 24 Hour Fitness operates a nutritional supplement company, Apex Fitness Group, which is also the distributor of the Bodybugg system.