# 13 William Lyon, Chairman, chief executive, William Lyon Homes Inc.
estimated worth: $775 million
Improving fortunes in the homebuilding industry helped boost our estimated wealth for Gen. William Lyon.
We’ve upped Lyon, owner and chief executive of Newport Beach-based homebuilder William Lyon Homes Inc., by 10% from last year to $775 million.
The increase comes after three straight years where we estimated declines for Lyon. At the peak of the housing boom, we conservatively estimated Lyon to be a billionaire.
This year’s increase largely is based on higher valuations for publicly traded homebuilders that build in similar markets.
Shares of Irvine’s Standard Pacific Corp. and Miami’s Lennar Corp. are up 5% to 40% in the past 12 months.
Like those homebuilders, William Lyon is presumed to have seen a rise in value on improving prospects for homebuilders, particularly those that have cleaned up their balance sheets.
Last year, William Lyon got $206 million in financing from Los Angeles-based real estate investor and private equity firm Colony Capital LLC. The company struck the deal to buy back debt and acquire land.
Lyon took his company private in 2006, near the peak of the housing boom.
He bought out the rest of the company he didn’t own already for about $275 million. The deal valued William Lyon Homes at close to $950 million at the time.
The company’s currently selling about 1,000 homes a year and is returning to profitability after a few lean years.
The homebuilder is just part of the wealth of Lyon, who has been relinquishing more duties to his son, Bill H. Lyon, the homebuilder’s president and chief operating officer.
Also part of his portfolio: Lyon Apartments Cos., which manages 11,000 apartments. Most of those are believed to be owned by Lyon.
Lyon’s also known for his classic car and plane collection, estimated by some to be worth as much as $300 million. He has some 100 classic, antique cars, including 10 Duesenbergs, of which only 480 were made. He also has a collection of old warplanes.
Late last year, Lyon opened the Lyon Air Museum, a 30,000-square-foot museum of World War II planes, military vehicles, cars and other memorabilia near John Wayne Airport. It’s unclear how much money he spent on the project. He appeared to spare little in the way of expenses on what he called a labor of love.
Known as “The General,” 85-year-old Lyon commanded the Air Force Reserve before retiring from the military in 1979 as a major general.
He’s one of the county’s biggest philanthropists and supporters of Republican candidates.
—Mark Mueller
# 14 Ronald Simon Founder, chairman, RSI Holding Corp.
estimated worth: $650 million
Ron Simon has built a fortune mastering an industry littered with casualties.
Simon is founder and chairman of Newport Beach-based RSI Holding Corp., the parent company of household cabinet maker RSI Home Products Inc.
We estimate Simon’s wealth at $650 million, up from last year, based on an overall rebound in the shares of building products companies and homebuilders.
Our estimate also reflects a revaluation of Simon’s wealth that found our $500 million figure for him last year was too low.
In 2008, Simon sold half of RSI to Canada’s Onex Corp. for $318 million. The deal valued RSI at $636 million.
Like others in the housing industry, RSI is believed to have felt the industry’s slowdown in 2008 and 2009. But after bottoming out last year, some publicly traded rivals have seen their shares rise 30% or more in the past year.
In April, RSI struck a deal to buy Continental Cabinets Inc. of Texas for undisclosed terms.
Last year, Simon started a homebuilding business, RSI Development. The venture has $100 million in funding and builds easily assembled, low-priced homes.
Simon was born in East Los Angeles to a Russian mother and English father.
After studying engineering at Los Angeles City College, Simon wanted to start his own business. Instead, his father convinced him to join his medicine cabinet business, Perma-Bilt.
Simon eventually took control and grew it to be the largest maker of medicine cabinets, vanities and marble countertops.
In 1987, he sold it to an Australian company at a time when Asian manufacturers were making it tougher to compete.
Simon, who had stayed on as a Perma-Bilt director, came up with a plan to compete that was rejected by the new owners. So he took the plan and founded RSI. A few years later Perma-Bilt was out of business.
Philanthropy is big for Simon. His Ronald Simon Family Foundation has awarded more than 425 scholarships valued at about $14 million since 2003.
Simon also supports the arts, healthcare and other causes.
—Michael Lyster
# 15 Vincent “Vinny” Smith Executive chairman, Quest Software Inc.
estimated worth: $625 million
Quest Software Inc.’s former front man is working quietly behind the scenes to guide the company that made him super rich.
Two years ago, Vincent “Vinny” Smith passed on the chief executive title at Quest to Doug Garn, who had been president. Smith now is executive chairman and heads the company’s “strategic direction.”
The Aliso Viejo-based company’s shares are up 25% in the past 12 months. An expected rebound in corporate spending is seen as giving the maker of business software a boost this year.
Smith owns 32 million shares with a recent market value of about $615 million.
We’ve estimated Smith at $625 million this year, up from $425 million on our 2009 list, on Quest’s gains and a revaluation of his worth.
He moved up a spot to No. 15 on OC’s Wealthiest from No. 16 on last year’s list.
Smith had run Quest, which makes software that improves on or helps manage other business programs from Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp. and others, for more than a decade.
He’s a low-key multimillionaire who goes by Vinny and often sports jeans and a cap.
Known as a savvy investor, Smith has said he likes to dabble in various ventures, including real estate and restaurants.
Smith started his career with Oracle after graduating from the University of Delaware in 1986. In 1992, he started San Francisco’s Patrol Software with an Oracle colleague. BMC Software Inc. bought Patrol in 1994.
Smith’s interest in Quest grew through an investment his Insight Capital Partners made in 1995. He took a seat on Quest’s board and gradually became more involved, becoming chief executive in 1997 and chairman a year later.
Smith supports several charitable causes, including the Miocean Foundation, Augie’s Quest for Lou Gehrig’s disease and various kids programs.
—Sarah Tolkoff
# 16 Janie Tsao President, Miven Venture Partners
Victor Tsao General partner, Miven Venture Partners
estimated worth: $550 million
The Tsaos are a working couple, OC’s Wealthiest style.
Victor Tsao scouts the globe for investments, while Janie Tsao holds down the fort at home.
The husband and wife team are spending time and money on venture capital investing, charitable works and other projects via Newport Beach’s Miven Ventures Partners, a $100 million venture fund.
Janie Tsao runs the fund and the couple’s family office from Miven’s headquarters.
“Janie is an integral part of the operations,” Victor Tsao said. “We are still covering each other.”
Miven, which keeps a low profile here, last year invested in early stage companies here and abroad and also in real estate, according to Victor Tsao.
He declined to disclose any recent investments.
Victor Tsao spends a few months of each year on the road, looking for investments in Silicon Valley, China, India, Israel and Vietnam.
A few of Miven’s investments didn’t survive the downturn.
Sunnyvale-based Tzero Technologies Inc. shut down in 2009. India’s TechTribe Networks, a job referral website, is said to be looking for a buyer.
Miven did have a successful exit in January.
Sunnyvale’s ZeroG Wireless Inc. was bought by Arizona’s Microchip Technology Inc. for undisclosed terms.
The Tsaos have cut ties with Cisco Systems Inc., which bought their Linksys Group Inc. for $500 million in 2003.They stayed on for a while after the deal closed, working for Cisco in China.
Cisco largely has absorbed Linksys, a top maker of routers and other home networking gear.
Linksys’ campus near the University of California, Irvine, has become the hub for Cisco’s consumer efforts, which are aimed at spurring sales of the company’s routers and the popular Flip video camera.
Our estimate for the Tsaos is based on the sale to Cisco and other investments they’re said to have made since then. They are believed to have diversified out of most Cisco shares.
We estimate the Tsaos at $575 million, the same as a year ago. With each year that passes after the Linksys sale, it’s tougher to get a good read on the pair’s finances.
Both serve on various advisory boards for startups and continue giving to causes in education and medical research, among others.
Victor Tsao is big on mentoring entrepreneurs in the U.S. and China, where both of the Tsaos were born.
—Sarah Tolkoff
# 17 Howard Ahmanson Jr. Trustee, Fieldstead and Co.
estimated worth: $550 million
Howard Ahmanson, a banking fortune heir known for funding religious and conservative causes, has a new conversation piece.
Late last year, he finished building a home, an Old World-style mansion spanning three lots on Corona del Mar’s Ocean Boulevard.
The 12,000-square-foot home, estimated to be worth about $30 million, is called Casa de Los Peregrinos, or house of the pilgrims. It has a backyard chapel.
The house, with its rustic touches, unique look and stunning ocean views, draws a lot of attention from neighbors and passersby.
It also speaks to the tastes, wealth and idiosyncrasies of its owner.
Ahmanson is a big financier of conservative Christian cultural, religious and political causes.
He gave $1.1 million to support Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California. He’s a board member of Seattle-based Discovery Institute, known for its advocacy of the anti-Charles Darwin theory of intelligent design.
He’s feared by critics on the left who see him as a behind-the-scenes adversary on key issues.
But Ahmanson likely is more complex than some foes make him out to be.
He surprised many in 2009 when he said he registered as a Democrat because he was turned off by the California Republican Party’s sole focus on resisting new taxes.
Ahmanson and wife Roberta do a lot of humanitarian work on race relations, feeding the hungry and other causes.
On the website of Ahmanson’s asset management company, Fieldstead and Co., he writes that he has a “profound interest” in mass transit and he enjoys driving his hybrid car.
Lending to Ahmanson’s mystique is that he’s somewhat reclusive. He suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that results in involuntary body movements and repetitive, compulsive thoughts.
Wife Roberta is a former religion writer for the Orange County Register and author of “Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion.”
We estimate Ahmanson’s wealth at $550 million, about the same as a year ago. He could be richer.
His father, Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Sr., started and grew Home Savings & Loan, which was bought for $10 billion in 1998 by Washington Mutual Inc.
The elder Ahmanson spent much of his later years as a philanthropist, creating the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and the Ahmanson Gallery at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
When Ahmanson Sr. died in 1968, his estate was split between the Ahmanson Foundation and then 18-year-old Howard Ahmanson Jr. Today, the foundation has assets of some $700 million.
We’ve based our conservative estimate of Ahmanson’s wealth on that and tried to factor in money he’s given away.
—Sherri Cruz
# 18 Lynsi Martinez, Owner, president, director, In-N-Out Burgers Inc.
estimated worth: $475 million
Earlier this year Lynsi Martinez, the 28-year-old heiress of Irvine-based In-N-Out Burgers Inc., quietly added an executive title to her position at the beloved burger chain: president.
In January she sent out a message to employees letting them know she was assuming the president’s spot, according to a Wikipedia writeup on her.
The company has confirmed that she took the job from the brother-in-law of one of her half-sisters, Mark Taylor, who now is chief operating officer.
Martinez’s signature now also appears on employee paychecks, according to Wikipedia.
She already had been a director and has been involved in the In-N-Out Foundation, which raises money for underprivileged children.
And she owns the place.
Martinez now owns a third of the trusts holding In-N-Out. In two years, that’s set to grow to half. By 2016, she’s expected to own the entire company.
We estimate her wealth at $475 million, a 10% increase from last year based on growth and expansion plans at In-N-Out, plus the company’s downturn-proof, cult-like following.
We’ve assigned the full value of the In-N-Out trusts to Martinez, presuming she could sell the rights to her inheritance or gain financing based on the wealth coming to her.
Martinez inherited a company with estimated yearly sales of $465 million.
In-N-Out is in the process of expanding into Texas, with plans to open restaurants as well as a processing and distribution center near Dallas as part of its hub-and-spoke strategy.
Up to now, In-N-Out only has opened restaurants within 500 miles of its sole distribution center in Baldwin Park, where butchers mix a proprietary blend of beef from local suppliers.
The move into Texas opens the central part of the country for expansion.
Martinez is the granddaughter of late Harry and Esther Snyder, who founded In-N-Out in 1948 with a restaurant in Baldwin Park.
Rich Snyder, her uncle, ran the company after Harry Snyder died in 1976 at 63.
Rich Snyder died in a 1993 plane crash, putting Martinez’s father Guy Snyder in charge. He died in 1999 of a prescription drug overdose.
Esther Snyder was president until her 2006 death.
The family company had a boardroom brawl in 2005 that drew plenty of headlines. Former executive Richard Boyd sued, alleging Martinez was trying to speed her accession by ousting elderly Esther Snyder.
In-N-Out countersued Boyd for alleged embezzlement and fraud. Both sides settled in 2006.
Martinez is media shy and doesn’t seek attention. She lives with her family in Glendora.
—Michael Volpe
# 19 Anthony Maglica, Founder, president, owner, Mag Instruments Inc.
estimated worth: $400 million
Tony Maglica hasn’t let age keep him from coming up with new ideas for flashlights.
The 79-year-old Anaheim Hills resident heads Ontario-based Mag Instrument Inc., maker of flashlights used by firefighters, police officers and everyday folks alike. He continues to land patents related to flashlights. He holds hundreds in all.
Maglica, who got his start as a machinist, still works on prototypes at Mag’s Ontario plant.
In March, Mag acquired a German provider of rotary transfer machines for metal cutting, Eubama Eugen Bader Maschinebau Gmbh & Co. KG, for an undisclosed amount.
The company is said to be looking at other acquisitions.
We estimated Maglica’s worth at $400 million, unchanged from a year ago.
Mag is presumed to carry a premium, with its niche in high-end flashlights that have a devoted following. Companies such as Energizer Holdings Inc. or Asian rivals could pay top dollar for Mag. The company also could draw interest from private equity buyers.
Maglica shows no interest in selling the company. Two of his sons work at Mag and are likely candidates to take control when he does retire.
Maglica was born in New York and grew up on the island of Zlarin in Croatia after the Great Depression pushed his family to move back to their homeland.
When World War II devastated Croatia, he returned to America and settled in Ontario in the 1950s.
Early on, he worked as a machinist and saved $125 for a down payment on a lathe, which he used to start a machine tool business. He made parts for aerospace and defense contractors, earning a reputation for quality.
He started Mag in 1975. The company’s trademark flashlight was introduced in 1979.
In the 1990s, Maglica went through a high-profile palimony case with former longtime girlfriend Claire Halasz, settling for about $30 million.
—Michael Volpe
# 20 Fariborz Maseeh, Founder, managing principal, Picoco LLC
estimated worth: $375 million
Engineer Fariborz Maseeh made his riches in tiny machines but gives big.
He’s cofounder and former chief executive of IntelliSense Corp., a Massachusetts maker of software for what are known as microelectromechanical systems, or microscopic machines that run on a chip.
MEMs, as they’re called, go into a variety of devices, including pacemakers and aircraft landing gear.
Maseeh ran IntelliSense from 1991 until he sold it to Corning Inc. for about $750 million in two transactions in 1999 and 2000.
Our $375 million estimate for Maseeh is based on the sale and presumption that he exited some of his Corning shares before the stock crashed in 2001. He could be worth more.
Without a good read on his investments, we opted to leave our estimate for him unchanged from a year ago.
Maseeh now runs his own investment firm, Picoco LLC in Newport Beach, which manages several hedge funds and other assets.
He gives via the Massiah Foundation, which makes investments in education, science, healthcare, the arts and humanities.
In December, the foundation gave $4 million to his alma mater, Portland State University in Oregon, which renamed its math and statistics department after him. An earlier $8 million gift landed his name on the school of engineering.
Earlier this year, the foundation started several student awards at Portland State’s school of arts in honor of Maseeh’s late sister, Kamelia Massih.
He also gives to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he did graduate work.
In 2005, he gave $2 million to start the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine.
Last year, Maseeh was awarded the UC Irvine Medal, the school’s highest honor.
He also gives to UCI’s Samueli School of Engineering, named for Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry Samueli, who’s ranks No. 5 on this year’s OC’s Wealthiest.
Maseeh has made some political donations, including to republicans Mitt Romney, John Campbell and to the Iranian-American lobby.
Maseeh’s a member of the Samueli School of Engineering advisory board at UCI and serves on similar boards at Portland State and the University of Southern California.
Maseeh grew up in Tehran and came to the U.S. at age 18.
—Sarah Tolkoff
# 20 Duane Roberts, Chairman, chief executive, Entrepreneurial Corporate Group
estimated worth: $375 million
Duane Roberts, who made an early fortune in food, since has diversified into real estate and other investments.
He’s known in Riverside for saving and restoring the landmark Mission Inn Hotel & Spa.
We estimate Roberts’ wealth at $375 million, down from $400 million a year ago, primarily based on lower valuations for real estate investments.
Besides the Mission Inn, his businesses include British food manufacturers, restaurants and apartments. He lives in Laguna Beach and runs his businesses from Newport Beach-based Entrepreneurial Corporate Group. He also frequents his native Riverside.
In 1950, his dad, Harry Roberts, started Butcher Boy Food Products Inc., a meat company that was a supplier of hamburger patties to the original McDonald’s drive-in and other fast food operators. Roberts dropped out of college to help his dad.
While working at Butcher Boy, Roberts, then 19, came up with what is billed as the first frozen burrito. At 27, Roberts became president and built Butcher Boy to six plants and 1,400 workers.
By the time the family sold the business to Central Soya Inc. in 1980, Butcher Boy had an estimated $85 million in yearly sales. The company later became part of Tyson Foods Inc. before being sold to a private equity group.
Roberts went on to sell another burrito company, Fernando’s Foods, to ConAgra Foods Inc. in the late 1990s for about $35 million in ConAgra stock.
Roberts took his Mexican food fortune and branched out into real estate, as well as banking and other investments.
He’s spread his wealth. Roberts built a 17,000-square-foot pet adoption center named after his mother, the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center. He is a major long-term supporter of Santa Ana-based Olive Crest Children Treatment Centers Inc. He’s given “seven figures” to Pepperdine University, where his stepdaughter went to school.
The Mission Inn, which Roberts saved more than 17 years ago, after it had been closed for 8 years, has been the site of many Republican fundraisers.
—Sherri Cruz
# 22 James Downey, Owner, Wave Equity Partners LLC
estimated worth: $350 million
Jim Downey cashed out in a wave of consolidation in the aerospace industry in the 2000s.
We estimate his wealth at $350 million based on the sale of his C&D Aerospace in Huntington Beach to France’s Zodiac SA for $600 million in 2005.
Our estimate is based on the sale and we tried to factor in other owners and debt. Our figure for Downey could be low.
Childhood friend Toby Crowley was the other founder of C&D, which was launched in 1972.
The company now goes by C&D Zodiac Inc. and makes commercial and military aircraft cabin fixtures, including overhead bins cabin lighting and reinforced cockpit doors.
Downey owns Aliso Viejo investment firm Wave Equity Partners LLC. He keeps a low profile. Since the C&D sale, he’s given millions through his foundations.
His Downey-Short Foundation supports patients undergoing cancer treatment. The James E. Downey Foundation has given scholarships to more than 200 college students in Orange County and Illinois. He also supports education in Brazil.
Downey’s estimated giving through 2010 is $14 million.
—Sherri Cruz
# 23 Peter Cooper, Founder, executive chairman, Cooper and Co.
estimated worth: $325 million
New Zealand native Peter Cooper made a fortune in the U.S. and is putting part of it to work in his homeland.
Cooper, a real estate developer and investor who splits his time between Newport Beach and New Zealand, is leading a massive redevelopment of the rundown waterfront of Auckland’s Britomart precinct.
The project, now in its sixth year, could be the biggest currently being pursued by developers on OC’s Wealthiest. It includes new offices, stores and apartments, and the restoration of historic buildings.
Unlike some other big development projects, there doesn’t appear to be any derailing issues with Britomart. The project has seen changes in financiers, development plans and some retailers. And plans for more extensive apartment development were scaled back.
But, overall, the project continues to move ahead with Cooper in charge.
The big issue now: a hotel to be built in the heart of the historic area.
Last year, Cooper scaled back plans for a hotel, cutting the proposed height in half. But he still faces opposition from critics who say the smaller proposed hotel still is too tall for the area.
We’ve lowered our estimate of Cooper’s wealth based on the real estate downturn in New Zealand and the U.S. That was offset somewhat by the stronger New Zealand dollar, which is up about 10% in the past year against the U.S. dollar.
Newport Beach-based Cooper and Co. develops, manages and owns real estate in the U.S. and New Zealand. Cooper also invests in companies.
In the 1990s, Cooper and partner Brian Stebbins sold a handful of U.S. shopping centers for about $180 million and went on to develop Southlake Town Square, a mall and homes near Dallas.
Cooper also is undertaking a labor of love in his homeland—he’s built a 16,000-square-foot home on 4 acres on the northern coast of New Zealand.
The home is part of Cooper’s Mountain Landing development of custom home sites, which also has been slowed by the downturn.
The son of a truck driver, Cooper studied law in Auckland. He began his career as a real estate lawyer with Russell McVeagh, one of New Zealand’s largest law firms.
He went on to work for Australian beer brewer Lion Nathan Ltd.
Cooper came to the U.S. in 1989 with his wife and five children. He’s a director at Georgetown University.
—Michael Lyster
# 23 Fletcher Ted Jones Jr., Chief executive, president, Fletcher Jones Management Group Inc.
estimated worth: $325 million
Fletcher “Ted” Jones Jr.’s auto empire includes the top Mercedes-Benz dealer in the nation, Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach.
We estimate Jones’ wealth at $325 million, up from $315 million a year ago, given an uptick this year in auto sales, following the worst industry downturn in recent memory.
Our estimate is based on a valuation of Fletcher Jones Management Group Inc. after subtracting a portion for debt and any other owners.
Jones, whose father started in the auto business in 1946, sells Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Toyota and other brands at dealerships in Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada and California. His Fletcher Jones Motorcars is the county’s largest dealership by revenue and second in the country after Longo Toyota in El Monte.
The group has annual sales of about $1.6 billion, with the Newport Beach dealership accounting for $570 million. His most expansive dealership is the 225,000-square-foot Fletcher Jones Imports, a Las Vegas Mercedes dealer modeled after the one in Newport Beach.
Fletcher Jones is renovating and expanding the showroom of its Newport Beach dealership this year.
Fletcher Jones Management is based in Las Vegas. Jones has a home in Peninsula Point in Newport Beach and has an office at Fletcher Jones Motorcars, where general manager Garth Blumenthal oversees day-to-day business.
His dealerships contribute to several charities through sponsorships, its Fletcher Jones School Fund and golf tournaments.
—Sherri Cruz
