JIM GLIDEWELL
FOUNDER/PRESIDENT
GLIDEWELL LABORATORIES
WHY: Founder of largest dental firm based in Orange County, with 4K employees, including 1.5K in Irvine. Has given CEO role to Stephenie Goddard.
IN THE NEWS: Newport Beach-based provider of surgical and restorative dental implants partnered with Swiss-based implant company TRI. Partnership gives TRI customers access to Glidewell’s dental lab.
NOTABLE: Author of “Constant Change; Adventures in Business and Life.”
QUOTABLE: “My dad was raised in backwater Kentucky—the kind of place where travel is not an option, where land is passed down through the generations and where families bury their dead in the front yard… I was deeply shaped by those early years growing up with my grandparents, living without electricity, and then later living with my father and stepmother in Las Vegas. I watched my father’s frugal demeanor. In many ways, these early years determined my work ethic. My father never needed to lecture me about a man’s sweat and tears, or about the value of a dollar. He was very hard working…” — Leader Board
