# 21 – Anthony Maglica
Founder, president
Mag Instruments Inc.
Estimated worth: $400 million
The flashlight has been good to Anthony Mag-lica.
The Anaheim Hills resident started Ontario-based flashlight maker Mag Instruments Inc. in 1974 and has grown the brand into a household name sold throughout the world. Its products have gained a following with consumers and professionals, including firefighters and police officers.
A steady stream of new versions—pocket-sized flashlights, rechargeable models and underwater versions—have helped expand the company’s customer base. It now has annual sales of about $150 million.
Mag Instruments expects that to continue with a new line of more powerful LED flashlights, including pro versions of its well known Maglite and Mini Maglite, by the end of the year. Also in the works are a first LED version of the MiniMaglite 2 and Solitaire 1 flashlight, and a compact version of its XL series.
The company prides itself on domestic manufacturing at its plant in Ontario. But business has been tough since the recession, and it has made cuts to its work force since the start of the recession.
Plans to begin operations at an anodizing plant have been delayed partly due to the downturn and partly because of what the company calls uncertainties related to taxes and regulations. For now plans call for MagLite to continue contracting for anodizing services from third parties until the status of the new plant is settled.
We estimate Maglica’s wealth at $400 million, unchanged from last year. That’s based on the so-so performance of stocks and many other asset classes over the last year, as well as the challenging conditions for Mag Instruments, which isn’t quite over the hangover of the recession.
Maglica, born in New York and raised in Croatia, came to the U.S. in 1950. He found a job as a machinist and started the company with $125 of money he saved.
He trademarked Mag Instruments’ first flashlight in 1979.
He remains a true inventor, continues to head up research and development on all Mag products and was issued his 112th patent last month.
—Kari Hamanaka
# 21 – Fariborz Maseeh
Founder, managing principal,
Picoco LLC
Estimated worth: $400 million
Fariborz Maseeh, an engineer-turned-financier, continues to commit more to the fight against autism after establishing the Kids Institute for Development and Advancement in Irvine three years ago.
Earlier this year, the institute relocated from a 10,000-square-foot space to its current 50,000-square-foot home near John Wayne Airport.
The property is touted as the first of its kind for education, therapy and medical support in one location.
“We’re on our way toward achieving our goal of creating a center of excellence for autism treatment that is the best in the world,” said Maseeh, a parent of an autistic child.
The institute last year hosted a national conference on autism at the University of California, Irvine, that focused on families affected by the condition and new technologies to aid treatment.
Maseeh also recently completed another project: renovating the Port Theater in Corona del Mar. He spent more than $1 million renovating the place and hopes to win fans and customers with an approach that’s part art-house sophistication and part community roundtable.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained pioneer in micro-electromechanical systems grew up in Tehran, Iran, and came to the U.S. at age 18. He cashed out of the software company he built with a $750 million sale to Corning Inc. more than a decade ago. Now he manages several hedge funds and other assets through his Picoco LLC in Newport Beach.
Maseeh founded and ran IntelliSense Corp., a Massachusetts-based company that makes software for microscopic machines that run on a chip. MEMs, as they’re called, go into a variety of devices, including pacemakers and aircraft landing gear.
He ran the company from 1991 until the sale to Corning Inc. was completed with the second of two transactions in 2000.
Our $400 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.
A better read on his investments led us to up our estimate by $25 million this year. We assume he had some gains in his portfolio, given the moderate gains in stocks and other asset classes over the last 12 months, and also note that some gifts likely offset a portion.
Maseeh gives via the Massiah Foundation, which makes investments in education, science, healthcare, the arts and humanities.
Recent projects include $24 million to build a new residential complex at MIT. The University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering held the first Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition last year, the result of his $1 million gift to annually recognize the best business plan written by engineering students.
Maseeh has given $12 million to Portland State University in Oregon, where he did undergraduate work. The school of engineering and the math and statistics department there are both named after him.
His foundation also created several student awards at Portland State’s school of arts in honor of Maseeh’s late sister, Kamelia Massih.
Maseeh started the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at University of California, Irvine, and gives to its Samueli School of Engineering. He is a past recipient of the UC Irvine Medal, the school’s highest honor. He also has supported Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
He is a member of the Samueli School of Engineering advisory board at UCI and serves on similar boards at Portland State, MIT and USC. He also is a member of California Council of Science and Technology and serves on engineering advisory boards at Portland State, MIT and USC.
Last year, Maseeh was named a 2011 Distinguished Graduate of the University of Texas’ Cockrell School of Engineering, the school’s highest alumni award. He was elected to be a member of the MIT Corp. in two months ago.
—Chris Casacchia
# 23 – Duane Roberts
Chairman, chief executive
Entrepreneurial Corporate Group
Estimated worth: $375 million
Duane Roberts followed in his father’s footsteps and made his money in food production.
He’s also diversified into real estate and other investment, and become known for saving and restoring the landmark Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside.
We estimate Roberts’ wealth at $375 million—the same as last year—based on outlays for new investments that likely offset moderate gains in stocks and other asset classes and larger gains for holdings in hotter areas, such as apartments.
His real estate holdings beyond the Mission Inn include more than 15,000 apartment units in the Midwest and Southwest, properties he’s been acquiring since 1981.
His other businesses include British food manufacturers, restaurants, and Casey’s Cupcakes, a family owned chain of cupcake stores that’s operated by his step daughter, Casey Reinhardt, and his wife, Kelly Roberts.
Casey’s Cupcakes has four stores—one at the Mission Inn and others in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Irvine. It also operates kiosks at UC Riverside, among other places.
He lives in Laguna Beach and runs his businesses from Newport Beach-based Entrepreneurial Corporate Group. He also frequents his native Riverside.
Roberts’ dad, Harry Roberts, started Butcher Boy Food Products Inc. in 1950. The company 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.
Roberts was 19 and working at Butcher Boy when he came up with what is billed as the first frozen burrito. He became president of the company at 27, and built Butcher Boy to six plants and 1,400 workers. It had an estimated $85 million in yearly sales by the time the family sold the business to Central Soya Inc. in 1980.
Roberts went on to sell another burrito company, Fernando’s Foods, to Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Foods Inc. in the late 1990s for about $35 million in ConAgra stock. He then got into real estate, banking and other investments.
He has 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 and stepson, Doug Reinhardt, went to school.
The Mission Inn, which Roberts acquired in 1992 after it had been closed for eight years, has been the site of many Republican fundraisers.
—Sherri Cruz
# 23 – Stacey E. Nicholas
Estimated worth: $275 million
Stacey E. Nicholas is the former wife of Henry Nicholas, and much of her wealth stems from the couple’s divorce settlement.
She initially was co-trustee of the Nicholas Broadcom Trust, which included about 26.2 million Broadcom Corp. shares, which are down by about 13% over the last year.
Her ex-husband is now the sole trustee.
The Business Journal estimates her worth at $275 million, down from $300 million a year ago.
That’s based on property and assets she retained from her 20-plus-year marriage to Nicholas, cofounder and former chief executive of Broadcom.
Stacey (maiden name Feller) married Nicholas in 1987.
She first filed for divorce in 2002, a year before her husband stepped down as Broadcom’s chief executive.
The divorce became final in 2008.
Stacey holds a bachelor’s degree and masters in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
She was an electrical engineer at the now-defunct defense contractor TRW Corp., where she met Nicholas.
TRW was also where Nicholas met Broadcom cofounder Henry Samueli.
—Chris Casacchia
# 25 – William Wang
Founder, chief executive
Vizio Inc.
Estimated worth: $275 million
William Wang has made good on his word to grow Irvine-based Vizio Inc. into a diversified consumer electronics company.
Vizio, which built its name selling quality flat TVs for less than its big-name rivals, debuted its first line of PCs in June. It enters the fray amid an industry push to produce thinner and lighter desktops and notebooks, commonly referred to as ultrabooks. They arrived just ahead of the upcoming launch of Windows 8, a new operating system from Microsoft, which could help boost sales as customers consider upgrades.
Vizio is using a blueprint for PCs similar to its one for TVs, inking deals with Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco and Amazon.com as it competes in another crowded field of established competitors.
It also expects to continue a push in the tablet market after last year’s debut of an 8-inch model for about $300. The company said it gained experience developing its first generation tablet and has plans to introduce newer versions.
Vizio’s TVs account for the bulk of Vizio’s estimated $3 billion in annual sales, even as it makes strides in other segments. The market is now mature after big gains helped by the shift to HD.
The company has taken away business from big-name rivals, including Samsung Group, Sony Corp. and Funai Electric Corp., which sells sets under the Philips brand in the U.S. It recently regained the U.S. market share lead for LCD flat TVs—the most popular model, by far—surpassing Samsung, which had held the title for most of 2011. Vizio also has taken the top spot among sellers of sound bars in the U.S., a position it achieved shortly after it moved into accessories. It’s held the spot for the past year or so.
Overall sales of flat TVs are expected to decline 5% to 37.1 million units in the U.S. this year, according Englewood, Colo.-based market tracker IHS Inc. That would mark the first drop since flat TVs debuted more than a decade ago.
We estimated Wang’s worth at $275 million, the same as last year, based on the maturing market for TVs and the investments it’s made in desktops and ultrabooks, which likely offset any significant revenue gains there.
That’s our conservative guess since Wang’s exact ownership stake, Vizio’s profits and other variables aren’t known.
—Chris Casacchia
# 26 – Rick Aversano
Cofounder, director
Qtera Corp.
Estimated worth: $275 million
Rick Aversano has once again kept a low profile here while weighing in on the national political scene as a hefty donor.
Aversano spends much of his time these days supporting the arts and other philanthropic endeavors in Orange County.
He and his wife also support Democrats here and elsewhere, including President Barack Obama, Loretta Sanchez and California Attorney General Kamala Harris. They also support the Democratic National Committee.
Aversano gave some $50,000 to Obama’s inauguration bash in 2009. He’s sent more than $65,000 to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint effort with the DNC, in the past year. He’s also donated to Democratic congressional candidates from Massachusetts to Hawaii, along with Act Blue, a political action committee associated with the party.
Aversano’s wealth comes from his business ventures before he came to Orange County. He was part of a group that sold Boca Raton, Fla.-based Qtera Corp. to Nortel Networks Corp. for more than $3 billion in 2000. Qtera now operates as a Durham, N.C.-based subsidiary of Nortel.
Aversano and his cofounders struck it rich on Qtera—originally known as NextNet Technologies Inc.—before they ever sold a product after developing a way to boost the distance and speed of data over fiber optic cables, which was key to Nortel’s networking gear.
Aversano—who graduated from University of California, Los Angeles, with a double major in psychology and sociology—brokered the Nortel deal.
We estimate his wealth at $275 million, the same as last year.
That’s largely based on his Qtera stake at the time of the sale. We presume he sold at least some of his Nortel stock before it crashed in 2001.
The Aversanos sold the Port Theater in Corona del Mar to Fariborz Maseeh for about $3 million in 2007. They sold a nearby home for about $27 million a year later.
Getting a read on Aversano’s investments and worth since then has become more difficult with each passing year, as he remains away from the spotlight. That, along with the last year of modest gains for stocks and many other asset classes, figures into our estimate for him this year.
Aversano is now partly retired, overseeing investments and philanthropy.
He and his wife have a passion for community theater and support the Barclay Theater, the South Coast Repertory and Laguna Playhouse. They also give to the Laguna Art Museum and Olive Crest, as well as environmental groups, including the Surfrider Foundation, ocean conservation group Oceana and the Crystal Cove Alliance, which seeks to protect Crystal Cove State Park.
—Staff report
# 27 – Robert Hoff
General partner
Crosspoint Venture Partners
Estimated worth: $275 million
Venture capitalist Bob Hoff was again difficult to read, but he remains on the list based on prior indications from trusted sources.
We’ve figured him even with last year at $275 million, which reflects the tepid gains of stocks and many other asset classes over the past year—and also acknowledges that we don’t have a full handle on his business.
Hoff is semi-retired but still serves as general partner at the Irvine office of Woodside-based Crosspoint Venture Partners, a position he’s held since he opened the firm’s Orange County office in 1983.
Crosspoint is a venture fund with about $2 billion of capital.
The firm has invested in or managed more than 200 new businesses, according to its website.
Crosspoint typically invests up to $40 million per project, with a focus on early-stage companies, mainly network-based service businesses, vertical service providers and broadband infrastructure companies.
It also has late-stage funds, set apart for making follow-on investments of up to $10 million on portfolio companies.
It appears the firm hasn’t been accepting new project proposals since 2005.
Hoff has been actively involved as an investor and board member in various companies throughout his career.
Some of the public companies he’s invested in and sold include PairGain Technologies, which was sold to ADC Telecommunications Inc. in 2000 for $1.6 billion; and Efficient Networks, sold to Siemens in 2001 for $1.5 billion. They haven’t all been big: Com21 Inc. fell into bankruptcy before a fire sale that sent its cable modem termination system assets to Arris for just $2.8 million in 2003.
Hoff was president of the small-business investment company Marwit Capital Corp. in Newport Beach for about five years prior to launching Crosspoint’s local outfit. He also has spent time at GE as an executive earlier in his career.
Hoff currently sits on advisory boards of Newport Beach-based private equity firm Solis Capital Partners and Miramar Venture Partners in Corona del Mar. Solis earlier this year started a second fund, Solis II, and invests in companies ranging from $15 million to $150 million in annual revenue. Its first investment was a substantial stake in gen-E, a software company in San Clemente.
Hoff also advises Encore Housing Opportunity Funds, a distressed real estate investor based in San Francisco.
He’s known as a fan of snowsports and has been an active trustee of the Park City, Utah-based U.S. Ski and Snowboard Foundation since 2003.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., and an MBA from Harvard.
—Jane Yu
# 27 – Joan Irvine Smith
Heiress, philanthropist
Estimated wealth: $275 million
Joan Irvine Smith, great-granddaughter of James Irvine, the Irvine Ranch founder, is one of the county’s major givers to education, the arts and environmental causes.
She’s got another project on her hands these days, with the The Oaks, a San Juan Capistrano farm that’s housed her world-class jumping-horse-breeding operation for more than 25 years, still on the market. The place, which is listed for $20 million with Teles Properties’ McMonigle Group, includes stables, training areas and 200-year-old oak trees on just more than 20 acres.
Smith announced the move to sell The Oaks last year, and said she planned to scale back her commitments.
The Oaks has drawn interest from some developers, and there’s been some talk that as many as 35 homes could be built on the 10 acres that are zoned for residential use.
Smith has said she’s looking for a wealthy buyer who would want to bring horses to The Oaks.
We estimate Smith’s wealth at $275 million. That is unchanged from last year, due largely to the tepid gains for stocks and many other asset classes over the past 12 months.
She traces her fortune to her great-grandfather, who struck it rich during the Gold Rush of 1849. James Irvine and three partners bought 120,000 acres of land, which made up about a quarter of Orange County at the time.
James Irvine II, Smith’s grandfather, incorporated the holdings as Irvine Land Co. in the 1890s.
A group including Donald Bren acquired control of what later became the Irvine Company in 1977. Bren became sole owner in 1996.
Bren paid Smith and her mother, Athalie Clarke, $256 million for their Irvine Co. shares in 1991.
Smith and Bren are cordial, sharing a passion for the environment and preserving parts of the Irvine Ranch as open space.
Smith also championed the University of California, Irvine School of Law, which opened in 2009. She donated $1 million to the school.
Her other passions include politics.
Smith, an ardent Democrat, has given to Hillary Clinton, Loretta Sanchez, the late Ted Kennedy and others.
—Vita Reed
# 27 – Gary Jabara
Founder and chief executive
Mobilitie LLC
Estimated worth: $275 million
A blockbuster sale of a portion of Newport Beach-based telecom and real estate company Mobilitie LLC’s assets early this year helped cement a spot for Gary Jabara among OC’s wealthiest this year.
We’ve estimated Jabara’s wealth at $275 million this year, based on publicly disclosed information and discussions with sources close to Jabara, a former partner at Deloitte who founded Mobilitie about six years ago.
Mobilitie (pronounced “mobility”) became one of the country’s fastest-growing owners of cell phone towers over that time, with a portfolio of several thousand towers. Those towers in turn are leased to wireless customers such as T-Mobile USA Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp., AT&T Inc. and Clearwire Corp.
Each carrier pays on average a few thousand dollars per month per tower.
A sale of 2,300 cell-phone towers to Boca Raton, Fla.-based competitor SBA Communications Corp., first announced in February, helped put a figure on the value of the company’s assets.
SBA paid about $1.1 billion for the assets—described by Jabara as only “a portion” of Mobilitie’s portfolio—and said the towers would generate about $75 million in cash flow for the company this year.
Jabara said the proceeds from the sale would largely be used to pay off debt and reinvest in the company. One unnamed equity partner cashed out its stake in the company after the sale. Backers in Mobilitie have included Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management LP.
Jabara clearly has some money to spend after the sale. Initial plans called for Jabara to put some of his money in traditional real estate properties like apartments, hotels and offices.
The past few months have seen Jabara’s name tied to more high-profile investment; he was in the running to buy the San Diego Padres. Jabara was believed to be the largest single investor in any of the groups bidding for the baseball team, expected to sell in the $800 million range.
Jabara has said he’d be interested in other baseball teams within a short plane ride—the Oakland Athletics and Arizona Diamondbacks would both fit the bill—as a potential buy if a deal to buy the Padres doesn’t pan out. His athletic-related spending in OC has been more charity-driven: he’s given $1 million to Sage Hill School in Newport Coast to renovate its athletic field.
—Mark Mueller
# 27 – John L. Curci
Curci Cos.
Estimated wealth: $250 million
John L. Curci keeps a low public profile as the patriarch of a family that counts as old money in OC. The family has widespread interests that include a leading role in the development of the Palm Springs area as a resort center, along with holdings in industrial property throughout Southern California, according to sources with knowledge of the holdings.
A big piece of the family’s wealth is said to stem from the 23 or so acres owned by Lido Peninsula Co., which has manufactured houses that have been developed and sold with ground leases. Notable tenants on the land include the Lido Yacht Anchorage and drystack, along with the well-known Sabatino’s Sausage Co.
Early and longstanding investments in Ed Roski’s Majestic Realty Co. also are said to have bolstered the family’s holdings over the years.
The Curci fortune started with John L. Curci’s late father, also named John, who’s said to have begun buying land in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“Buying land in California is smart if you’ve got staying power,” the elder Curci was fond of saying, according to sources familiar with the family.
He went on to play a key role in the development of La Quinta Country Club, Indian Wells Country Club and Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, according to various reports.
The annual Bob Hope Classic at La Quinta has a field named after the elder Curci, who is listed with Desi Arnaz among the founders of Indian Wells in various reports.
His son, John L. Curci, and the rest of the clan carry little debt and have maintained an impeccable reputation in the business world, according to familiar sources.
The next generation continues to bring variety to the family business, with a son of John L.—another John—running Dbac Inc., one of the largest tenant-improvement contractors in OC.
It’s unknown how the wealth is apportioned among generations, and our estimate for John L.Curci could be low.
He is a former member of the board of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, and gives through family foundations, among other organizations.
—Jerry Sullivan
# 27 – Toshiaki Ogasawara
Chairman
Nifco Inc., Nifsan Pty. Ltd., Japan Times, Simmons Co.
Estimated wealth: $250 million
The Australian business press regularly refers to Toshiaki Ogasawara—who earlier this year plunked down nearly $20 million to win an auction for the unfinished One Pelican Hill North in Newport Coast—as a billionaire.
We’re not sure if he’s got that much, but we’re confident he hits the $250 million minimum for this list—and would not be surprised if he’s much higher.
Ogasawara founded developer Nifsan Pty. Ltd. in 1991, and has extensive holdings in Australia, including a $1 billion masterplanned development called Emerald Lakes on the Gold Coast, north of Sydney.
The place is expected to have 1,800 apartments when completed, and already features “an 18-hole championship golf course, 13 kilometers of walking and bike tracks, buggy access to the golf course and club house, a lake, a vibrant retail and commercial precinct, as well as some of the Gold Coast’s finest restaurants,” according to promotional material.
Real estate is a secondary career. Ogasawara has been a top executive with Nifco Inc., a leading maker of plastic parts and components in Japan, serving as president from its founding 1967 until becoming chairman in 2001. He took the title of honorary chairman in 2008. The company had about $1.5 billion in revenue and $86 million in earnings last year.
He’s also chairman of Simmons Co. in Japan, which has the Far Eastern franchise rights for mattress marketer Simmons USA, with operations in 18 countries in Asia. He holds the same title with the Japan Times Ltd., publisher of the oldest English-language newspaper there. He acquired the publication in 1983 and ran it for 20 years. A daughter now is in charge.
Ogasawara doesn’t live in OC full time, but One Pelican is his second home here, so we’re giving him local status.
He’s a graduate of from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, and has honorary doctorates from the University of South Florida and Florida State.
He’s survived both throat and prostate cancer, and is a big supporter of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and Cedars Sinai in L.A. A recent profile in the Hoag Foundation magazine said he spends a lot of time “shuttling between Tokyo and the U.S., scheduling his visits to California to enable various medical appointments and procedures at his preferred hospital—Hoag.”
—Jerry Sullivan
# 33 – Mark Wetterau
Chairman, chief executive
Golden State Foods Corp.,
Wetterau Associates LLC
Estimated wealth: $250 million
Mark Wetterau’s main calling card is chairman, chief executive and majority owner of Irvine-based Golden State Foods Corp., which manufactures and distributes liquid and meat products, produce, bakery and other items to McDonald’s Corp. and more than 50 restaurant chains worldwide. Wetterau owns a majority of the company through St. Louis-based Wetterau Associates, a family company he runs with brother Conrad.
Mark Wetterau started his career in 1980 with St. Louis-based Wetterau Inc., a food maker and distributor founded by his great-grandfather. The Laguna Niguel resident rose through the ranks of the publicly traded company to become president in 1990. Two years later, he oversaw the sale of Wetterau Inc. to Minneapolis-based SuperValu Stores Inc. for $1.1 billion.
Wettrau Associates joined with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. to buy Golden State Foods in a 1998 deal estimated by industry observers at $400 million. Wetterau Associates bought out Yucaipa Cos. 50.3% stake in 2004 on undisclosed terms.
Golden State Foods had $2 billion in annual sales at that point, according to industry estimates. It racked up an estimated $5.4 billion in sales last year, a 17% annual increase.
Mark Wetterau’s personal wealth is difficult to figure, given family ties that extend to business, and our estimate here is likely conservative.
His specific stake in Golden State Foods is not publicly known, but he’s believed to have a controlling interest.
He also has controlling interests in Quality Beverage, the largest independently owned distributor in Massachusetts for Anheuser-Busch; Consolidated Beverage, another distributor for the brewer in the state; Lucia’s Pizza Co. in St. Louis, which sells regional, branded private-label pizzas to supermarkets; and Argos Partners, a wealth management firm that’s also in St. Louis.
Wetterau and his management team established the GSF Foundation to serve children in 2002. It makes donations to local charities nominated by Golden State Foods, including the Ronald McDonald House Charities. The Foundation has raised more than $22 million overall.
He’s served on boards of various community organizations ranging from the St. Louis Council of the Boy Scouts of America to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.
—Jerry Sullivan
