Nine members of the Business Journal’s annual OC’s Wealthiest list were included in the recent Forbes 400 list, which ranks and profiles the wealthiest Americans by estimated net worth.
The Business Journal list, published in August, featured 38 entries from across the county, with a minimum net worth of $250 million. The Forbes list had a threshold of $1.55 billion.
• Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren was No. 1 on the Business Journal list, with an estimated net worth of $15 billion. He made the Forbes list at No. 31, with $15.1 billion in net worth.
• Igor Olenicoff, founder and owner of Newport Beach-based Olen Properties, was No. 2 on the Business Journal list, with an estimated $3.2 billion in wealth. Forbes ranked him No. 167 based on an estimate of $3.3 billion.
• We ranked David Sun and John Tu, co-owners of Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Inc., No. 3, with an estimated $3.1 billion each. Forbes gave Sun and Tu a boost of $800 million each this year, arriving at $4.8 billion each. That was good for the No. 104 seat, up from No. 110 last year.
• Forbes ranked Oakley Inc. founder Jim Jannard No. 190, with an estimated fortune of $3 billion. He founded the Foothill Ranch-based sunglasses company and Irvine-based Red Digital Cinema Camera Co. and was No. 5 on the Business Journal list, with an estimated $2.4 billion in wealth.
• We had Bill Gross—former chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. and now a fund manager at Janus Capital Group—tied at No. 5 with Jannard on our list, with an estimated wealth of $2.4 billion. Forbes put Gross’ fortune at $2.3 billion, good for No. 272 on its list.
• We also estimated $2.4 billion in wealth for Henry Samueli, cofounder of chipmaker Broadcom Corp. in Irvine. Forbes ranked Samueli at No. 284, with $2.2 billion in net worth.
• Real estate developer and investor George Argyros was No. 8 on the Business Journal list, with $2.1 billion. Forbes had the same estimate for Argyros and ranked him at No. 302.
• Henry Nicholas III was a newcomer to the Forbes 400 list. The Broadcom cofounder came in at No. 383, with an estimated $1.6 billion. We ranked Nicholas No. 9, with an estimated fortune of $1.7 billion.
Forbes maintains real-time rankings of the 400 individuals on its website. The standings have continually changed based on market movements.
