Orange County’s 32 wealthiest people count a combined estimated worth of $34.5 billion, according to the Business Journal’s annual list in this week’s issue.
The group is expanded from last year’s 28 people, who were estimated at $33.5 billion. This year’s bigger group didn’t gain much on 2007’s as the real estate downturn lowered or checked valuations for many.
Donald Bren, owner of The Irvine Company, makes up nearly a third of the wealth on the list at an estimated $10.5 billion.
There are seven newcomers, including developer and investor Peter Cooper and In-N-Out Burgers Inc. heiress Lynsi Martinez, who at 26 is the youngest on our list.
Our special report on OC’s Wealthiest starts on this edition’s
To come up with our list, we’ve spent weeks looking into individual holdings, company assets, public records, press clippings and talking with trusted sources.
Like the Forbes 400 and similar listings, our numbers are conservative, ballpark figures. We’ve sought to catalog assets, factor in debt, determine the cost of exercising stock options and account for other factors.
We’ve done our best to track down who we believe are OC’s wealthiest people. But we are sure to have missed some. We look forward to comments on those we may have overlooked.
