Orange County’s 28 wealthiest people count a combined estimated wealth of $33.5 billion, according to the Business Journal’s annual list in this week’s issue.
This year’s group is up from $27.8 billion for the 27 people on our list last year. Combined, 2007’s wealthiest are about as rich as Luxembourg.
Donald Bren, owner of The Irvine Company, makes up nearly a third of the wealth on the list.
At an estimated $10.5 billion, Bren is the richest person the county’s ever seen, surpassing Broadcom Corp. cofounders Henry Samueli and Henry Nicholas, who hit $10 billion apiece at the height of the tech boom.
The list counts nine billionaires, including one dual entry. A year ago, we had eight billionaires on our list.
Rising real estate and stock prices and better accounting on our part drove this year’s higher total.
The list includes two new entries,a combined listing for father and son real estate developers Hadi and Paul Makarechian, and one for SunCal Cos.’ Bruice Elieff, another developer.
Our special report on OC’s Wealthiest starts on page 31*.
To come up with our list, we’ve spent weeks looking into individual holdings, company assets, public records and 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.
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Print edition. Online, click to the Weekly Issue.
