Donald Bren
Owner, chairman, The Irvine Company
Estimated worth: $8.7 billion
No one benefited from the surging commercial real estate market last year more than Don Bren.
In the past year, Bren bought key office buildings in Orange County and San Diego, and is reported to have struck a deal in San Francisco. Locally, his company started building a handful of towers.
The moves,and a big jump in prices for office buildings,were a key driver in this year’s estimate for Bren. Our figure is 8% higher than last year, given an average 12% rise in office prices. We’ve factored in debt incurred in buys and construction costs.
Even so, our number still is conservative. An aggressive estimate easily could peg Bren at $10 billion or more. Either way, Bren is the richest real estate owner among the Forbes 400 (even by Forbes’ more conservative $5.7 billion estimate for him).
By our count, Bren’s more than three times wealthier than the other Donald, Donald Trump.
Just about all of Bren’s holdings rose in value in the past year.
Bren owns a lot,land, apartments, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels, golf courses, even marinas. Most of it is in OC, where The Irvine Company is the county’s biggest landowner and landlord.
His holdings also include office buildings and apartments in San Diego, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.
Bren’s real estate empire is unrivaled for an individual in California, and perhaps the country.
The Irvine Co. owns more than 400 office buildings, 35 shopping centers and 80 apartment complexes.
Commercial real estate holdings span more than an estimated 30 million square feet of offices and shopping centers.
Among Bren’s holdings: parts of the 5,000-acre Irvine Spectrum and Newport Center, half of the 185-acre University Research Park next to the University of California, Irvine, and all of Fashion Island, Jamboree Center, MacArthur Court and the Island Hotel Newport Beach.
Rent from offices, apartments and shopping centers has been estimated at around $1.5 billion yearly. Land sales and development push annual revenue to an estimated $2.3 billion.
In recent years, land,or, more specifically, lots sold to homebuilders and commercial developers,drove increases in Bren’s estimated wealth. Land sales again factored into our number this year.
But Bren’s renewed interest in office buildings gained the most attention. Early this year, he spent close to $1 billion on OC and San Diego trophy towers.
And the company is said to be in escrow on a San Francisco tower that houses JP Morgan Chase. The reported price: $400 million.
Bren’s paid top dollar for all of his recent building buys, including close to $385 per square foot for Newport Beach’s Newport Gateway, a near record for the county. He paid a record-shattering $500 per square foot in San Diego.
The company says it got premium buildings that are nearly full at a time when rents are rising.
And Bren is building. The Irvine Co. is putting up the company’s first office towers in more than 15 years. In April, construction started on 20-40 Pacifica, twin 15-story towers next to Irvine Spectrum Center.
A fifth office building at the recently acquired Irvine Towers project is well under way. Another 12-story office building is planned at Jamboree Center nearby in Irvine.
Construction also continues for 700,000 square feet of buildings at University Research Park in Irvine for Broadcom Corp.
As for land, we figure the Irvine Co. could have 20,000 to 25,000 housing lots to sell or develop as apartments in the next couple decades.
The biggest remaining community development for Bren is the balance of Irvine’s Northern Sphere, which eventually could include 12,000 homes and apartments.
The company also is set to develop in East Orange and Anaheim Hills.
Bren’s undeveloped land is estimated at 25,000 acres in OC, though probably half of that is developable. He’s set aside more than half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch as parks, trails and open space.
OC has been a big beneficiary of Bren’s wealth.
Most recently, Irvine schools got a $20 million gift. Bren gave the money to hire more teachers specializing in arts, music and science. He’s also given $1 million to the Think Together after school program in Santa Ana.
Last year, Bren pledged $20 million to support the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust. In all, he’s given $50 million for conservation and to improve public access to the 50,000-acre land preserve that stretches from the hills to the Pacific Ocean.
In 2003, Bren gave $20 million to the University of California, Irvine’s computer school. He’s given about $42 million to UC Irvine in all, and has endowed more distinguished faculty chairs at the University of California than any other donor, earning him the University of California Presidential Medal in 2004.
,Mark Mueller
Roland Arnall
Owner, ACC Capital Holdings Corp.
U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands
Estimated worth: $1.8 billion
Roland Arnall’s estimated wealth declined in the past year with a slowdown in the mortgage industry.
We’ve pegged Ar-nall’s worth to be down $300 million from last year’s list, the biggest drop of anyone on our list. Our estimate is based on a recently published financial statement that showed big declines in business at ACC Capital Holdings Corp., parent of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and other businesses.
Profits at ACC Capital dropped 81% to $257 million last year from their 2004 peak. Revenue fell 11% to $4.1 billion.
The company has ceded market share as it shifted to a new business model, according to Chief Executive Aseem Mital. The company planned for a slowdown with the restructuring, according to Mital, who said he expects to see growth next year.
We came up with our estimate for Arnall by looking at the company’s profit last year and comparing it to that of publicly traded rival Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. and its market value.
Arnall is the sole owner of ACC Capital, which also owns Argent Mortgage Co., AMC Mortgage Services and Town & Country Credit.
The company also runs an automobile finance unit, Long Beach Acceptance Corp.
Arnall has other investments in oil and gas exploration, real estate, technology and insurance.
He stepped down as co-chair of Ameriquest’s holding company in October to become President Bush’s ambassador to the Netherlands. Wife Dawn now is chair of ACC Capital.
Like some others on our list, Arnall doesn’t live in Orange County but derives his wealth from here.
As ambassador, he now calls the Netherlands home. He owns a home in Holmby Hills, where he and wife Dawn paid $30 million in 2002 for Engelbert Humperdinck’s 10-acre compound. In 2004, the Arnalls paid $46 million for a 650-acre Aspen, Colo., getaway estate.
Arnall’s politics are decidedly Republican these days, though his giving has spanned both sides of the aisle.
Born in Paris, Arnall came to California by way of Montreal. He’s a big charitable giver. The Arnalls support Olive Crest Homes and Services for Abused Children, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, among others. He also is the founding co-chairman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance.
HENRY NICHOLAS
Cofounder, Broadcom Corp.
Estimated worth: $1.6 billion
HENRY SAMUELI
Cofounder, chairman,
chief technical officer,
Broadcom Corp.
Estimated worth: $1.55 billion
The stock market was kind and cruel to the founders of Broadcom Corp. in the past year.
In spring, Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli, dominant owners of the chipmaker, saw their wealth nearly double from a year before as Broadcom’s stock soared to levels not seen since the early part of the decade.
But the shares took a steep slide in the past few months. The company was caught up in the stock options backdating controversy, which delayed Broadcom’s full second-quarter earnings report in July.
The pair ended up losing more ground than they gained in the past year. All told, they ended up with a combined $3.2 billion, down 13% from a year ago.
Our estimate is based on their Broadcom shares and years of stock sales. Both men have been diversifying out of Broadcom. Samueli cut his stake from 9% in 2005 to 7.5% today. Nicholas cut his from 8.7% to 7.3%.
Nicholas and Samueli control about 60% of the voting stock of the company they started in 1991. During the tech boom, their stakes made them the richest people in OC, eclipsing Don Bren for a time.
As with prior years, we value Nicholas slightly higher based on what our sources have told us are good investments in real estate and other areas. And while both are generous donors, Samueli has given away more money, becoming one of the nation’s top philanthropists.
Since leaving Broadcom, Nicholas has kept a relatively low profile, though his wealth, ambition and engineering expertise prompt speculation about what he’ll do next.
Nicholas has distanced himself from the company but still plays a role in Broadcom. He’s said to get product briefings and had a hand in the company’s chief executive search, which brought current boss Scott McGregor.
Samueli and wife Susan made a big buy last year, paying Walt Disney Co. about $75 million for the Anaheim Ducks hockey team. They also own the management company that runs the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, soon to be Honda Center.
Both dabble in politics. In 2004, Nicholas gave $3.3 million to help defeat Proposition 66, which would have weakened California’s three-strikes law. Samueli has given primarily to Republicans and some Democrats.
Nicholas and Samueli first worked together at TRW Inc. designing chips for the military. They later joined Tustin-based PairGain Technologies Inc., now part of ADC Telecommunication Inc.
A former Air Force Academy student, Nicholas was Samueli’s first doctorate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, before turning business partner.
Samueli is revered as a visionary, an engineering genius. He’s given generously to the University of California’s Irvine and Los Angeles campuses, which renamed their engineering schools after him. In all, Samueli’s given more than $150 million in charitable gifts in the past decade.
Nicholas also has donated to UC Irvine and other causes, including a $10 million donation in 2004 to St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, which his kids attend.
,Brian Womack
George Argyros
Chairman, chief executive, Arnel & Affiliates;
Limited partner, Westar Capital LLC
Estimated worth: $1.3 billion
The real estate side of George Argyros’ portfolio drove an increase in his estimated worth in the past year.
Argyros owns apartments, offices, industrial buildings, shopping centers and stocks.
His shares in Santa Ana’s First American Corp. and Kansas City, Mo.-based DST Systems Inc. went in different directions in the past year, making for a wash.
Real estate was a different story. Like others on the list, Argyros saw gains in apartments, stores, offices and warehouses that he owns. Our estimate for him is 8% higher than a year ago.
About half of Argyros’ worth is tied to real estate. He owns about 5,200 apartments, which by all accounts are thriving.
In all, Argyros’ Arnel & Affiliates in Costa Mesa owns more than 2 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space. Among them: the 280,000-square-foot Metro Pointe in Costa Mesa and the 356,000-square-foot Puente Hills Business Center in Industry.
Argyros, a longtime force in local real estate, is undertaking several projects since returning to OC in 2004 from Spain, where he served as U.S. ambassador.
He’s also the financial backer of Westar Capital LLC, a Costa Mesa venture capital firm. Investments include pet products maker Doskocil Manufacturing Co., cooler maker Igloo Products Corp. and home healthcare company LifeCare Solutions.
His ambassador appointment topped years of Republican fund raising, including $30 million for the 2000 Bush campaign.
Born in Detroit and raised in Pasadena, Argyros graduated from Chapman University in 1959 with a major in business and economics. He also is a grad of Michigan State University. He served as chairman of Chapman’s board of trustees from 1976 until his appointment and is the school’s leading benefactor. He rejoined as a trustee upon his return.
Argyros has been charitable. He’s a major giver to Chapman, where the business school, student center and Argyros Forum bear his name. He recently helped wounded Iraq soldiers with a $5 million pledge for college scholarships.
,Mark Mueller
WILLIAM GROSS
Cofounder, chief investment officer, managing director,
Pacific Investment
Management Co.
Estimated worth: $1.1 billion
Bill Gross is the bond billionaire.
The driving investment force behind Newport Beach’s Pacific Investment Management Co. is worth an estimated $1.1 billion by our account, up slightly from last year.
We based our revised estimate on Gross’ renewed contract with Pimco (he could be the highest paid executive in Orange County)
and his 2000 payout when German insurer Allianz bought Pimco for $3.3 billion in 2000. Gross owned an estimated 10% stake of the company.
After Allianz bought the 34-year-old company, it offered Gross a $200 million, five-year deal to stay on. Add to that dividend payments Gross received before Pimco was sold,he is said to have received $1 million every quarter.
In June, Pimco Chief Executive William Thomson told investment newsletter Pensions & Investments that Gross would be renewing his contract, due to expire next May. Gross is expected to re-up for at least two more years.
The mustachioed 62-year-old has earned returns that have vaulted his bond funds to the top of their classes nearly every year, according to mutual fund research firm Morningstar Inc.
Returns have been steady for Gross as manager of the $95 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world’s largest bond fund. Morningstar estimates the fund has managed returns of more than 5.4% annually in the past five years and 7.4% last year.
As Pimco’s chief investment officer, Gross and his team manage $617 billion in assets.
Gross has come a long way since the day three decades ago when he put a card on a bulletin board at a Mission Viejo Albertson’s grocery store offering to manage money.
He was a leader in the formation of Pimco Advisors in 1994, which spun off from Pacific Mutual Life Insurance (now Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Insurance Co.). Pacific Life still retains a 3% stake.
He and his wife Sue Gross, who live in Laguna Beach, are generous philanthropists.
In July, the couple gave a $10 million grant to the University of California, Irvine, for stem cell research.
The women’s pavilion at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian bears the couple’s name after they gave $20 million toward its construction. They’ve also pledged $23.5 million to Duke University in Durham, N.C., to endow scholarships for undergraduate and medical students.
,Pat Maio
Igor Olenicoff
Owner, founder, president,
Olen Properties Corp.
Estimated worth: $1 billion
We’ve made Igor Olenicoff a billionaire this year, based on higher prices for office buildings, shopping centers and apartments, and input from sources.
As with others on our list, Olenicoff likely is worth more.
Our estimate for Olenicoff is up 25% from a year ago, partly due to higher real estate prices and a re-evaluation on our part.
Olenicoff owns 11,000 apartments in South Florida, Phoenix and Las Vegas. The apartments alone could be worth $2 billion before debt.
And more are in the works. Olenicoff wants to build up to 2,000 apartments in the popular commercial hub near John Wayne Airport, including up to two eight-story towers.
Along with apartments, Olenicoff owns close to 6.2 million square feet of office space, much of it in Orange County.
His most recent major office deal was out of state, buying Chicago’s One South Dearborn tower. The price is a reported $362 million. The roughly $430 per square foot is among the highest for a Chicago tower.
It’s the second big office deal Olenicoff has made in recent years. In 2005, he paid about $130 million for a pair of 13-story office towers on Main Street in Irvine.
Olenicoff recently finished putting up a 135,000-square-foot Brea office building. The five-story building is a $20 million-plus final phase of his Olen Pointe Brea office complex.
Florida is big for Olenicoff. He has plans for 400 condominiums and three shopping centers in South Florida. Two office projects in South Florida finished recently.
Another big mixed-use development is in the works near Cape Canaveral. Olenicoff recently decided to build another 1,000 homes at the site, alongside a golf course.
Earlier this year, Olenicoff bought 18 acres in the Phoenix area. Plans call for 450 hotel rooms, 560 homes and 400,000 square feet of office space.
He made his fortune here after his family fled Soviet Moscow and landed in America by way of Iran in 1957. He’s regarded as a shrewd businessman who knows how to get around obstacles to get his projects done.
Daughter Natalia is playing a major role in the company after the untimely death of son Andrei in 2005.
William Lyon
Chairman, chief executive
William Lyon Homes Inc.
William Lyon’s wealth is a little less public these days.
The General, as Lyon is known, took the homebuilder that bears his name private last month.
Lyon ended up paying about $275 million to buy the rest of the company he didn’t already own.
The attempt was Lyon’s second to take the company private after an initial bid last year. His $109 a share offer was a third higher than his first one in spring 2005. The offer valued William Lyon Homes at about $950 million.
Both offers saw investors run up the shares. The second time around, a hedge fund bought shares,paying more than Lyon’s offer,and sought unsuccessfully to block the deal.
We’ve based a good part of our estimate on the value of the company, factoring in debt and fees Lyon may have incurred in the buyout.
Even with a slowing housing market, Lyon likely could sell the company for close to $900 million, given June’s $1 billion buy of a similar size competitor, WL Homes LLC’s John Laing Homes, by Dubai’s Emaar Properties.
Lyon likely is worth more than our estimate.
He owns or manages 11,000 apartments, though his exact ownership stake and debt level can’t be determined.
In July, Lyon’s foundation pledged $5 million to the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s $200 million campaign for a new concert hall.
The General also owns a valuable collection of classic and antique cars, including 10 Duesenbergs (only 480 made). And his 130-acre Coto de Caza estate is worth millions.
,Mark Mueller
Jim Jannard
Chairman, founder, Oakley Inc.
Estimated worth: $900 million
Jim Jannard’s wealth ebbs and flows with its primary source: Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc.
Shares of the sunglasses maker are off more than 10% in the past year, bringing our estimate of Jannard’s wealth down from $1 billion last year.
Oakley’s shares have fallen with the general market downturn and mixed results in the second quarter.
Jannard owns 64% of Oakley, up from 60% in 1999 and 63% last year.
Our estimate includes about $400 million in stock sales in the mid-1990s. But we’re erring on the side of conservative by presuming Jannard has put some of his proceeds back into Oakley and spent some here and there on racecars and other hobbies.
Jannard took a big step last year, handing over the chief executive’s title to Scott Olivet, a former Nike Inc. executive.
Olivet is honing in on sunglasses, the company’s bread and butter, and tweaking its sometimes struggling clothes and shoes.
The company also is growing its stores and sales of fashion sunglasses. Earlier this year, Oakley bought Los Angeles-based Oliver Peoples Inc. and Aliso Viejo-based Optical Shop of Aspen, two upscale glasses sellers.
Jannard, a blunt, cigar-smoking University of Southern California dropout, lives and breathes Oakley. The company’s name comes from his favorite dog breed, Oakley English Setters.
Another passion is drag racing. Oakley backs up-and-comer Eric Medlen and other drivers. Jannard has said most racing expenses come out of his pocket.
Another hobby turned business endeavor: photography and cinematography. Oakley has an arsenal of gear that the Oakley video department used to create corporate videos.
Jannard on his own has developed a high-resolution movie camera that sells for $17,500 through his Foothill Ranch-based Red Digital Cinema.
He’s a recluse to the extreme and rarely grants interviews or photos. He splits his time between Orange County and Spieden Island, Wash., a getaway he bought in 1997 for $22 million.
,Jennifer Bellantonio
DAVID SUN
Cofounder, chief operating officer,
Kingston Technology Co.
Estimated worth: $850 million
JOHN TU
Cofounder, president,
Kingston Technology Co.
Estimated worth: $850 million
A foray into consumer electronics memory is paying off for David Sun and John Tu.
The founders of Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co. watched their company’s sales zoom to a record $3 billion in 2005, up 22% from the prior year.
Much of that growth has come from the flash memory market for digital cameras, wireless phones and other gadgets.
Kingston entered the market in 2003 after dominating memory products for computers for years. After some initial reluctance about the market, flash memory now could be a third of Kingston’s sales.
With their expanded business, we’ve upped our estimate worth of Sun and Tu to $850 million each, from $700 million apiece a year ago. We’ve come up with our estimate by looking at the profits and market values of a pair of publicly traded rivals, Fremont-based SMART Modular Technologies (WWH) Inc. and Santa Ana’s SimpleTech Inc.
Fortune came to Tu and Sun after building up Kingston and then selling 80% of the company to Japan’s Softbank Corp. for $1.5 billion in 1996. They bought it back for a fraction of what they were paid three years later.
Since then the company has grown steadily, save for some off years in 2001 and 2002 because of the technology bust and larger economic slowdown.
Both men are humble and like to keep low profiles. Sun and Tu requested not to be on the Business Journal’s list.
They’re surrounded by people who love them at Kingston. The two made headlines when they handed out $100 million in bonuses to workers after selling the company to Softbank.
Both men are on their second fortunes, having founded memory products maker Camintonn in the 1980s and selling it to defunct AST Research Inc. They left AST to start Kingston after losing millions in Camintonn proceeds in the stock market crash.
Sun and Tu have electrical engineering degrees,Tu from Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany, Sun from Taiwan’s Ta-Tung Institute of Technology. Tu, originally from China, moved to the U.S. in 1972. Sun, who was born in Taiwan, came in 1977.
,Brian Womack
ANNE CATHERINE GETTY EARHART
Heiress to J. Paul Getty
Estimated worth: $800 million
CAROLINE GETTY
Heiress to J. Paul Getty
Estimated worth: $800 million
Sure their fortune comes from oil. But these Gettys don’t benefit from rising gas prices anymore.
Anne Catherine Getty Earhart and sister Caroline Getty, heiresses of late oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, now are known for their backing of environmental and Democratic causes.
They are two of the nation’s richest women and are among 16 grandchildren of the autocratic billionaire.
We’re pegging both at $800 million, based on Forbes’ numbers and conservative estimates of how their fortunes have fared.
The Getty sisters are very private.
Earhart, a 53-year-old Laguna Beach resident, surfaced in 1992 when she and husband John Earhart, who headed up the Homeland Foundation of Laguna Beach, unsuccessfully fought the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road.
Sister Caroline Getty, 48, also an ardent environmentalist, drew attention for a $1 million donation to the Nature Conservancy in support of two California parks bonds.
Getty is a member of the governing council of the Wilderness Society and has served on the boards of the World Wildlife Fund and the National Fish and Wildlife Organization.
J. Paul Getty struck oil in 1953 and founded Getty Oil Co. in 1956. He died in 1976.
In 1985, settlement of a nine-year battle over Getty’s will resulted in Earhart, Caroline Getty and one other daughter of his late son George Franklin Getty II sharing $750 million. The entire Getty Trust was $4.1 billion when the funds were dispersed into six separate trusts.
The haggling was nasty: Gordon Peter Getty was in charge of the trust, founded with a $3.3 million bequest by J. Paul Getty’s mother, Sarah. Gordon ended the family feud by resigning as trustee. Gordon had been criticized for 1984’s selling of the trust’s 40% share of Getty Oil to Chevron Corp. The sale went through in 1986 for $10 billion. Caroline and Anne Catherine got another $400 million each from the sale.
,Mike Mason
PAUL MERAGE
Chairman, Falcon Investment Group LLC;
president, Merage Foundations;
chair, dean’s advisory board, Paul Merage School of Business
Estimated worth: $625 million
Paul Merage, inventor of Hot Pockets, continues his “civic entrepreneurial” pursuits.
That’s the way Marshall Kaplan, who heads Merage’s foundations, refers to Merage’s work now that he’s moved beyond the corporate world.
Merage keeps a low profile unless his Merage Foundations is handing out a grant. In June, his foundation awarded a $20,000 stipend to 14 immigrant college graduates. Earlier this year, his Children’s First program handed out grants to a handful of community groups.
An Iranian immigrant, Merage and his brother sold their Colorado-based Chef America for $2.6 billion to Nestl & #233; SA in 2002. After that, he moved to Orange County to spend time with his family and become a philanthropist.
He’s probably best known for his $30 million donation in 2005 to the University of California, Irvine’s business school, which now is named after him.
We’re estimating Merage’s wealth at $625 million, up from $600 million last year on presumed appreciation in investments.
Merage earned his fortunes spotting trends. He saw the number of women going to work and combined that with technology to get Hot Pockets, frozen food you throw in the microwave.
His Children First foundation wants to recruit skilled retirees for jobs in early childhood development programs, Kaplan said. The other component of Children First is to fund educational programs through Social Security donations of the well-to-do.
Merage’s other foundations are American Dream and U.S.-Israel Trade. There also is the Orange County Student Artists in Residence Program, which awards grants to needy student filmmakers.
American Dream seeks to help immigrants. Merage doesn’t take a position on immigration policy, Kaplan said, but the foundation believes immigration historically has been good for America.
,Sherri Cruz
JANIE TSAO
Senior vice president, Cisco Systems Inc.
VICTOR TSAO
Senior vice president, Cisco Systems Inc.
Combined estimated worth: $550 million
Consumer networking gear sellers Janie and Victor Tsao saw a change in their day jobs in the past year but not their estimated wealth.
In May, the Tsaos,founders of Irvine-based Cisco-Linksys LLC,stepped down from running the networking gear company they sold to Cisco Systems Inc. three years ago for $500 million. J. Michael Pocock, who had headed up Polaroid Corp., took their place.
The Tsaos now are working on investments in China for Cisco.
We’ve held our $550 million estimate for the Tsaos despite a decline in Cisco’s stock in the past year. The couple is believed to have diversified out of Cisco shares.
The Tsaos had a good run at Cisco-Linksys. The business more than doubled yearly revenue, which is expected to top $1 billion this year. Janie Tsao said it was time to hand off the company.
The Tsaos built Linksys from the ground up. The couple left cushy computer jobs in 1988 to start the company out of their house. The original goal: to find a way to link more than one computer to a printer.
They’ve come a long way since then, creating a company that makes products that link entire computer networks together wirelessly. Now, the company is expanding its goals, aiming to network the “digital home,” including televisions, computers and air conditioners minus the wires.
The Tsaos shy away from talk of their wealth. The couple lived in a modest house in Irvine for many years as they grew Linksys. Only when Linksys began to take off did the Tsaos splurge on a house in Newport Coast.
Now, Janie and Victor Tsao, who are from a rural area of northern China, can put their time into fostering connections with China.
,Brian Womack
HOWARD
AHMANSON JR.
Heir, philanthropist
Estimated worth: $550 million
Many of Orange County’s wealthiest put their money where their convictions are. None so fervently as Howard Ahmanson Jr.
The heir to the Home Savings & Loan fortune makes headlines for his noted opposition to same sex marriage and his deep evangelical ties.
He’s at the forefront of intelligent design theory and a fierce opponent of gays and lesbians playing leading roles in the church.
His critics have deemed him as a right-wing fanatic. Ahmanson more likely is a complex man with deep religious convictions.
He’s feared by his critics because he is rich and puts his money where his beliefs are. He funds a number of charities and religious institutions.
He also dabbles in politics.
This year, through the Alliance for Orange County Taxpayers, Ahmanson pitched in on a losing bid to elect Republican Diane Harkey, a Dana Point councilwoman, to the state Senate.
While Ahmanson surfaces with his giving, he’s intensely private. A rare glimpse of his life came in a detailed Orange County Register story in 2004.
Ahmanson, who lives in Newport Beach with wife Roberta, also suffers from Tourette Syndrome, a neurological disorder that results in involuntary body movements and repetitive and compulsive thoughts.
His father, Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Sr., got his start foreclosing on properties during the Depression. He bought Home Savings in 1947 for $162,000.
By the time the elder Ahmanson died, the thrift had assets of $2.5 billion. He spent much of his later years as a philanthropist, creating the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles and the Ahmanson Gallery of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
When Ahmanson died, his estate was split between the Ahmanson Foundation and Howard Ahmanson Jr. Today, the foundation has assets of some $700 million. We’ve based our estimate of Howard Ahmanson Jr.’s wealth on that, and factored in money he’s given away.
Ahmanson probably is richer than we figure. He likely has investments that have appreciated in recent years. But we can’t tell.
Ahmanson also had money before his father died and inherited wealth from his late mother, Dorothy. Stepmother Caroline Ahmanson, a charm school founder and philanthropist, died in 2005.
He and his wife own the Hotel Pattee in Perry, Iowa, where Roberta grew up.
Ahmanson is a big donor to American Anglican Council based in Washington, D.C. The group is leading the charge against the church’s shifting stance on gay issues. The council’s chief executive, David C. Anderson, ran St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach where Ahmanson worships.
,Sherri Cruz
ANTHONY MAGLICA
Owner, founder, president, Mag Instrument Inc.
Estimated worth: $500 million
Anthony Maglica is 75 years old and still inventing.
In July, he received another patent, the latest in a long line of flashlight innovations.
What’s the Anaheim Hills resident’s secret?
Maglica (mag-lee-cuh), head of Ontario-based Mag Instrument Inc., says he thrives on being creative. And for him, that means inventing.
“It’s fun doing it,” he said.
He doggedly fights to protect his patents,no matter what the monetary award. He calls it a cost of staying in business.
In October, Mag settled a case against Dollar Tree Stores Inc., which sold what the court deemed an infringing flashlight.
Maglite flashlights, known for their durability, have appeared in movies, TV and books and are a staple of police officers and everyday folks.
Maglica’s flashlight empire has expanded. His 800,000-square-foot manufacturing building, in the works since 2004, has opened in Ontario.
Mag has about 900 workers there.
“I could make more money,” Maglica said, by moving production to China. “But what am I going to do with more money?” he said. “What will happen to these people here? What kind of human being would I be?”
To stay here, “you have to automate” and settle for less profit, Maglica said.
Two of Maglica’s sons work at Mag. They are the likely candidates to take over, he said.
In the 1990s, Maglica was involved in a bitter palimony case with former longtime girlfriend Clarie Halasz.
By the end of the court fight, Mag had gone from $400 million to more than $750 million in valuation, according to Maglica’s attorney.
We’re conservatively estimating Maglica’s worth at $500 million, allowing room for debt and minority ownership.
,Sherri Cruz
DUANE ROBERTS
Chairman, chief executive,
Entrepreneurial Corporate Group
Estimated worth: $450 million
Duane Roberts is the crown prince of Inland Empire Republicans from a seaside perch in Orange County. The hotelier, apartment owner and self-described frozen burrito king was a chairman of a San Bernardino fund-raiser for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in May, the latest in a long line of political organizing and check writing.
Roberts lives in two worlds now. He owns Riverside’s landmark Mission Inn Hotel & Spa. He runs his investments via Newport Beach-based Entrepreneurial Corporate Group.
In November, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Business Press in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship. His home is a spectacular bluff top villa overlooking Laguna Beach.
The worlds often overlap. Roberts introduced “Duane’s Chocolate Martini” to the Mission Inn after having a similar drink at the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach.
We’ve based our estimate of Roberts’ worth primarily on his ownership of 13,500 apartments in the Southwest. We also factored in the Mission Inn and three British food makers he owns. Roberts easily could be worth more than $450 million.
In 1950, his father, Harry Roberts, founded Butcher Boy Food Products Inc., a meat company that was the main supplier of hamburger patties to the original McDonald’s in San Bernardino.
Roberts dropped out of college to help his dad. While working at Butcher Boy, 19-year-old Roberts came up with what he bills as the first frozen burrito.
At 27, Roberts became president and built Butcher Boy from one plant with 60 workers and $3 million in yearly sales to six plants with 1,400 workers.
By the time the family sold the business to Central Soya Inc. in 1980, Butcher Boy had an estimated $85 million in yearly sales.
Roberts stayed on as chairman of the company for about two years after the sale. The company later became part of Tyson Foods Inc. and later was sold to a private equity group.
He later went on to sell another burrito company, Fernando’s Foods, to ConAgra Foods Inc. in the late 1990s for about $35 million in ConAgra stock.
Roberts took his Mexican food fortune and branched out into real estate, as well as banking and other investments.
He’s involved in Olive Crest Homes and Services for Abused Children, the nonprofit for abused and neglected children. He started the group’s Inland Empire branch.
,Michael Lyster
VINCENT SMITH
Chairman, chief executive,
Quest Software Inc.
Estimated worth: $425 million
Vincent “Vinny” Smith lost some of his wealth as issues with stock options hurt shares of his company, Quest Software Inc.
We’ve valued Smith at $425 million based on his Quest shares, past stock sales and other investments. That’s off a bit from the estimated $450 million he was worth last year.
Like other technology shareholders, Smith was richer in the spring, when Quest shares hit their high for the year. At that time, the stock was up more than 20% from last summer before starting a decline along with the Nasdaq in May.
Quest was hit particularly hard because it was among the first companies to be named in the stock options backdating controversy, which gained notoriety in May. Quest said in July it plans to restate results from 2000 through the first quarter of this year as part of its ongoing look at stock option grants. The additional expense “will be significant,” Quest said.
The company’s shares are off about 20% in the past three months.
Smith is a low-key multimillionaire who goes by Vinny and is known to sport jeans and a cap. He’s not beyond a little bit of flash: The lobby of the company’s new Aliso Viejo headquarters has a 6,000-gallon fish tank, bamboo floors and dune grass inside glass walls.
Known as a savvy investor, Smith says he likes to dabble in a variety of investments, such as the stake he took in Fusion International, a local surfwear venture, in 2003.
Smith also has various real estate holdings and owns part of 20 restaurants, among other ventures.
He started his career with Oracle Corp. In 1992, he got to work on his first big payoff by starting San Francisco-based Patrol Software with an Oracle colleague. BMC Software Inc. bought Patrol in 1994.
Smith’s interest in Quest grew through an investment his Insight Capital Partners made in 1995.
He took a seat on the company’s board and gradually became more involved, becoming chief executive in 1997 and chairman a year later.
,Brian Womack
Maurice McAlister
Chairman, cofounder,
Downey Financial Corp.
Estimated worth: $400 million
The cooling mortgage business has tempered the wealth of Downey Financial Corp.’s biggest shareholder.
Cofounder and Chairman Maurice McAlister owns 20% of the Newport Beach-based savings and loan operator. He lives in Bullhead and comes to Downey once a month for board meetings.
Like others, the thrift rode the mortgage boom and now is seeing higher expenses and a falloff in loans. Profit fell 23% in the quarter ended June 30.
Downey’s shares are off about 12% since May with a recent market value of about $1.8 billion. McAlister’s stake is worth about $360 million. We’ve estimated him at $400 million, down from $425 million last year. The rest of his wealth is believed to come from real estate and other investments.
McAlister has investments across the Southwest, from Mohave County in Arizona to a Thousand Oaks strip mall.
Under a founder’s agreement, he gets paid about $500,000 a year, which he’s guaranteed if the thrift changes hands.
Downey long has been considered a takeover target, particularly after Wachovia Corp.’s May move to buy Oakland’s Golden West Financial Corp. for $25 billion.
But so far, McAlister has shown no interest in selling.
McAlister cofounded the bank in 1957 with the late Gerald H. McQuarrie. In the early days, Downey’s specialty was lending to small, neighborhood shopping centers, usually anchored by a supermarket or chain drug store.
,Pat Maio
Michael Harrah
Owner, president,
Caribou Industries Inc.
Estimated worth: $400 million
Don Bren is Irvine. Henry Segerstrom is Costa Mesa. Mike Harrah is everything Santa Ana.
Harrah owns 3 million square feet of commercial real estate in downtown Santa Ana and around the Civic Center. He owns office buildings, stores, restaurants and a concert venue, the OC Pavilion.
Based on higher prices for just about all real estate, we’ve valued Harrah at $400 million, up from $375 million last year.
We’re not factoring in what would be Harrah’s biggest project: a 37-story office tower in the heart of Santa Ana.
Harrah has cleared political and legal hurdles for the tower, which would be the county’s tallest office building. Demolition work has begun but recently was halted due to asbestos concerns.
Still, the project, One Broadway Plaza, isn’t assured. The city wants Harrah to lease half of the space before starting construction. No tenants have been announced yet.
Harrah is looking to line up construction financing for the $86 million tower. He sold three office buildings in 2004 to Birtcher Anderson Realty LLC for $58 million as a first step. Some of the money is set to go toward initial costs.
Earlier this year, he sold Santa Ana’s historic Masonic Temple to the Church of Scientology for an undisclosed price. Harrah had spent $11 million to restore the four-story building.
He followed that deal with the sale of 901 Civic Center to Santa Ana-based Triple Net Properties LLC, for about $14 million. A few more deals are likely, he said.
Harrah’s other big project is in Hawaii. He’s working on a 35-story condominium tower in downtown Honolulu, dubbed The Pinnacle Honolulu.
With a ZZ Top beard, Harrah’s something of an eccentric. He stands 6 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 280 pounds. He has piloted his Cobra helicopter in aerial stunts in “Austin Powers: Gold Member,” “The Hulk” and “The Siege.” He’s a deputized reserve for Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona and has pledged his helicopter services to the county in case of a terrorist attack or other disaster.
Harrah is a supporter of the Orange County High School of the Arts, where he’s given nearly $2 million. He also supports the Boys and Girls Club.
,Mark Mueller
James Downey
Cofounder, former chief executive,
C & D; Zodiac
Estimated worth: $350 million
Aerospace entrepreneur James Downey cashed out at the height of the industry’s recent boom and consolidation.
Downey built what’s now C & D; Zodiac into a global supplier of interiors for commercial and business jets. In 2005, France’s Zodiac SA paid $600 million for C & D.;
With other owners and debt, the Business Journal estimates Downey’s worth after the sale at about $350 million.
Earlier this year, Downey looked at buying a chunk of downtown real estate in his native Ottawa, Ill. He didn’t end up closing the deal after talks stalled with the local school district, which owned part of the property, according to The Times newspaper in Ottawa.
Last year, Downey donated $35,000 to Ottawa for several projects.
Since selling C & D;, Downey started The Wave Equity Partners in Newport Beach. He doesn’t crave the spotlight, rarely speaking to the media or making a fuss about how he built C & D.;
Downey formed the company back in 1972 when he and boyhood friend Toby Crowley bought a business that made aircraft holding tanks.
Zodiac has benefited from buying C & D.; For the nine months ended May 31, Zodiac’s cabin interior systems unit saw its sales more than double to $767 million.
Downey hasn’t forgotten the people who worked for him at C & D.; Last fall, he teamed up with Mukilteo, Wash., employee James Short, who had leukemia, to form a foundation that provides financial support to patients and medical professionals in the fight to survive cancer, according to the Mukilteo Beacon. Downey gave $1 million toward the foundation. Short died this past spring.
,Brian Womack
RODNEY SACKS
Chairman, chief executive,
Hansen Natural Corp.
Estimated worth: $325 million
HILTON SCHLOSBERG
Vice chairman, chief operating officer,
chief financial officer, president,
Hansen Natural Corp.
Estimated worth: $300 million
South African immigrants Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg have a monster hit on their hands.
Their Hansen Natural Corp.’s Monster energy drink,a mix of caffeine, vitamins and carbonated sugar water,is a hit with extreme sports fans, the party crowd and Wall Street.
Corona-based Hansen’s shares have been on a wild ride in the past two years, going from about $3 a share to about $45, with a market value of some $4 billion. The stock split twice in the past year.
Sacks and Schlosberg live in Orange County. Our estimate is based on their shares, options and stock sales in the past two years.
The two are listed as holders of another 2.6 million shares through two partnerships where Sacks and Schlosberg are general managers. But the two don’t claim the shares, which they say are held by others.
We didn’t count those shares. Even so, the executives said they think our estimate is high. Most of their options aren’t currently exercisable, they said, and taxes on any options they exercise or shares they sell stand to be hefty.
For our part, we’ve tried to consider tax implications and the cost of exercising options and twice revised them downward. The estimates for the Hansen executives were among the harder ones to make.
Hansen has been a tear with lofty sales and profit gains, thanks to Monster, which came out in 2002. In May, Hansen struck a distribution deal with Anheuser-Busch Inc.
Some wonder whether shares of Hansen are due for a correction. The company competes with heavyweights, including Coca-Cola Co. and Red Bull GMBH.
Others say the company has room to grow as most of its sales are on the West Coast.
Hansen, a family juice company that started in the 1930s, used to be based in Anaheim before moving to Corona in 1998.
Sacks and Schlosberg raised $6 million from friends and family and bought the company for about $20 million in 1992.
Now Hansen is on track to do $550 million in sales this year.
Sacks and Schlosberg bought Hansen just a few years after coming here from South Africa.
Earlier, Sacks was a partner in a Johannesburg law firm. Schlosberg worked for CG Smith Ltd., a South African sugar and textiles conglomerate.
,Michael Lyster
RONALD SIMON
Founder, chairman, chief executive,
RSI Holding Corp.
Estimated wealth: $300 million
Ron Simon’s wealth belies a humble childhood.
The son of a Russian immigrant mom and a poor Canadian dad, Simon grew up meagerly in East Los Angeles. As a child, he delivered papers and raised pigeons, according to a profile on the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Inc. Web site.
Simon was given the Horatio Alger Award in 2005.
These days, Simon runs RSI Holding Corp., a Newport Beach-based maker of household cabinets and other products that are sold at Lowe’s, Home Depot and to homebuilders. It’s his second home products company.
RSI has estimated yearly sales of $550 million. We’ve come up with our estimate for Simon based on a look at rivals such as Virginia’s American Woodmark Corp., which, unlike RSI, is publicly traded.
In the early 1960s, Simon took over his family’s business, Perma-Bilt Industries, in Los Angeles. He grew the business to become the largest maker of medicine cabinets, vanities and marble countertops.
In 1987, he sold Perma-Bilt to an Australian company.
Simon stayed on the company board. But the owners rejected his ideas to cut manufacturing costs in the face of rising Asian competition and the emergence of big home improvement stores.
So, two years later at age 55, Simon resigned from the board and started RSI with the same business plan the owners had rejected.
Today, Perma-Bilt is gone.
Like others on our list, Simon is big in Republican politics. He’s been a big giver to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
His Newport Beach-based Ronald M. Simon Family Foundation gives scholarships to needy students from Santa Ana, Georgia and New Mexico, and is expanding in Southern California. It also helps families facing hardships through the Orange County Community Foundation.
,Michael Lyster
Joan Irvine Smith
Heiress to James Irvine
Estimated worth: $300 million
Joan Irvine Smith is one of only four women on the Business Journal’s list of the wealthiest here.
Smith’s wealth stems from her great-grandfather James Irvine, who struck it rich during the Gold Rush of 1849. James Irvine and three partners bought 120,000 acres of land, which was about a quarter of Orange County during that time.
James Irvine II, Smith’s grandfather, incorporated the land as Irvine Land Co. in the 1890s.
Fourteen years ago, Don Bren, chairman and owner of The Irvine Co., bought out Smith and her late mother, Athalie R. Clarke, for $256 million. But not after a court battle.
We estimate Smith’s wealth at $300 million, based primarily on input from sources.
Smith has said that she and Bren are on cordial terms and that she’s told him “he has a great legacy he can leave,open space.”
These days, Smith spends time on her passions: horses, art and the environment.
Earlier this year, she introduced University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Michael Drake and wife Brenda to the community at her Irvine Museum.
She also got her wish when the last residents left El Morro Mobile Home Park at the southern end of Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach and the site became a state campground.
The Irvine Co., which sold the land to the state in 1979, wanted the park to be made available to the public.
Smith, a Democrat, is a personal friend of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver, a fellow Democrat.
A skilled equestrian, in 1998 Smith entered into an operating agreement with R.J. Brandes, forming Oaks/Blenheim Exhibitions LLC. The company puts on horse shows and other activities at The Oaks/Blenheim/Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano. She breeds, trains and sells world-class jumping horses at her farms in San Juan Capistrano, northern San Diego County and Middleburg, Va.
She gave $1 million toward UC Irvine’s Reeve-Irvine Research Center when she learned that Christopher Reeve, the actor of “Superman” fame who died in October 2004, did not blame his horse for the accident that left him paralyzed.
Earlier this year, Smith gave $10,000 to the Reeve-Irvine Center as seed money for an artificial hand research project. Smith gave that money after reading about Ryan Langan, a UCI biomedical engineering student.
,Vita Reed
