TERRY M. GILES
FOUNDER/CEO, GILES ENTERPRISES
WHY: Known for building one of California’s largest criminal defense firms with clients such as Richard Pryor, Kenneth Lay and Martin Luther King Jr.’s remaining children. Active entrepreneur with investments in 35 business ventures.
IN THE NEWS: 1970 Cal State Fullerton grad was key in helping start university’s Center for Leadership, which bears his name along with wife Kalli O’Malley, herself a noted attorney. Helped break ground this year on the $33M Landmark Hall.
NOTABLE: Bought Toyota Garden Grove in 1980s and turned it into the fifth largest Toyota dealership in the world
QUOTABLE: Has proposed $100,000 annual prize for the world’s best ideas on leadership at Cal State Fullerton: “It will be the equivalent of the Nobel prize for leadership. By doing so, we will attract the top tier to our campus to give a 45-minute lecture to our students.”
