A Fortune in Food

Paul Merage
Chairman
MIG Management Services

THE MONEY: Along with his brother David, co-founded Chef America Inc., a frozen foods company that sold in 2002 to Nestlé for $2.6 billion. Name on top of UCI Business School.

THE NUMBERS: After sale of frozen food business, began MIG Capital, which has $1.6 billion in assets and is managed by his son Richard. Nephew Greg manages real estate arm with more than 10 million square feet and more than 6,000 multifamily units, whose value has gone well up over the past year. Brother Cam is founder of First Team Real Estate, an Irvine-based real estate firm.

BIG BREAK: Inventor in 1983 of popular easy-to-microwave meal Hot Pockets.

REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS: Village in Indian Wells, Avila Apartments in Rancho Santa Margarita. Real estate arm of MIG typically invests $15 million to $100 million multifamily, hotels, and grocery-anchored retail.

PHILANTHROPY: The Paul & Elisabeth Merage Family Foundation counts close to $50 million in assets, according to public records. Recent donations included $511,000 to UCI’s Shaping the Future Campaign, $200,000 to Sage Hill School, and $58,000 to Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Also gave $500,000 to the Merage Institute Business Executive Leadership Program to promote innovation as a way to spur new opportunities in fields like cybersecurity and medical devices. It has programs often targeted at encouraging entrepreneurship in Israel, including those over 45 years old. 

+18%
• NET WORTH: $2.6 billion
• LAST YEAR: $2.2 billion
• RESIDENCE: Newport Coast
• SOURCE OF WEALTH: company sale, real estate, investments