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OC500 2024: DONALD BREN

DONALD BREN
CHAIRMAN
IRVINE CO.

WHO: Owns Newport Beach-based developer, Irvine Co. Wealthiest U.S. real estate developer.

WHY: Leads Orange Countyโ€™s largest real estate company, with one of the largest portfolios of apartments and offices in California, among other notable holdings. Bloomberg Businessweek magazine ranks Donald Bren as one of the countryโ€™s most generous philanthropists, estimating his lifetime giving at more than $2.1B. Over $265M of that went toward education. Heโ€™s directed more than $70M to the University of California, Irvine, in addition to giving to other schools. Bren also set aside 57,000-plus acresโ€”more than half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranchโ€”as open space and parklands in perpetuity.

IN THE NEWS: Donated a $2M gift to Irvine Unified School District. Gift is part of a 20-year, $50M commitment by Irvine Co. and the Donald Bren Foundation to boost IUSDโ€™s art, music and science programs at elementary schools.

NOTABLE: Irvine Co. last year gifted 475 acres of land, worth about $330M, to the city of Irvine in a deal that closed the cityโ€™s All American Asphalt plant, due to complaints from residents. Around 80 acres of that gifted land will be allocated for housing. Pasadenaโ€™s California Institute of Technology in 2021 disclosed the institution has been gifted more than $100M by Bren, a university lifetime trustee, to develop technology to collect solar power in space and beam it back to Earth. The endowment was made anonymously in 2011.

IN THEIR WORDS: โ€œThe hard work and dedication of the brilliant scientists at Caltech have advanced our dream of providing the world with abundant, reliable and affordable power for the benefit of all humankind.โ€

LEARN MORE: donaldbren.com

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