OC’s Wealthiest

David Pyott

Former Chief Executive

Allergan Inc. [now Allergan PLC]

Estimated worth: $250 million

The longtime fixture of Orange County’s business community makes his debut on the OC’s Wealthiest list, thanks to his successful attempt to beat back a hostile takeover of Allergan Inc., the Irvine drug- maker he ran from 1998 to this year.

Those efforts not only held off Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and hedge funder Bill Ackman, but also set the stage for an eventual $72.5 billion sale to Actavis PLC, which has taken the Allergan name and continues to operate the company’s Irvine campus as a hub for its crucial eye and aesthetic lines of business.

Pyott converted stock to a total of $534 million in cash following the sale earlier this year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. He traded stock options for $497 million in cash and got $36.9 million more by selling 285,000 shares of stock.

Taxes and other considerations—including how the father of four, who recently traded his residence on a gated hillside in San Juan Capistrano for a place in Irvine, might have apportioned his windfall—led us to estimate his net worth at the $250 million minimum for our annual listing of OC’s Wealthiest. A caveat: Our prior research had indicated that Pyott’s fortune was in the nine-figure range before his big payout, so our updated estimate could be low.

The worldly executive, who enjoys skiing and mountain climbing, opted not to join the board of the newly combined Allergan, which has its on-the-books headquarters in Ireland for tax purposes and operations centered in Parsippany, N.J. But he is not completely done with the company—he remains chairman of the Allergan Foundation, its nonprofit arm.

Pyott also plans to join more corporate boards and devote time to philanthropy—he has said he wants to bring ophthalmic centers to Africa or Indonesia. He’s expected to remain involved with Chapman University in Orange, where he serves as vice chair of the board of trustees, and might crop up as an advocate for new legislation on insider trading, a matter stuck in his craw from the takeover battle.

Past giving has included an emphasis on healthcare and politics, with donations to Republican congressional and senatorial committees and candidates; political action committees for Allergan employees, Edwards Lifesciences, and the biotechnology industry; the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology; and local medical-focused charities such as CHOC Foundation, J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center, and United Way.

Pyott was raised in India and Scotland and is fluent in four languages. He is well-educated, with diplomas in international and European law from Europa Institute at the University of Amsterdam, along with master’s degrees from the University of Edinburgh and London Business School.

—Vita Reed

Sheldon Razin

Founder, Chairman

Quality Systems Inc.

Estimated worth: $275 million

Razin began Quality with a $2,000 investment four decades ago and remains a fixture at the Irvine-based maker of software that doctors and dentists use to manage their practices.

Quality has had some changes—including new Chief Executive Rusty Frantz, who recently took over for veteran leader Steven Plochocki.

Most of Razin’s wealth comes from his stake in Quality—10.2 million shares that’s good for 17% of the company and worth some $168 million as of mid-July. He’s also reaped profits that have come from Quality’s leadership in the healthcare software field for more than three decades.

Quality’s shares are up 6% since the start of 2015. The gain, combined with a similarly solid performance for equities and other asset classes over the past 12 months, led us to take our estimate of his net worth up by $25 million this year.

Quality grew out of a management consulting business Razin started in the early 1970s. It began selling software to dental practices, then added doctors, went public in 1982, and raised $11 million.

Razin, a Boston native, holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had various technical and managerial positions with former OC aerospace company Rockwell International Corp. prior to starting Quality.

He is a past winner of the Business Journal’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award. He has donated to MIT, the Chabad Jewish Center of Laguna Beach and the Alzheimer’s Association.

Razin is a married father of two and grandfather of five. He is a Boston Red Sox fan who also follows the Angels. He swims daily off the coast near his Laguna Beach home and spends time on his 65-foot “motor sailer” boat. Razin’s also a recently published author of “Principles of a Successful Entrepreneur.”

—Vita Reed

Edward O. Thorp

Founder, Owner

Edward O. Thorp & Associates

Estimated net worth: $300 million

We’ve increased our estimate on the “godfather of quants” by about 10% to $300 million, again conceding that it’s a rough estimate and could be well below the mark.

Here are some updates on Thorp, whose interests and professions have taken him through a range of careers, including a blackjack pro, a math professor, an author and a hedge fund manager.

He’ll see three of his grandchildren—triplets and all graduates of Sage Hill in Newport Coast—starting this fall at MIT, where he taught from 1959 to 1961.

He’s also got an autobiography in the works with Random House, slated for publication in 2017 and tentatively titled: “A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street.”

He beat the Vegas market first with card counting. He figured out how when he was teaching at MIT and published the bestseller “Beat the Dealer,” which fellow OC’s Wealthiest list member Bill Gross picked up while hospitalized after an accident; the book inspired him to get into professional gambling before starting out in the world of bond trading.

Thorp brought the gambling concept to Wall Street, writing “Beat the Market” in the mid-1960s when he was a professor at University of California-Irvine. The text inspired, among others, economists Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, who later came up with the Black-Scholes model for options pricing.

Thorp ran money manager Princeton/Newport Partners from 1969 through 1988 and ran an arbitrage fund for a pension plan until 2002, after which he turned his focus toward managing his family’s money through a family office.

—Jane Yu

Kobe Bryant

Guard

Los Angeles Lakers

Estimated worth: $300 million

Bryant enters what looks to be his last season as a Los Angeles Laker and the NBA’s highest-paid player.

His $25 million salary for the 2015-16 season that wraps up a two-year deal ekes out Brooklyn Nets guard Joe Johnson’s $24.8 million deal and Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, who’s set to make just under $23 million in the upcoming season.

Keeping the Black Mamba on the floor will be a challenge—the five-time champion has had his last three seasons cut short due to injuries. Last year he played only 35 games before sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury.

He’ll be 37 when the season starts in late October and will lead a team in transition, with a host of younger members who will have to hustle for a playoff spot.

Bryant might not be the elite player he was on the court, but his endorsements trail only James, who’s considered the best player in the world. Forbes puts Bryant’s endorsement earnings at $34 million in 2014, counting a shoe contract with Nike and deals with luxury Swiss watch maker Hublot, Lenovo, Panini and Turkish Air. 

We estimate the Newport Coast resident’s wealth at $300 million, up from $275 million last year based on the endorsement deals, salary, solid run in other asset classes and his overall business acumen.

He has earned $305 million in his 20-year NBA career.

It appears Bryant is already looking ahead to life after basketball. His company, Kobe Inc., got a nod from the city of Newport Beach in January that granted its headquarters at 1499 Monrovia Ave. a 10-year extension to operate at the property through 2032 and not rezone the area from commercial and office use to residential.

Bryant, who acquired the two-story, 16,650-square-foot building for $5.8 million last year, plans to pour in about $5.5 million for interior and exterior improvements.

The business aims to own and grow brands and ideas that redefine the sports industry.

Bryant and his wife Vanessa are big philanthropists in OC and elsewhere through the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. Local beneficiaries include Mamba FC, an OC youth soccer club “that teaches young athletes how to become leaders and independent thinkers, while working together as a group to achieve a common goal through health and fitness.”

—Chris Casacchia

Joan Irvine Smith

Heiress, Philanthropist

Estimated worth: $350 million

Irvine Smith can trace her history to local landowner James Irvine, who with three partners bought 120,000 acres of land here in the mid-19th century. James Irvine II’s son—Joan Irvine Smith’s grandfather—incorporated it as Irvine Land Co. in the 1890s.

The bulk of her assets stem from that founding and the century-later settlement with Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren in 1991 that brought her and her mother, Athalie Clark, a combined $256 million for their 11% stake.

Bren became sole owner of the company in 1996.

Irvine Smith and Clark established their eponymous foundation the same year as the sale of their shares to Bren. Mrs. Clarke died in 1993.

The foundation supports environmental causes, medical research and the arts; it showed $5.6 million in assets as of April 30, 2014.

On the environment—a passion Irvine Smith is said to share with Bren—the foundation sponsors an annual award “for excellence in water research” by the National Water Research Institute.

Irvine Smith is the benefactor of the Irvine Museum, which occupies part of the ground floor of an office building in the John Wayne Airport area of Irvine. The museum focuses on paintings of early 20th-century California.

In politics she has supported Democratic Party candidates that include Hillary Clinton, Loretta Sanchez, Matt Fong, Richard Gephardt, Joe Lieberman and John Kerry.

Two years ago she sold her 20-acre San Juan Capistrano horse farm The Oaks for around $20 million to Del Mar-based homebuilder Davidson Communities, which is said to be planning 32 homes on the site. Prior to its sale, the property hosted equestrian events to fund spinal cord research.

Her pledge of $1 million helped create the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at University of California-Irvine, co-named for the late actor Christopher Reeve. Irvine Smith also gave $1 million to help start UCI’s School of Law.

The foundation has also supported Mission San Juan Capistrano.

We’ve taken our estimate of Smith up by $25 million this year, based on the generally solid market for equities and other asset classes.

—Paul Hughes

Toshiaki Ogasawara

Chairman

Nifco Inc., Nifsan Pty. Ltd.

Japan Times

Simmons Co. Ltd.

Estimated wealth: $350 million

Ogasawara’s full-time residences are in Hong Kong and Tokyo, but his purchase of One Pelican Hill in Newport Beach for nearly $19 million three years ago makes him a property owner in Orange County and a member of the local wealthiest list.

Ogasawara is the chairman and chief executive of Japan Times Ltd., which publishes the Japan Times, the largest English-language newspaper in Japan.

He also serves as the special adviser, chairman and chief executive of Nifco Inc., which makes plastic parts and components for industrial uses. It had over $104 million in net income on $1.8 billion in net sales in its fiscal year ended March 31, up 83% and 32% year-over-year, respectively.

The company has “been able to reduce the percentage of sales devoted to cost of goods sold, SGA expenses and income tax expenses,” according to Bloomberg. It counts Japanese and international automakers and other manufacturers as its key customers, including Toyota, Honda and Sony.

A 2014 news report in the Japan Times said Ogasawara “was ordered to pay [about $1 million] in back taxes in December 2012 after failing to declare about [$10 million] in income over a three-year period through 2011.” Details of a settlement or payment have not been released.

We are estimating Ogasawara’s wealth up by about 8% this year to $350 million, based on continued increases in Nifco’s earnings, as well as Ogasawara’s diverse professional positions and real estate holdings. He’s a prominent developer in Australia, where a unit called Nifsan Group is currently developing 600 apartments in the Emerald Lakes area and has plans to develop another 1,600 on his once-private estate and golf course in Nerang, known as The Villa.

Ogasawara also is chairman of Simmons Co., which has franchise rights for mattress company Simmons USA.

He serves or has recently served on the advisory boards/committees of Avon, General Electric, Prudential and NIKE, according to Bloomberg.

Ogasawara got his undergraduate education in Japan. He went on to study at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He also has honorary doctorates from the University of South Florida and Florida State.

Ogasawara serves as a trustee at University of Southern California. He also set up the Ogasawara Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Engineering and is involved in other organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the Japan-America Society of Tokyo.

—Kate Schwartz

William Wang

Founder, Chief Executive

Vizio Inc.

Estimated worth: $350 million

Wang continues to push innovation and enter new markets with his consumer electronics company that has fared better than much of the field, thanks to a diversification of a product lineup beyond the maturing flat TV market.

Vizio, which perennially battles Samsung for the crown of top TV seller in the U.S., expanded its lineup with two new 4K models that won the 2014 Best of CES Award, including the 65-inch and 120-inch High Dynamic Range-Enabled Ultra HD TV supporting Dolby Vision that produce life-like images.

Wang in the past year took the brand into Canada and Mexico in its first expansion outside the U.S.

The company remains the top seller for sound bars geared for 20- to 80-inch sets, and it has made strides with media players and various accessories.

The mix pushed Vizio’s sales to an estimated $3.5 billion last year, believed to be a record for the company that shook up the TV market in the early 2000s by melding quality-designed products and a deep Asian supply chain with big-box distribution at Walmart, Target and Sam’s Club, among others.

Vizio made its second known strategic investment late last year, backing Irvine startup Blossom, which makes a smart-lawn sprinkler system. That followed a $1 million investment in Irvine-based Pear Sports LLC, a developer of fitness training technology. The Pear deal calls for the companies to work jointly on research and development efforts for wearable electronics; advancements in chip design; software; and other potential electronic devices.

We estimated Wang’s worth at $350 million, up from $325 million last year based on Vizio’s strong year, as well as solid gains in the stock market in the past 12 months that offset other investments made in PCs that have yet to pay dividends.

That’s our conservative guess since Wang’s exact ownership stake, Vizio’s profits and other variables aren’t known. It’s believed that Taiwan-based AmTran Technology, one of the company’s primary manufacturers, owns about 23% of Vizio (see related story, page 1).

—Chris Casacchia

Mark Wetterau

Chief Executive, Chairman

Golden State Foods Corp.

Wetterau Associates LLC

Estimated worth: $350 million

We’ve taken our estimate on Wetterau up by $25 million, based mostly on the continued revenue increases for his privately held Golden State Foods Corp., which is quickly approaching the $7 billion mark in annual sales this year.

Wetterau is majority owner of the Irvine-based food processor and distributor. Golden State Foods, or GSF, sells meats, sauces, produce, and dairy, with distribution to quick-service restaurants. Its customer list features such fast-food heavyweights as McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Chipotle, a hot newcomer that continues to shake up the fast-casual segment. GSF says it services more than 125,000 restaurants and stores from more than 45 locations on five continents.

Chipotle opened more than 1,000 stores in recent years and launched two new, similar chains—ShopHouse and Pizzeria Locale—with plans to expand the chains this year. The Chipotle expansion is bringing new business to GSF, according to a source.

GSF announced earlier this year that it plans to invest approximately $45 million to open a meat processing facility in the Northeast Opelika Industrial Park in Alabama. It expects to create around 175 jobs at the plant, which will be responsible for production of 25% of meat products for McDonald’s across the nation.

Other contributors to Wetterau’s wealth include companies owned by Wetterau Associates in St. Louis, a family business that he and his brother, Conrad, started in 1993.

Wetterau Associates’ holdings include Taunton, Mass.-based Quality Beverage LP, the largest independently owned Anheuser-Busch distributor in the state, and Consolidated Beverages LLC, another large distributor located in Taunton and Worcester, Mass. Wetterau Associates also has stakes in Lucia’s Pizza in St. Louis and is a partner in Argos Partners LLC, a St. Louis-based wealth management company.

Wetterau’s great-grandfather founded the first of many food-based ventures in the early 1800s after he moved to the U.S. from Germany. GSF was founded in 1947 and provided most of its meat products to local restaurants and hotels at the time. A handshake deal with McDonald’s in the early 1950s started GSF’s power play into the food processing and distribution industries.

Wetterau began his career in the family business upon graduating from Westminster College in 1980 with a business degree. He soon became chief of Shop ’n Save Warehouse Foods Inc., a retail chain that Wetterau Inc. had acquired. He and his brother sold Wetterau Inc. and its business units to Super Valu Inc. for $1.1 billion in 1992.

Wetterau also serves as the chairman of GSF Foundation. The volunteer-run organization has raised more than $32 million since its inception and has donated to more than 600 charities focused on serving children.

—Kate Schwartz

Dale Fowler

Owner

Dale Fowler Real Estate

Estimated worth: $375 million

Gains in the stock market and rising real estate valuations no doubt added to the bottom line of Fowler over the past 12 months, although an active charitable streak likely means that much of any gains—if not more—have already gone elsewhere.

We estimate Fowler, a longtime area real estate investor who has kept a low profile here for years, to have a $375 million net worth, up from $350 million a year ago.

Last year was the first time we included Fowler on our rich list, following news that he and his wife Sarah Ann had made a pair of big donations to two schools.

In 2007, the Fowlers—in Dale’s words—“gave some money” to Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.

It turned out that gift was for $60 million, tripling the endowment of the 1,500-student school.

That deal was followed up in 2013 by a $55 million gift to Dale’s alma mater, Chapman University.

Chapman in turn named its law school after him.

The only national news involving the Fowlers in the past year also was gift-related. Reports on the East Coast indicated the family would trim back on its commitment to Gordon—where several grandchildren have attended—following a clash with the school’s new president.

It seems Chapman is in line to get some of the original amount intended for Gordon.

Dale Fowler serves on Chapman’s board of trustees and is said to often help the school with many of its real estate transactions.

Fowler said Chapman’s development under President Jim Doti was a factor in his decisions to give the initial $55 million gift. And he credited another member of this year’s OC’s Wealthiest—fellow Chapman grad George Argyros—with an assist.

“Some time ago we started taking notice of what Jim and George have done at Chapman,” Fowler said.

Dale Fowler grew up in Santa Ana helping his grandfather, father and uncle with the family’s gravel business.

He was the first member of his family to graduate from college and earned enough selling cars in Laguna Beach to pay for school and save $5,200 that went for a chunk of land in Huntington Beach. He got a loan to build an apartment complex and eventually sold it for a profit that allowed him to make timely buys of about 200 or so acres near Ontario Airport.

Fowler kept on developing in Southern California, building his fortune. Trusted sources last year pegged his net worth in the $350 million range, even after the big gifts to Chapman and Gordon and support given to various other charities.

—Mark Mueller

Gary Jabara

Founder, Chief Executive

Mobilitie LLC

Estimated worth: $375 million

We’ve boosted our estimate for the wealth of Jabara, the founder of the Newport Beach-based cellphone tower company, to $375 million.

That’s up $25 million from a year ago and factors in modest gains for Jabara’s extensive real estate holdings and related investments, as well as recently reported growth for his primary line of business.

Mobilitie is among the country’s largest privately held providers of wireless infrastructure. The company scored its first big payday in 2012 with the $1.1 billion sale of 2,300 cellphone towers, representing a “portion” of the assets of Mobilitie.

The company also has a growing line of business providing upgraded wireless service to sports arenas, concert venues, casinos and other large venues.

A big deal reported in the past few weeks gives us confidence in our latest upward estimate for Jabara.

Mobilitie last month reportedly made a deal with Sprint and majority owner SoftBank of Japan to roll out the installation of 70,000 cellphone stations in the U.S., which would be among the largest network deployment of its type in U.S. history.

Jabara previously estimated his company’s enterprise value—essentially its market cap plus debt and minus cash—at $500 million, a figure that’s likely gone up as a result of the Sprint deal. He also has a growing real estate portfolio, primarily in Orange County, in addition to Mobilitie.

He’s spent more than $200 million on residential and commercial real estate since 2012, including several buildings in Newport Beach.

Jabara’s also the main financial backer of Villa Real Estate, a luxury home brokerage that’s among the largest in the SoCal’s coastal markets.

Jabara and his family’s philanthropic efforts include support for several local schools and charities, including Sage Hill School in Newport Beach and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

—Mark Mueller

Stacey E. Nicholas

Estimated worth: $375 million

Nicholas’ private foundation is now among the county’s 40 largest, making the Business Journal’s list for the sector for the first time last year.

Her Opus Foundation is based in Los Angeles but already has made a mark in Orange County.

The foundation last year pledged $9.5 million to University of California-Irvine’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering to fund STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education initiatives in K-12 schools; for UCI undergraduate and graduate students; an endowed deanship; and for a building renovation to create study space.

The dean’s post at the school is now named for her.

Nicholas previously helped create summer internships for high school students at the Samueli School.

The former wife of Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry Nicholas tracks her fortune to the couple’s divorce settlement seven years ago.

The Business Journal estimates her worth at $375 million, up from $350 million a year ago.

That’s based on property and assets she retained from her 20-plus-year marriage to Nicholas, cofounder and former chief executive of Broadcom, and the stock market’s strong gains in the past 12 months.

Stacey (maiden name Feller) married Nicholas in 1987.

She is a member of the Samueli School’s Engineering Leadership Council and Diversity Advisory Board.

Stacey filed for divorce in 2002, a year before her husband stepped down as Broadcom’s chief executive.

The divorce became final in 2008.

Stacey holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s in electrical engineering from the University of California-Los Angeles.

She was an electrical engineer at the now-defunct defense contractor TRW Corp., where she met Nicholas.

TRW also was where Nicholas met Broadcom cofounder Henry Samueli.

—Chris Casacchia

Pawan Seth

Drug Developer, Founder

Pharma Pass LLC

Estimated worth: $375 million

Seth continues to keep an extraordinarily low personal profile, although chances are you are familiar with his body of work if you take generic versions of popular over-the-counter drugs, such as Prilosec for heartburn.

Seth’s wealth comes from patents and drug development deals. We estimate his wealth up slightly from a year ago, based on solid gains for stocks and other asset classes over the past 12 months.

He started his fortune when he established Pharma Pass LLC, which developed ways to control the release of drugs and boost their effectiveness. Thirteen years ago, Seth gained a good chunk of wealth when Canada-based Biovail Corp. [now Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.] paid him $190 million for drugs under development, technology, intellectual property and the assets of Pharma Pass LLC and Pharma Pass SA of France.

Seth has invented generic versions of more than a few well-known drugs. He created Wellbutrin XL, a once-daily, time-release version of the antidepressant that continues to maintain a loyal following in the wake of generics.

He also invented the sole generic version of Prilosec that did not infringe upon patents held by United Kingdom-based drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC. Belgium-based UCB SA markets Seth’s version of generic Prilosec.

Seth received a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France. He worked in Europe before emigrating to the U.S. in 1995. The Irvine resident has a home on multiple lots in Shady Canyon.

—Vita Reed

Bob Hoff

General Partner

Crosspoint Venture Partners

Estimated worth: $400 million

We haven’t had much luck trying to track down Hoff, and our number continues to be purely an estimate.

We’ve upped the estimated net worth by $25 million, or about 7%, based on the market direction over the past year, assuming Hoff had a good portion of his wealth in risky assets.

Much of Hoff’s wealth is from his days at Crosspoint Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that’s no longer active but was known for its high returns during the dot-com era.

Crosspoint was founded in 1970 and was based in Redwood City. Hoff opened a branch office in Irvine in 1983.

Its focus was on early-stage companies in “e-business services and broadband infrastructure,” according to the firm’s website, which looks outdated but nonetheless captures what the business was like back then.

For instance, it says that the fund typically invested up to $40 million in a project and an additional $10 million in follow-on deals. The fund had about $2 billion in capital at one point and invested in or managed more than 200 businesses.

Crosspoint’s biggest deals included PairGain Technologies Inc. in Tustin, which was sold for $1.6 billion to ADC Telecommunciations Inc. Crosspoint also sold Efficient Networks to Siemens for $1.5 billion.

A trusted source says Crosspoint experienced huge losses and closed down when the dot-com bubble burst.

Some information on Hoff’s current whereabouts can be found on the website of Miramar Venture Partners, a Corona del Mar-based venture capital firm, where Hoff is on the advisory board. He had been on the board of A Better LA for several years, but is no longer found on the organization’s website.

—Jane Yu

Duane Roberts

Chairman, Chief Executive

Entrepreneurial Corporate Group

Estimated worth: $475 million

Frozen burrito entrepreneur Roberts keeps a low public profile, which doesn’t appear to be hurting his bottom line.

We estimate Roberts’ wealth at $475 million, up from $450 million a year ago based on presumed higher valuations for his investments, companies and real estate.

His Newport Beach-based Entrepreneurial Corporate Group is said to own more than 10,000 apartments—primarily in the Southwestern U.S.—in addition to British food manufacturers, restaurants, and other ventures.

Roberts’ best-known property is in his native Riverside: the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa. He purchased the Mission Inn in 1985 for $13.5 million and saved it from demolition. It was reopened in 1992.

His fortune tracks back to 1950, when his dad, Harry Roberts, started Butcher Boy Food Products Inc., a meat company that was the main supplier of patties to McDonald’s and other fast-food chains. Roberts dropped out of college to help his dad run the business.

At 19, he came up with what is billed as the first frozen burrito. Roberts soon became president and had built Butcher Boy to six plants and 1,400 workers before he was 30.

Butcher Boy had an estimated $85 million in yearly sales when the family sold the business to Central Soya Inc. in 1980.

The company later became part of Tyson Foods Inc. before being sold to a private equity group.

Roberts went on to sell another company, Fernando’s Foods, to ConAgra Foods Inc. in the late 1990s for about $35 million in ConAgra stock.

Roberts took his food fortune and branched out into real estate, as well as banking and other investments.

He and his company are rarely mentioned in deals here, or elsewhere for that matter; other family members now count the most prominent name in local businesses. Stepdaughter Casey Reinhardt is the chief creative officer of Laguna Beach-based Casey’s Cupcakes, while wife, Kelly, has her name on a Tuscan-style spa at the Mission Inn.

Roberts built a 17,000-square-foot pet adoption center named after his mother, the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center. He is a major long-term supporter of Santa Ana-based Olive Crest Children Treatment Centers Inc. and has given “seven figures” to Pepperdine University, where his stepdaughter went to school.

—Mark Mueller

James Downey

Cofounder

EnCore Aerospace LLC

Estimated worth: $500 million

Downey is working on his second fortune by replicating the business model that made him one of Orange County’s wealthiest executives with the sale of C&D Aerospace in Huntington Beach 10 years ago.

His aptly named EnCore Aerospace LLC, also in Huntington Beach, is buzzing with new orders and a roster of established airline customers, including Southwest, Delta and American.

The company nearly doubled space last year to a completely renovated 80,000-square-foot headquarters and production plant. The move came amid increasing demand for galleys, closets, partitions, dividers and other stand-up compartments on commercial airplanes supplied by its EnCore Interiors manufacturing unit.

The division’s 60,000-square-foot plant in Seal Beach builds integrated floor panels for Boeing Inc.’s B737 and B747 aircraft models, among others.

EnCore Composite Structures, which operates out of a 120,000-square-foot factory in Brea, has seen sales increase at a double-digit clip since 2011, when Downey acquired Irvine-based Composites Unlimited Inc. for an undisclosed amount and London-based BAE Systems PLC’s composite structures line of business in Brea for $32.5 million. The unit handles complex assemblies for Airbus’ A350 aircraft and the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, a military aircraft that fuses the speed of an airplane with the hovering capability of a helicopter.

Encore is expected to hit $100 million in annual revenue in the coming year.

Downey cofounded the company in 2011 with Tom McFarland, a veteran of C&D Aerospace, which grew to about $400 million in annual revenue, employing about 4,000 in 15 locations around the world before it was sold for $600 million in 2005 to Zodiac SA in France.

The sale accounts for most of Downey’s wealth, which we increased by $25 million to reflect strong product demand at EnCore and solid gains in the stock market and other asset classes in the past 12 months, with some offset from pouring millions into expansion and construction.

Downey also oversees Aliso Viejo-based family investment firm Wave Equity Partners LLC, which manages and supports family investments and philanthropy.

He keeps a low profile and has given millions through his foundations since the C&D sale.

—Chris Casacchia

Fariborz Maseeh

Founder, Managing Principal

Picoco LLC

Estimated worth: $550 million

Maseeh’s below-the-radar personal style is punctuated by the occasional soirée at his Newport Beach oceanfront mansion, Portabello, which he purchased for more than $30 million in 2010.

Some of those parties are political fundraisers—Maseeh’s donations to Republicans range from local Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to House Speaker John Boehner—but philanthropy commands much of his attention these days.

He’s the parent of an autistic child and founder of the Kids Institute for Development and Advancement in Irvine. Other examples of his broad bent toward philanthropy: a prayer and meditation room at Children’s Hospital of Orange County bears the family name, as does as a chapel at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.

The native of Iran also runs his Newport Beach-based hedge fund Picoco, which never touts a deal publicly. He also has dedicated time and money to The Port, a renovated theater in Corona del Mar that has served as a host for film festivals and beauty pageants, as well as various films and cultural performances and events. Maseeh bought the place in 2007 and has put more than $1 million into its makeover as a high-end theater.

His Massiah Foundation has given to Portland State University in Oregon, where he did undergraduate work. The school of engineering and the math and statistics department there are both named after him.

Maseeh started the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at University of California- Irvine—named for an American Presbyterian missionary who’s known in some circles as the “father of modern education in Iran.” Maseeh has endowed a chair for Persian Studies and Culture in the School of Humanities, and professorships in Persian Performing Arts and for Persian History.

Among other recipients of his philanthropy: Samueli School of Engineering at UCI and St. Margaret’s Episcopal in San Juan Capistrano.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained pioneer in micro-electromechanical systems grew up in Tehran and came to the U.S. at age 18. He cashed out of IntelliSense Corp., a software company he built in Massachusetts, with a $750 million sale to Corning Inc. more than a decade ago.

We estimate Maseeh’s wealth up by $50 million from a year ago. Our baseline for Maseeh presumes he cashed a significant amount of Corning shares he got in the sale of IntelliSense before the stock crashed in 2001. Our increased estimate this year assumes gains in his portfolio with the strong run in stocks and other asset classes over the past 12 months, with charity offsetting a portion.

—Jerry Sullivan

Anthony Maglica

Founder, President

Mag Instrument Inc.

Estimated worth: $550 million

Maglica’s flashlight business continues to grow, as well as an extensive investment portfolio abroad. We have boosted the estimate of the Anaheim Hills resident’s fortune by $50 million, with likely gains in Maglica’s real estate portfolio also a factor.

Ontario-based Mag Instrument makes various types of flashlights and sells them in more than 100 countries. It continues to grow, innovate and obtain patents in the U.S. and internationally.

Maglica has added about 90 patents to his portfolio from last year, bringing the total to over 200.

The 84-year-old founder and chief executive of Mag Instrument still puts in 12-hour workdays six days a week and hasn’t taken a vacation in over a decade, he said in a recent New York Post article. He also said he walks Mag Instrument’s 450,000-square-foot factory multiple times a day.

He grew up in Croatia, and when World War II ended, he went to school in Sibenik and was trained as a mechanic.

Maglica’s unwavering work ethic has been a lifelong commitment. He has said he raised the eyebrows of union shop workers while working as a machinist in Denver because “shop leaders complained when he completed more pieces than his colleagues or skipped mandated breaks.”

Maglica then moved to Southern California, where he soon developed a new flashlight with innovative materials and design, including a push-button and adjustable beam. He is committed to making the flashlights—and many of the machines that manufacture them—domestically.

“Politicians always talk about supporting American manufacturing. I have done it,” Maglica said in the Post article. “Government doesn’t innovate. People like me do. Government doesn’t create jobs. We do.”

Maglica also heads the Maglite Foundation, which he started in 1997 after visiting the island of Zlarin and seeing the “extent of pollution” there. The foundation focuses on environmental protection and economic revitalization in the Adriatic region. Maglica sponsored the construction of a waste processing plant there in 2000.

—Kate Schwartz

David Wilson

Owner, Chief Executive

Wilson Automotive Group

Estimated worth: $550 million

Wilson’s 19 dealerships combined for a 17.5% jump in revenue to $1.88 billion last year, reflecting contributions from two additions and a strong national market for new cars—some 16.5 million new vehicles left dealers’ lots in 2014, the highest number since the 2006 record of 16.94 million, according to Autodata Corp. in New York.

Those factors—along with the solid market for equities and other asset classes, including the 1.2 million of retail space on 120 acres that’s part of his portfolio—prompted us to increase Wilson’s estimated personal net worth by $50 million.

Wilson Automotive’s operations consist of eight dealerships that sell the Toyota brand, three that offer Lexus vehicles, and another three that sell Hondas. There are two Ford stores and one dealership per brand for Acura, Mazda and Volkswagen.

Toyota of Orange is the group’s top performer at about $280 million in 2014 revenue (see related story, page 3) followed by Right Toyota in Scottsdale at $219 million, Newport Lexus at $162 million, and Toyota of Riverside a close fourth at $155 million. Villa Ford, which Wilson purchased from Peggy Butler in June of last year, brought in $49.3 million during the second half of 2014, while the Toyota of Las Vegas he got from fellow list member Fletcher Jones added another $78.2 million. The numbers include proceeds from new and used vehicle sales, service and parts, as well as finance and insurance revenue.

Wilson bought Toyota of Orange in 1985 after a two-year stint as general manager that saw dealership’s vehicle sales quadruple to more than 8,000 units annually. Last August he became the first dealer to sell 500,000 Toyota, Scion and Lexus vehicles. Wilson donated the milestone car, a habanero orange Prius C, to the Orangewood Children’s Foundation in Santa Ana.

Wilson Automotive Group, which has about 2,000 workers, is on its way to selling its millionth vehicle—by December it was at 857,893.

—Mediha DiMartino

Fletcher ‘Ted’ Jones Jr.

Chief Executive

Fletcher Jones Management

Group Inc.

Estimated worth: $575 million

Fletcher Jones Management Group Inc. saw last year’s sales surpass the $2.1 billion mark, a 15% increase from 2013. Its flagship property, Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach, brought in $601 million, a far cry from the bankrupt dealership Jones acquired in 1991.

Fletcher Jones Management, which Jones’ father started in Los Angeles in 1946 at 7th Street and Vermont Avenue, is headquartered in Las Vegas. Its portfolio of 19 dealerships spans four states—Hawaii, California, Nevada and Illinois. Nine dealerships sell the Mercedes-Benz brand; three offer Audis and another two sell Porsche models. There also are three Honda dealerships, one sells Fords, and one is under the Volkswagen nameplate.

The group is looking to transform a Chicago parking lot it purchased in 2008 for $5.8 million into a four-story, 95,033-square-foot Audi dealership across from its Mercedes-Benz dealership. Last year it sold Fletcher Jones Toyota Scion in Las Vegas to Wilson Automotive Group in Orange in a $75 million deal. It also sold Honolulu Land Rover and Jaguar to the local JN Automotive Group for an undisclosed amount.

We’re estimating Jones’ wealth at $575 million, up from $525 million last year, based on the strong performance of his group; the sale of the two dealerships; and general gains for stocks and other asset classes over the past 12 months.

Jones lives at Pelican Point in Newport Coast and keeps an office in Newport Beach. The dealership, Mercedes-Benz’ top selling shop in the U.S. for 15 consecutive years, has a policy that mandates its managers greet customers first so that its salespeople don’t dismiss potential opportunities too early. It’s also home to a service call center that handles inquiries for more than half of Fletcher Jones’ dealerships.

—Mediha DiMartino

John L Curci

Lido Peninsula Co.

Estimated Wealth: $650 million

Another year, another somewhat obscure indicator that this low-profile patriarch heads a family whose wealth we likely underestimated once again last year.

The family has worked over several generations to make significant marks on the office, residential, and resort landscapes of Orange County and Palm Springs, with interests in industrial property throughout Southern California to boot, according to sources with knowledge of the holdings.

More recent research suggests two more sources of wealth: retail holdings—the family appears to have owned the Carousel Mall in San Bernardino in that county seat’s better days of decades past; and eartwhile citrus land, including more than 1,000 acres where another mall is rising near the Inland Empire city of Redlands.

A big piece of the family’s wealth is said to stem from the 23 or so acres owned by Lido Peninsula Co., which counts manufactured houses that have been developed and sold with ground leases. Notable tenants on the land include the Lido Yacht Anchorage & Drystack and well-known Sabatino’s Sausage Co.

Early and long-standing investments in Ed Roski’s Majestic Realty Co. also are said to have bolstered the family’s holdings over the years.

The Curci fortune started with John L. Curci’s late father, also named John, who began buying land in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

“Buying land in California is smart if you’ve got staying power,” the elder Curci was fond of saying, according to some sources familiar with the family.

He went on to play a key role in the development of the La Quinta Country Club, Indian Wells Country Club, and Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, according to various reports.

The annual Bob Hope Classic at La Quinta has a field named after the elder Curci, who is listed with Desi Arnaz among the founders of Indian Wells in various reports.

His son and the rest of the clan carry little debt and have maintained an “impeccable” reputation in the business world, according to familiar sources.

The next generation continues to bring variety to the family business, with a son of John L.—another John—running Dbac Inc., one of the largest tenant-improvement contractors in OC.

It’s unknown how the wealth is apportioned among multiple generations, and our estimate for John L.Curci could be low. We’ve taken him up by $100 million from last year, in any case, based on the strength of equities and other asset classes in the past 12 months and new information on the basis of today’s wealth.

He gives through family foundations, among other organizations.

—Jerry Sullivan

Howard F. Ahmanson Jr.

Heir, Philanthropist

Estimated worth: $725 million

Ahmanson is occasionally at home in Corona del Mar long enough to enjoy the art that fills its rooms—and rest up for more travel. This year, he and wife Roberta Green Ahmanson have made stops in China, Ethiopia and Europe, he said. “I’m blogging and Roberta takes photographs.”

Their home—known as Casa de Los Peregrinos, Spanish for House of the Pilgrims—was completed for about $30 million in 2010 atop the hill overlooking the Little Corona del Mar beach and its famed fire rings. The couple participated in the recent successful effort to keep the fire pits available to the public.

Ahmanson’s father, Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Sr., founded Home Savings & Loan. The estate was split at his death in 1968 between the Ahmanson Foundation and Howard Jr., who was 18 at the time. Washington Mutual Inc. bought Home Savings in 1998 for $10 billion.

We estimate Ahmanson’s wealth at about $725 million, an increase of $50 million from a year ago. That reflects the solid markets for equities and other asset classes, with some offset for the couple’s giving.

The family’s assets are managed by Fieldstead & Co. and are sometimes disbursed through a charitable trust, both in Irvine.

Ahmanson’s philanthropy tends to focus on faith-based and art-oriented projects, international relief, and backyard causes for Orange County.

They can overlap, as with “Sculpture in the Age of Donatello,” which brought art and religion together when the couple helped bring 23 Florentine Renaissance sculptures to the now-closed Museum of Biblical Art in New York. Another exemple: The couple commissioned stained glass windows for a chapel at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The latter project also represented an overlap with the Ahmansons’ focus on OC—the Danish artist who crafted windows for the chapel in Michigan sculpted the giant vase visitors can see at the Orange County Rescue Mission’s headquarters in Tustin.

The mission is another recipient of the Ahmansons’ assistance: They’ve helped bring the Pacific Symphony’s Class Act program—where symphony musicians play for elementary school children—to the site.

The couple funded a conference at Chapman University in February on the financial scandal that struck the city of Bell in South L.A. County.

Internationally, the Ahmansons have given to help Syrian refugees and to combat Ebola outbreaks in West Africa.

Ahmanson graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles and took a master’s in linguistics from the University of Texas.

—Paul Hughes

Janie and Victor Tsao

General Partner

Janie Tsao

President

Miven Venture Partners

Estimated worth: $850 million

The tech couple behind the first wireless router were inducted late last year into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame.

The Tsaos, who built Irvine-based Linksys Group Inc. into a major global player that helped usher in the era of affordable home networking, joined a small fraternity in the Consumer Electronics Association designation that included Pandora Internet Radio founder Tim Westergren and Hedy Lamarr, a starlet in Hollywood’s golden era who co-invented frequency hopping—one of the most important wireless communication security technologies—during World War II.

The Tsaos remain one of Orange County’s wealthiest business couples but keep a very low public profile.

“I am still running around” the world, Victor Tsao told the Business Journal in a recent email. “My main focuses are investments and foundation projects. It has been a great learning experience.”

The Tsaos’ Miven Venture Partners in Newport Beach doesn’t have a website and rarely announces a financing deal. And we haven’t found one investment the firm has made in the past five years.

It did score an exit last year when one of the firm’s long-held portfolio companies, San Jose-based A10 Networks Inc., raised $187.5 million in an initial public offering.

We estimate the Tsaos’ wealth at $850 million, up from $800 million a year ago based on a strong market and the recent exit.

Our estimate of their wealth begins with the sale of home networking group Linksys to Cisco Systems Inc. for $500 million in 2003 and considers other investments they’ve made since then. Cisco, meanwhile, ended up selling off the Irvine-based Linksys operations in 2013 to Belkin International Inc. in Playa Vista on undisclosed terms.

Victor Tsao is big on mentoring entrepreneurs in the U.S. and China, where both of the Tsaos were born.

Janie Tsao also heads the Tsao Family Foundation in Corona del Mar.

The Miven Venture Partners Scholarship was established by the Tsao Family Foundation and Miven Venture Partners at California State University-Fullerton to support students who need financial assistance.

—Chris Casacchia

Ron Simon

Founder, Chairman

RSI Holding LLC

Estimated net worth: $900 million

We’ve moved Simon’s net worth up by about 10% this year, a bit more than the overall market gain based on an assumption that Simon has his fortune invested in a variety of asset classes, including real estate.

Simon heads a holding company that operates through a homebuilding unit and a cabinet-making division.

His RSI Development has been busy working on single-family home rental communities through its recently acquired American Housing Ventures operations. Simon says the venture now has more than 3,000 homes under way in Austin and San Antonio, Texas. Closer to home, RSI Development also is partnering with land owners and is building homes for sale in Riverside County.

Homebuilding is just a part of Simon’s enterprise. His business also includes RSI Home Products Inc., a manufacturer of kitchen, bath and home-storage cabinets. RSI Home Products sells mainly to retailers.

RSI Home Products also operates RSI Professional Cabinet Solutions as a division focused on made-to-order, frameless cabinets and primarily sells to builders and dealers.

Simon is a first-generation American who was born in East Los Angeles to a Russian mother and English father. He got a degree in engineering from Los Angeles City College and spent five years at Layne and Bowler Pump Co. as a junior engineer. He then joined his father’s cabinet company, Perma-Bilt Industries, growing it to one of the largest cabinet makers in the U.S. He sold it to an Australian company in 1987 and started RSI a couple of years later.

Simon gives to various charities through the Simon Foundations, which has awarded more than 850 scholarships totaling more than $30 million. The foundation last year formed a partnership with the Horatio Alger Association and said it will give more than $20 million in scholarships over 10 years. The foundation also partnered with Chapman University and Orange High School to form the Simon STEM Scholarship Program.

—Jane Yu

William Lyon

Executive Chairman

William Lyon Homes

Estimated worth: $1.05 billion

An up-and-down year for homebuilder stocks didn’t knock “The General” off our list of local billionaires.

We’ve given a slight boost to our latest estimate for Gen. Lyon and his family to $1.05 billion, keeping them above the $1 billion mark for the second year running.

The increase isn’t directly tied to the stock performance of namesake builder William Lyon Homes. The Newport Beach-based company’s stock is down about 5% from year-ago levels, a decline similar to other big builders across the country.

Lyon and his family—son Bill H. Lyon is the company’s co-chief executive—own all of the company’s class B stock, which is worth about $145 million, according to regulatory filings. The family also controlled a 50.5% voting stake in the company as of a few months ago, according to regulatory filings.

Only a portion of the Lyon family’s wealth is directly tied to the homebuilder.

Lyon also is a 50% owner of Newport Beach-based Lyon Communities, an apartment owner that has about 11,000 units to its name.

The apartment company, formed about 25 years ago, is valued at about $2 billion, and its valuation is no doubt rising amid the continued strength in the multifamily sector.

Factoring in debt likely in the 50% range leaves Lyon’s stake in the apartment company estimated at $500 million or more.

Lyon has been active in various other money-making ventures over the course of his long career in OC. He and fellow OC’s Wealthiest list member George Argyros reportedly paid about $30 million to buy AirCal out of bankruptcy in 1981, and each nearly doubled his money with a sale to American Airlines five years later.

Lyon also is known for his classic car and plane collection. He has some 100 classic, antique cars, including 10 Duesenbergs, of which only 480 were made. He also has a collection of old warplanes and sponsors the Lyon Air Museum near John Wayne Airport.

The 91-year-old Lyon served as a flyer in the Pacific, European and North African theaters during World War II. He rose to chief of the U.S. Air Force Reserve before retiring from the military in 1979 as a major general.

He’s one of the county’s biggest philanthropists and supporters of Republican candidates.

—Mark Mueller

Rodney Sacks

Chairman, Chief Executive

Monster Beverage Corp.

Estimated worth: $1.1 billion

Hilton H. Schlosberg

President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer

Monster Beverage Corp.

Estimated worth: $1.1 billion

The extent of the success the longtime partners and OC denizens have had in turning a small specialty soda maker into the darling of the revved-up energy drink segment of the beverage business came into focus last August, when Coca-Cola Co. said it would buy a minority stake in their Corona-based Monster Beverage Corp.

That deal was consummated in June of this year, when Coca-Cola paid $2.15 billion for 16.7% of the company; the companies exchanged several brands to make Monster solely focused on energy drinks and expanded their partnership in other ways.

Recently the partners were listed as jointly controlling about 16 million shares of Monster between them. At a recent price of $143—more than double the $65-a-share price last August when the deal with Coke was announced—those stakes are each worth $1.1 billion.

The deal with Coca-Cola came after a number of years of growth and healthy profits for Monster, which netted nearly $500 million on $2.5 billion in sales in 2014. Monster’s market cap is nearly $30 billion.

The immigrants from South Africa got into the beverage business in 1992 with the purchase of Anaheim-based Hansen Natural Corp. Sacks had left behind a career with one the biggest law firms in Johannesburg to seek his fortune in the U.S. Schlosberg had experience in packaging and had moved to the U.K.

The two bought a public company as they sought a new opportunity here and eventually landed on Hansen Natural, getting into the business just as the “New Age” category of waters, flavored drinks, and other alternatives to Coke, Pepsi and 7-Up were emerging. Hansen Natural was well-positioned for the trend, but Sacks was looking at a bigger picture even then, talking up the alternative category as a broad swath of open territory that grew to include energy drinks.

Hansen’s eventual growth with Monster—the company still makes the natural sodas, but the energy drink is the big driver—have certainly proved him right.

Sacks has a house in Laguna Beach, and Schlosberg keeps a Big Canyon address.

Sacks’ giving includes donations to Pennsylvania Congressman Tim Murphy’s election campaign, current Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel’s 2012 U.S. Senate bid, the Romney presidential effort in 2012, and the Republican National Committee. Schlosberg is also listed as having given to Murphy.

—Paul Hughes, Jerry Sullivan

Lynsi Snyder

Owner, President

In-N-Out Burger Inc.

Estimated worth: $1.2 billion

The Irvine-based burger chain is in the hands of Snyder, granddaughter of the company’s late founders, Harry and Esther Snyder. The heiress, 33, assumed the top spot at the company following her grandmother’s death in 2006, but will not technically own the company until she turns 35.

The chain reported $584 million in revenue last year, topping the Business Journal’s list of Orange County’s biggest women-owned businesses. In-N-Out added about 300 workers in Orange County for a total of 1,800. It employs 18,600 companywide—a 1.9% uptick—operating 309 burger joints in six states.

“Our success in 2014, with all that is going on around us is just a blessing!” Snyder said in an email. “We really focus on taking care of our people, both our In-N-Out family and our customers.”

The chain’s fans come from all walks of life. Lady Gaga, who performed at this year’s Oscars ceremony, gave it a nice shout-out during a post-event interview. When asked about the Vanity Fair party she was attending, the singer said, “I’m just here for the free In-N-Out!”

In-N-Out operates in what the restaurant trade calls “quick-service restaurants plus,” a category that also includes chains such as Chick-fil-A and El Pollo Loco, that offer food higher in perceived quality but at lower price points than fast-casual chains. The quick-service-plus category reported a collective 9.2% sales gain in 2014.

All indicators point to In-N-Out getting its share of the gains. We took that into account—along with a solid year for equities and other asset classes—in figuring Snyder’s fortune rose by $100 million.

The chain also supports the In-N-Out Burger Foundation, whose purpose is “to assist children who have been victims of child abuse, and to prevent others from suffering a similar fate.” The foundation has raised $17.1 million over the past 12 years.

—Mediha DiMartino

Anne Catherine Getty Earhart

Heiress, Philanthropist

Estimated worth: $1.3 billion

Caroline Getty

Heiress, Philanthropist

Estimated worth: $1.3 billion

The Getty sisters—grandchildren of late oil tycoon J. Paul Getty—commonly shy away from media coverage while focusing most of their giving on the environment and Democratic politics.

President Barack Obama stopped at Anne Earhart’s breakfast fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at her north Laguna Beach home before his commencement address for the University of California-Irvine at Angel Stadium last year.

She helped fund runs by President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Al Franken, Jerry Brown, Congressman Jerry McNerney, the late George McGovern, and an unsuccessful Missouri congressional campaign, as well as giving to the Democratic National Committee and the party’s congressional committee.

Some $2 million in the 2012 election money went to the Priorities USA Action political action committee and another $1 million to two other groups, one report said.

Giving in Southern California has focused on media and women’s issues; statewide and nationally, she’s also given to environmental causes, including Garden Conservancy Inc.

She was married to John Earhart, a founder of the Global Environment Fund.

She launched the Laguna Beach-based Marisla Foundation in 1986; her daughter Sara’s middle name is Marisla. The foundation unsuccessfully fought the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road in the 1990s but saw success in an initiative battle over global warming in 2010.

The foundation had $49.6 million in assets at the end of 2013, the most recent data available.

Caroline Getty also is an environmental activist. She’s served on boards and councils for the Wilderness Society, the World Wildlife Fund and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation.

We estimate the worth of each at $1.3 billion, up by about $100 million over the past year, which has seen solid gains for stocks and most other asset classes.

Their grandfather struck oil in 1953 and founded Getty Oil Co. in 1956. He died in 1976.

The sisters each received $750 million when a nine-year legal fight over J. Paul Getty’s will ended in 1985. Chevron Corp.’s purchase of Getty Oil a year later added another $400 million each.

Anne and Caroline were born to J. Paul Getty’s first son, George.

—Paul Hughes

Paul Merage

Chairman

MIG Management Services LLC

Estimated net worth: $1.5 billion

We’ve estimated the net worth for Merage up by about 10% based on year-over-year gains reflected in various indexes, including those for commercial real estate prices and stock markets at large.

A consideration of those indexes seems to be our best bet, since real estate and public equities are key focus areas of Merage’s investment firm, MIG Management Services LLC.

The MIG Real Estate arm, headed by nephew Greg, focuses on acquiring and managing commercial, office, hospitality and multifamily properties. The commercial property price index measured by Moody’s and Real Capital Analytics was up nearly 16% over the one-year period through the first quarter of 2015, an indication that Merage’s portfolios likely saw nice gains.

MIG Real Estate’s portfolio has continued to grow, reaching about 9 million square feet of property and about $1.5 billion in assets. Investments in 2015 so far include more than 860 units of multifamily properties in key markets in Texas. Other investments are in several other states, including Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, and Florida, as well as in Canada.

Another subsidiary, MIG Capital, is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is focused on public equity investments. It’s managed by Merage’s son Richard.

Merage’s wealth stems from the $2.6 billion sale of his family business to Nestlé in 2002. Merage and his brother, David, founded Chef America Inc. in 1975 and grew it to become a leading manufacturer of frozen food products, including Hot Pockets. The company had about $750 million in sales and 1,800 workers by the time it was sold.

Merage, who was born in Iran during WWII and moved to the U.S. as a teenager, is big on philanthropy, with a focus on education and immigration issues. He gave a $30 million gift in 2005 to the University of California-Irvine’s business school, which now bears his name. The Paul & Elisabeth Merage Family Foundation gave $1.4 million in 2014 to beneficiaries, including the Orange County Community Foundation and the El Sol Science and Arts Academy of Santa Ana.

Merage supports Israeli entrepreneurs and promotes relationship-building between the U.S. and Israel through the Merage Institute.

—Jane Yu

Vinny Smith

Founder

Toba Capital

Estimated worth: $1.5 billion

Smith continues to change the business landscape in OC and elsewhere since netting some $800 million in 2012 on a $2.8 billion sale of Quest Software to Dell.

Toba Capital, the Newport Beach-based venture capital firm he established in late 2012 with former Quest colleagues, is the county’s largest VC with more than $350 million invested in some 40 high-tech companies.

Toba counts several local companies in its portfolio, including virtual reality content producer Next VR in Laguna Beach; software security makers SecureAuth Corp. and Interset, both based in Irvine; and predictive analytics specialists Alteryx, also in Irvine, and Predixion in Aliso Viejo. Other local tech companies include Trace 3, FloQast, Specular Theory VR, Syn-optek and Peer Street. 

Local nontech investments include True Drinks Inc., an Irvine-based maker of sugar-free, naturally flavored beverages for kids, and IPS, a Los Angeles-based maker of protein chips. 

“We are trying to use some of our investment work to do things like create a healthier food supply,” he told the Business Journal in a recent email.

Toba has already notched six tech exits since launching the evergreen fund, with four sales that hit at least $100 million, including a $185 million buy of San Francisco-based business analytics provider Jaspersoft Corp. by Tibco Software Inc. in Palo Alto. Another came on the $120 million buy of San Francisco-based big-data job search provider Bright.com by LinkedIn.

Smith, whose group recently acquired NK Istra 1961, a soccer club in the top division of the Croatian First Football League, also has more than 25 real estate investments across California and throughout the West, including hotels, apartments and land. Those are in his portfolio as a personal investor, and as the primary financial backer behind Newport Beach-based developer Integral Communities, which is working on housing projects throughout the state. 

Smith has financed about 80 businesses and projects in the two-plus years since Quest was sold. 

We estimate Smith’s wealth at $1.5 billion, the same as a year ago, based on investments that have offset gains, continued donations to charity, and information that provides new insights.

Smith’s foundation contributed to 86 charities in 2014, with major gifts to Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore Md., Middle Bridge School in Rhode Island; and Orphan Starfish, which aims to help orphans, victims of abuse, and other at-risk youngsters with tech-oriented vocational training.

Smith started his career with Oracle in 1986 after graduating from the University of Delaware, where he wrestled. In 1992, he started San Francisco-based Patrol Software with an Oracle colleague. BMC Software Inc. bought Patrol in 1994 for an estimated $33.7 million.

—Chris Casacchia

Arturo R. Moreno

Owner

Angels Baseball LP,

Estimated worth: $1.7 billion

Negotiations between Moreno and the city of Anaheim to renew the lease on the nearly 50-year-old Angel Stadium have stalled.

But the same can’t be said of his ball club’s recent performance half-way through the season.

The 13-year owner of one of OC’s two major professional sports franchises has begun preliminary talks with Tustin officials to explore a new stadium at the former Tustin Marine Corps Air Station. An opt-out clause in Anaheim from 2016 to 2019 could intensify discussions, but if that window closes, the team is locked in through 2029.

Moreno has reined in a salary spending spree, shedding some $16 million from the payroll this year to about $146.5 million, the seventh highest figure in baseball. But he’s on the hook for much of troubled slugger Josh Hamilton’s remaining three years of a five-year, $125 million contract after unloading the former MVP to the Texas Rangers.

The team moved past a slow start of playing .500 baseball through the first three months of the season with a recent rally that put it atop the five-team AL West just as the mid-season All-Star break came and went. Attendance is off by nearly 10%, to 34,600 per game, even with the game’s best player, Mike Trout, manning centerfield every night.

Baseball faces long-term challenges in the slow nature of the game and the high costs of trips to the park, among other factors. But the sport remains for now lucrative for players and owners, thanks largely to a recent run of rich local cable contracts and big deals for national rights.

Forbes boosted the Angels’ worth nearly 68% from a year ago to $1.3 billion.

The club serves as Moreno’s chief asset and the reason why we took his net worth up by $300 million to $1.7 billion. The stock market and other asset classes have also performed well during the period.

He is on his second fortune—the first came from Outdoor Systems, a billboard company he founded with partner and Angels minority investor Bill Levine, taking it public in 1996 and selling to Viacom for $8.7 billion in stock in 1999.

He counts another media property in his portfolio—KLAA 830 AM, the flagship station for his team’s radio broadcasts.

Moreno and wife, Carole, are heavily involved with local charities and causes. The Angels Baseball Foundation has distributed more than $4.4 million to charitable programs throughout Southern California.

—Chris Casacchia

Henry T. Nicholas III

Cofounder

Broadcom Corp.

Estimated worth: $2.2 billion

Nicholas is set to take an official position for the first time since a very public resignation 12 years ago from the Irvine-based chipmaker he cofounded.

His adviser role is one of several changes expected to come with Broadcom’s $37 billion sale to Avago Technologies Ltd. in Singapore. The biggest tech buy in history, which is set to close in the first quarter of 2016, will create the world’s third largest chipmaker, with annual sales of $15 billion and a market value of some $77 billion.

Nicholas, who established Broadcom with Henry Samueli in 1991 in a spare bedroom in his Redondo Beach home, will hold about 8% of the combined company if the deal goes through.

He is the sole trustee of the Nicholas Technology Holding Trust, which holds about 26.2 million Broadcom shares worth more than $1.4 billion based on the share price of $54.50 when the deal was announced.

Nicholas for the last five years has not sold shares of Broadcom, which makes communication chips that go into smartphones, computers, and consumer electronics, as well as broadband and data center equipment. He has sold an estimated $1.2 billion in shares since the company went public in 1998.

He retained a 25% share of Broadcom’s voting stock in any case.

We estimate his wealth at $2.2 billion, up from $1.7 billion a year ago.

The jump is based on the 25% premium Avago placed on Broadcom shares before the deal was announced, along with modest hikes in equities and other asset classes in the past year.

Nicholas, a champion of victims’ rights and an avid OC philanthropist, told the Business Journal he will “be involved in the strategic direction” of the combined company, but shied away from discussing his planned role in detail.

His Nicholas Academic Centers, founded in 2008 with retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jack Mandel, has graduated more than 600 underserved, primarily Latino-American students in the Santa Ana Unified School District. Members of this year’s class were accepted into nearly 90 colleges, some of the best in the nation.

“The families have no money, and a lot of the families don’t recognize the value,” Nicholas said.

Marsy’s Law, financially backed by Nicholas and named for his sister who was murdered in 1983, was approved by Illinois voters in November. It’s modeled after California’s version, which strengthened the rights of crime victims. Efforts are progressing to enact the law in Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Kentucky.

—Chris Casacchia

George Argyros

Chairman, Chief Executive

Arnel & Affiliates

Founding Partner

Westar Capital LLC

Estimated worth: $2.25 billion

Another year of rising real estate valuations and strong stock returns likely provided another boost to the bottom line of Argyros and his family last year.

We’ve estimated Argyros, one of OC’s richest real estate owners and most politically connected businessmen, at $2.25 billion this year.

That’s a $125 million, or 7.5%, increase from a year ago, reflecting relatively conservative gains for Argyros’ stock holdings and real estate portfolio. Our estimate is slightly higher than that of Forbes, which gives him a $2.1 billion valuation.

Argyros owns Costa Mesa-based Arnel & Affiliates, a development and investment company he started in 1968. Arnel has close to 5,500 apartments and some 2 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space in and around Orange County.

Conservatively factoring in debt and figuring the likely boost to the value of his apartment and other local holdings over the past year, the Business Journal estimates Argyros’ wealth from real estate to be worth close to $1.2 billion.

Argyros, the former owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team and onetime partner of fellow OC’s Wealthiest member William Lyon in AirCal—also counts a large stock portfolio, in addition to other investments, much of that through Costa Mesa-based Westar Capital LLC, his family’s investment firm.

Other investments include stakes in Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp., as well as Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in Costa Mesa, where he’s a director of the bank holding company.

Argyros has taken a step back in day-to-day management of his family holdings, with wife, Julia, assuming more responsibilities, including the running of Arnel.

The family remains active on the philanthropy front. His family’s foundation has given millions to Chapman University, the Alzheimer’s Association, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, and numerous other local causes.

—Mark Mueller

William Gross

Portfolio Manager

Janus Capital Group Inc.

Estimated net worth: $2.5 billion

Gross has been with Janus for nearly a year now, manning its unconstrained bond fund, with about $1.4 billion in assets.

Janus and the fund are on the smaller side of things for Gross, who spent more than 40 years at bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., which he cofounded in 1971 and led to about $2 trillion in assets at one point.

Gross, while working at Pimco as its chief investment officer, managed the Total Return fund, which at its peak hit $293 billion in assets and now has about $103 billion. He was getting nine-figure compensation at Pimco.

He left Pimco last year amid an internal shake-up. Pimco’s outflows, which had been ongoing for some time before Gross quit, swelled in the months following his departure and have continued, though in decreasing amounts.

Gross likely is seeing smaller checks from Janus than those from his Pimco days; we’ve given a bump to his estimated net worth, by about 5%, to $2.5 billion, taking into consideration the modest gains in the stock market over the past year and assuming that Gross is a prudent investor with a conservative bent and a mix of equities and other asset classes in his personal portfolio.

Gross recently got a co-manager, Kumar Palghat, who will provide support to his unconstrained fund.

As of early July, the fund has lost 0.2% since Gross began trading in October, beating 53% of peers, according to Morningstar data.

We could expect to see Gross eventually giving away all of his money.

He and his wife, Sue, are big philanthropists in Orange County and beyond, and they plan on ultimately giving away all their wealth, according to an interview Gross had with Bloomberg earlier this year. In it, he said that he’s given away between $600 million and $700 million so far, including through his family foundation, the William and Sue Gross Family Foundation.

The couple last year gave $10 million to Mission Hospital Laguna Beach, which named its emergency department after them.

They also gave $240,000 to Saddleback College, which is in their onetime hometown of Mission Viejo, to establish the Sue and Bill Gross Scholars program.

The Grosses also gave $2 million to Hoag Memorial Hospital and $20 million to Mercy Ships in 2013.

Other gifts include $23.5 million to Duke University, where Gross got his undergrad; $10 million to University of California-Irvine for its stem cell research center; $1.5 million to the nursing school at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles; and $1 million to UCLA’s Anderson School.

—Jane Yu

James Jannard

Founder

Red Digital Cinema Camera Co.

Estimated worth: $2.9 billion

Jannard turned over day-to-day leadership of his Irvine-based Red Digital Cinema Camera Co. to Jarred Land in 2013, but it appears the self-made billionaire remains its chief visionary.

“Dedicated to purpose beyond reason, we are at war with conventional thinking,” Jannard said in the company’s online forum in April, commenting on the rollout of “Weapon,” the smaller and lighter 8K digital camera. “I can’t remember having as much fun in my life as with Red.”

The company’s sales are estimated at well more than $300 million, with much of its workforce of 500 engaged in manufacturing at its headquarters in the Irvine Spectrum; as well as Red Studios and its store in Hollywood; Red’s United Kingdom, Germany, India and China offices; and retail stores in New York and Miami.

It recently added an Authorized Rental House program, which counts more than 80 worldwide locations staffed with technical personnel and carrying an inventory of cameras to support the needs of photography, cinema, broadcast, in-flight videography and television professionals.

Red last year began offering 4K live streaming, all while recording in 6K. It showcased the camera feature during the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, broadcasting concerts from the Fader Fort music venue. It also live-streamed Volcom Pipe Pro in Hawaii, a World Surf League event.

Red cameras were used to film the third season of Netflix’ “House of Cards”; David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” movie; a 360-degree virtual reality ad for Volvo; and Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video, among other efforts.

The Epic camera was shipped via SpaceX’ Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station in January, adding to its list of filming destinations that includes the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and the top of Mount Everest. It also followed retired soccer superstar David Beckham on a guys’ trip to the Amazon jungle.

Jannard has four children and 14 grandchildren, and splits time between a house in the Seattle area and several around L.A. He recently bought four adjacent beachfront properties on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for $43.5 million.

Jannard dropped out of the USC School of Pharmacy to start Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. in 1975. Italy-based Luxottica Group SPA bought the sunglasses and apparel company for $2.1 billion in 2007 (see related story, page 3). He had a 64% stake in Oakley at the time of its sale and continues to hold the chief mad scientist and visionary title there.

We’re estimating Jannard’s wealth at $2.9 billion, up slightly more than 20% from a year earlier, crediting him for Red’s increasing status as a tool of choice for Hollywood filmmakers, ad agencies and other productions houses. Forbes Magazine pegged him at $3.5 billion, a number that doesn’t reflect Jannard’s statement to the Business Journal some years back that he had given away about $1.5 billion, about half his fortune at the time.

—Mediha DiMartino

Henry Samueli

Cofounder, Chairman,

Chief Technical Officer

Broadcom Corp.

Estimated worth: $3 billion

Samueli is set to retain his post as chief technology officer and hold a board seat after Broadcom’s $37 billion sale to Avago Technologies Ltd. in Singapore, but will give up his role as chairman when the largest deal in tech history expects to close early next year.

The cofounder of the Irvine-based chipmaker, who holds 22% of the company’s voting stock, will control about 7% of the combined company, which will go under the name Broadcom Ltd.

We estimate Samueli’s wealth at $3 billion, up $600 million from last year. His 24 million or so Broadcom shares—which account for less than half his wealth, by our estimate—are valued at $1.3 billion based on the share price of $54.50 before the deal was announced.

Samueli has sold more than $1.4 billion in shares since the company went public in 1998, including about $90 million worth in the past year or so. The past 12 months have seen strong gains for stocks and other asset classes.

He paid $70 million for the Anaheim Ducks in 2005, and Forbes now values the hockey franchise at $365 million. That valuation should get another bump considering the club finished the regular season with the league’s best record, but couldn’t close out the eventual Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks in either of the final two games of the Western Conference Finals, missing out on added concessions, merchandise and broadcast revenue.

The Ducks have lost a deciding Game 7 in the past three years after going up 3-2 in each series.

The team generates an estimated $37 million in ticket sales per season to go with revenue from TV and radio rights, merchandise and other sources. It’s generally thought to break even during good years and lose money during bad ones.

He also owns Anaheim Arena Management LLC, which operates the city-owned Honda Center, the Ducks’ home ice.

Samueli and wife Susan (see related story, page 3) also own part of KDOC-TV in Anaheim, which broadcasts Ducks games that aren’t scheduled by cable channel Fox Sports West.

He played a role in negotiating the company’s planned five-building campus next to Orange County Great Park that’s set to become a key operational center for the combined company that will have its headquarters in San Jose under Avago President and Chief Executive Hock Tan.

Broadcom confirmed to the Business Journal that construction of the project, which calls for 1.1 million square feet of space in the first-phase buildout, won’t be disrupted by the deal.

The campus, which has the potential for nearly twice the space, could be in line for additional employees and expanding business lines once the transaction is finalized.

—Chris Casacchia

David Sun

Cofounder, Chief Operating Officer

Kingston Technology Co.

Estimated worth: $3.5 billion

John Tu

Cofounder, President

Kingston Technology Co.

Estimated worth: $3.5 billion

Sun and Tu led the world’s largest memory products maker for computers and consumer electronics to one of its strongest performances in years.

The company boosted sales from an estimated $5.4 billion to $5.9 billion last year, which may be on the low side, according to some industry sources. The gains were fueled by its growing solid-state drive business for server memory and demand for storage and controller chips that go into smartphones and tablets, a rarely publicized business line. HyperX memory products and accessories geared for gamers also were big drivers as the company debuted a second-generation audio headset at International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The company is best known to most consumers for its ubiquitous USB drives and flash cards sold through online retailers, which represent the bulk of its annual revenue.

We’ve pegged Sun and Tu’s wealth at $3.5 billion each this year, up from $3.1 billion a year ago. The jump comes with a better understanding of the company’s market value compared with two publicly traded competitors, SanDisk and Micron. Memory products maker SanDisk boosted revenue 7.4% to $6.6 billion, with a market value of $13.3 billion, while chipmaker Micron saw its sales increase 80% to $16.3 billion with a market value of $26.2 billion.

Both companies have lost significant value in the past year—SanDisk is down 38% and Micron nearly 25%—but we didn’t penalize Kingston as severely since the company is fairly diversified, with a lengthy history of shoring memory components in high-demand times and easing off when demand wanes due to its strong supply- chain track record in Taiwan, where it handles most of its manufacturing, and other Asian markets.

The duo netted $110.7 million in June after selling subsidiary Payton Shenzhen Co. to Shenzhen Kaifa Technology Co. in China. The company had provided Kingston with back-end wafer processing and supply chain management services since 1999.

Tu, a chief benefactor of the UC Irvine cancer diagnostic center that’s in his name, matched a $350,000 donation at a May gala at the Hotel Irvine that benefited the Pacific Symphony.

Sun and Tu are estimated to own the vast majority of the company, and both also have other investments.

They are on their second fortunes. Both founded memory products maker Camintonn in the 1980s and sold it to former Irvine computer maker AST Research Inc.

They left AST to start Kingston after losing millions in Camintonn proceeds in the 1987 stock market crash.

Tu, originally from China, moved to the U.S. in 1972. He once worked as a cook in his uncle’s Chinese restaurant and as an apprentice welder while living in Germany as a young man.

Sun, who was born in Taiwan, came to the U.S. in 1977.

Tu is a music devotee who keeps local musicians in gigs with his band, JT & California Dreamin’, which plays benefits.

—Chris Casacchia

Igor Olenicoff

Owner, Founder, President

Olen Properties Corp.

Estimated worth: $3.5 billion

Olenicoff is finding no shortage of out-of-town real estate properties to invest his considerable fortune in these days, although local deals are harder to come by.

We’ve increased our estimates for Olenicoff—the second largest commercial property owner based in Orange County— by $300 million this year, the highest valuation yet for this longtime presence on our list of wealthiest residents.

At $3.5 billion, we’re slightly below the estimate given to Olenicoff by Forbes, which pegs his wealth at $3.6 billion, making him the country’s 166th richest person and the 11th wealthiest real estate executive in the U.S.

We believe our updated $3.5 billion estimate remains on the conservative side, based on sources familiar with Olenicoff and his wealth. We estimate his real estate portfolio to be approaching $5 billion, with a debt level that’s said to be well below many other property owners.

Olen Properties Corp. owns more than 7.5 million square feet of office and industrial space, much of it in Orange County.

A large portion of Olen’s office portfolio is made up of low- and midrise business parks. It also owns a skyscraper in Chicago and has a pair of office towers in Irvine. The company holds loans tied to other office towers around John Wayne Airport and has lent money for office and hotel projects in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Olen also owns more than 10,000 apartments, primarily in Las Vegas and Florida. Many of those apartments have been debt-free for years.

Recent deals include more than $100 million in apartment buys in Arizona, as well as the company’s first investment in Georgia for an apartment complex near Atlanta. Those acquisitions were all-cash deals.

Business is “just humming along nicely,” Olenicoff told the Business Journal earlier this year. “Rents on the multifamily nationwide are escalating for everyone anywhere from 5-12% a year, which makes for a nice return.”

Finding good OC properties to buy at reasonable prices has been a challenge, he said. “Acquisitions in Orange County are difficult, however we keep trying.”

Other Olen assets include marinas, land, restaurants, airport hangars and a golf course. The square footage of Olen’s total commercial real estate portfolio runs close to 20 million square feet, including apartments.

Olenicoff notes that while real estate prices are now back to precrash, 2007 levels, occupancy rates are now higher than they were then, particularly for apartments in the company’s core markets.

Real estate is only one source of wealth for Olenicoff. Others include stocks, the various loans he’s made, and cash holdings, according to sources.

Word has it he was an especially aggressive bargain hunter of stocks during the recession and remains an active—and profitable—day trader.

Olenicoff made his fortune after his family fled Soviet Moscow and landed in America, by way of Iran, in 1957. He started Olen in 1973.

He’s been grooming his daughter, Natalia Ostensen, to take over the company.

—Mark Mueller

Donald Bren

Chairman

Irvine Company

Estimated worth: $16.2 billion

Orange County’s wealthiest person has likely added more than $1 billion, if not more, to his bottom line this year.

The Business Journal estimates Bren, chairman and sole shareholder of Newport Beach-based Irvine Company, to be worth $16.2 billion this year, an 8% increase from our $15 billion estimate a year ago.

That comes with our perennial caveat: We believe our estimate for Bren is conservative. Knowledgeable sources said Bren could be worth as much as $20 billion, if not more.

The $1.2 billion increase for the country’s wealthiest real estate owner reflects continued strength in California’s coastal areas, particularly in Silicon Valley and Orange County, the Irvine Co.’s largest markets.

Also taken into consideration: a surge of new Irvine Co. developments moving forward here and elsewhere in the state, the likelihood of gains on stock and other personal investments, as well as recently disclosed additions to the company’s holdings.

The developer’s real estate portfolio totals close to 100 million square feet, including nearly 500 offices, more than 40 retail centers, 130 apartments communities with nearly 50,000 units, five marinas, three golf clubs and three resorts.

The Business Journal estimates those properties, along with land sales and home sales in the Irvine Ranch, brought in a record $2.8 billion in revenue last year.

The privately held company is the largest owner of offices in California and also one of the two largest owners of apartments in the state.

Along with OC and Silicon Valley, the company has sizeable holdings in San Diego and Los Angeles, and it owns a trio of trophy skyscrapers in Chicago.

The company also has one big New York property to its name: the MetLife Building at 200 Park Ave. in Manhattan, N.Y.

Irvine Co. has been an investor in the 58-story tower for nearly a decade but only acknowledged having a majority stake in the office in March.

The nearly 3-million-square-foot building carries an appraised value of about $3.1 billion and has at least $1.4 billion of debt tied to it, according to credit rating agencies.

It’s one of New York’s most prominent and valuable buildings, and its ownership hadn’t been factored in our prior estimates of Bren’s wealth.

The company also is in the midst of adding new trophy properties in California, with office projects under way in Irvine, La Jolla and Silicon Valley (see related story, page 1).

Those projects, along with an active apartment development pipeline and recent upgrades to Irvine Co.’s retail portfolio, mean that Bren has been investing a fair amount back into his business over the past few years.

That’s one reason we’ve not been too aggressive in increasing our estimate for his wealth, despite industry indications that higher-end real estate holdings here are selling at record-high prices.

Another reason for caution: signs that Irvine Co. has increasingly been adding debt to some of its properties, albeit at rock-bottom interest rates.

Sources have previously pegged Irvine Co.’s debt level at about 40% or less of the company’s entire portfolio, on the low side for the industry. The company has an “A+” credit rating and stable outlook from Fitch Ratings Inc.

Recent financing deals—disclosed in regulatory filings, CMBS rating agency reports and other sources—appear to have freed up cash for Irvine Co. acquisitions, as well as new development and other big investments in the company.

The company’s holdings in OC include large parts of the 5,000-acre Irvine Spectrum, Fashion Island, Newport Center, half of Irvine’s 185-acre University Research Park, Jamboree Center, MacArthur Court and the Resort at Pelican Hill.

The company’s increasingly valuable land holdings—Irvine Co. is estimated to own 21,000 acres of land in OC, about half of which probably is developable—are believed to be debt-free.

Those holdings are now earning hundreds of million dollars annually as homebuilders buy the company’s in-demand lots, or homebuyers purchase homes directly from the company’s in-house builder, Irvine Pacific.

The Irvine Ranch has been the Western United States’ bestselling master-planned home community for several years running, and builders are now paying in excess of $1 million per lot for higher-end developments in Irvine Co.’s Newport Coast and Orchard Hills developments, according to regulatory filings.

Our $16.2 billion estimate for Bren falls in between two other estimates of his wealth. Forbes recently placed a $15.2 billion estimate on his net worth, while Bloomberg estimated his wealth at $16.6 billion.

Forbes ranked Bren as the 30th richest person in the U.S. as of last week. He’s also the wealthiest person in Southern California, according to the magazine’s annual list of billionaires.

Bren got his start as a homebuilder in 1958. In 1977, he was part of a group that acquired control of Irvine Co., the successor to the massive ranch bought by James Irvine in 1864.

Bren bought out many of his partners for $518 million in 1983. In 1991, he paid $256 million to heiresses Joan Irvine Smith and her mother, Athalie Clarke, for their shares.

Bren became Irvine Co.’s sole owner in 1996.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine ranks Bren as one of the nation’s most generous philanthropists, estimating his lifetime giving at more than $1.3 billion. More than $265 million of that giving has been for education. He’s directed more than $70 million to the University of California-Irvine, among other schools.

Bren’s also set aside 57,000 acres of land—more than half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch—as open space and parklands in perpetuity. The lands are formally designated as Natural Landmarks by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the State of California.

Last year saw Irvine Co. donate to the county a 2,500-acre stretch of vacant land in Anaheim Hills and East Orange, where more than 5,000 homes once were planned. That land will remain as permanent open space.

—Mark Mueller