1 Donald Bren
Chairman
Irvine Company
Estimated worth: $16.8 billion
A uniquely hot real estate market on the Irvine Ranch—for homes, apartments and commercial property—helped boost Bren’s wealth to new levels this year.
The Business Journal estimates the chairman and sole shareholder of Newport Beach-based Irvine Company to be worth $16.8 billion.
It’s our highest-ever estimate for Bren, Orange County’s wealthiest person, but it comes with our perennial caveat: We believe it could be very conservative.
Our estimate, meanwhile, is on the high side compared with other publications; Forbes places his real-time wealth at about $15.2 billion, likely factoring in questions about the health of the national real estate market.
But for Bren, whose holdings largely are in California’s coastal areas, we feel those worries are overblown. For Orange County’s high-end properties and developable land in general, and for the Irvine Ranch specifically, the market has rarely, if ever, been stronger.
Irvine Co.-owned land remains California’s best-selling for new homes, with the high-end market in particular drawing continued interest from homebuilders over the past year. In some cases, those builders are paying as much as $1 million per new home lot.
The profits from the land deals likely have helped fund Irvine Co.’s recent big commercial development push. In the Irvine Spectrum alone, two contemporary office towers and six low-rise buildings are being added or have recently opened, in addition to massive reinvestment in the Spectrum shopping center.
The company has been on an office development push in San Diego and Silicon Valley and has an active apartment development pipeline in the state estimated to cost hundreds of millions to build.
The development pipeline will add to an already large commercial real estate portfolio. Irvine Co.’s holdings total nearly 115 million square feet, including approximately 500 office buildings, 43 retail centers, 130 apartment communities with nearly 60,000 units, three golf courses, five marinas, and three hotel/resort properties.
The Business Journal estimates those properties, along with land and home sales at the Irvine Ranch, brought in close to $3 billion in revenue last year.
The privately held company is the largest office owner in California and one of the two largest apartment owners in the state.
Along with OC, San Diego and Silicon Valley, the company has sizeable holdings in Los Angeles, and it owns a trio of trophy office properties in Chicago.
It also has one big New York property to its name: the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Its developable land on the Irvine Ranch is believed to be largely debt free, while Irvine Co.’s commercial portfolio is said to have a debt level at 40% or less, on the low side for the industry.
The company has an “A+” credit rating and stable outlook from Fitch Ratings Inc.
When it does use debt to fund its properties, it’s at rock-bottom interest rates, according to recent rating agency reports.
Its holdings in OC include large parts of the 5,000-acre Irvine Spectrum, Fashion Island and Newport Center; half of Irvine’s 185-acre University Research Park; and all of Jamboree Center, MacArthur Court and the Resort at Pelican Hill.
Irvine Co. also is estimated to own approximately 10,000 acres of additional land in OC, about half of which is developable.
Forbes ranks Bren as the 30th richest person in the U.S. He’s also the wealthiest person in Southern California and the richest real estate owner in the country, according to the magazine’s annual list of billionaires.
Bren got his start in homebuilding 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.
He 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 $375 million of that has been for education. He’s directed more than $70 million to the University of California-Irvine, among other schools and universities, plus $20 million to Irvine Unified School District.
He also set aside over 57,000 acres—more than half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch Master Plan—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.
Irvine Co. in 2014 donated to the county an additional 2,500-acre stretch of developable land in Anaheim Hills and East Orange where more than 5,000 homes once were planned. That land is designated as permanent open space.
—Mark Mueller
2 Igor Olenicoff
Owner, founder, president
Olen Properties Corp.
Estimated worth: $4 billion
Olenicoff has put a bit more of his considerable and growing fortune back into Orange County’s office market over the past year.
We’ve increased our estimates for Olenicoff—the second largest commercial property owner based in Orange County—by $500 million this year.
It’s the highest valuation yet for this longtime presence on our list of wealthiest residents, and owes to a strong trailing 12 months for his real estate portfolio and an additional boost based on new insights on his fortune.
We’re ahead of Forbes’ estimate, which as of last month pegged Olenicoff’s wealth at $3.8 billion, making him the country’s 162nd richest person and the 12th wealthiest real estate executive in the U.S.
Both estimates could be low; in addition to his vast commercial real estate portfolio, Olenicoff’s holdings are said to include a heavy amount of stocks, various loans he’s made, and cash, according to sources familiar with his operations.
We now estimate his real estate portfolio to top $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. The company also owns more than 12,000 apartments, most of them outside OC.
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 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.
The company made two notable purchases in OC over the past year.
It paid $44.8 million in May to buy Main & Redhill Business Center, a 17-acre low-rise property near the airport in Irvine, and last September it paid another $17 million for Pacific Park, a six-building complex in Aliso Viejo.
The Irvine purchase was the company’s largest local deal in three years. “Acquisitions in Orange County are difficult; however, we keep trying,” Olenicoff told the Business Journal last year.
Many of the company’s acquisitions over that time have been for out-of-state apartment complexes. It’s spent close to $400 million since late 2014 buying rental properties in Arizona, Florida and Georgia. Many of those acquisitions were all-cash deals.
Other Olen assets include marinas, land, restaurants, airport hangars and a golf course. Its 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 pre-crash 2007 levels, occupancy rates are higher than they were then, particularly for apartments in the company’s core markets. The company’s been building a few rental projects in some of its other markets.
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. She has been heading up many of the company’s acquisitions in the past few years.
—Mark Mueller
2 Henry Samueli
Chief technical officer
Broadcom Ltd.
Estimated worth: $4 billion
Broadcom Corp.’s $37 billion sale in February to Singapore-based Avago Technologies Inc. generated a big wealth boost for the co-founders of the Irvine chipmaker.
The largest deal in the sector’s history, creating the third largest chipmaker in the world under the name Broadcom Ltd., added an estimated $1 billion to Samueli’s wealth.
We estimate his net worth at $4 billion.
Samueli, who retained his title as chief technical officer and a board seat after the sale, controls about 2.3% of the combined company, which has annual revenue of $15 billion and a recent market value of about $64.1 billion.
He controlled about 24 million Broadcom shares—which accounted for less than half of his wealth, by our estimate—before the sale.
He has sold more than $1.4 billion in shares since Broadcom went public in 1998.
His ongoing role in Irvine with Broadcom Ltd. bears monitoring, as the company has slashed hundreds of jobs since the deal and divested two units—a wireless infrastructure backhaul business and an Internet of Things business, for a combined $630 million—that had significant operations here.
Irvine, which had been Broadcom Corp.’s headquarters since 1995, lost that designation after the sale, as Chief Executive Hock Tan chose San Jose as the home of the company’s U.S. operations.
Samueli has been largely mum on the deal and the local operation, despite playing a key role in acquiring land at Orange County Great Park and laying out the vision for the new campus there.
The Business Journal reported this year that Broadcom already has tweaked plans at the 73-acre site, putting one or more of the four midrise buildings under construction up for sale.
Part of Samueli’s wealth stems from his ownership of the Anaheim Ducks. He paid $70 million for the hockey club in 2005. Forbes late last year valued the franchise at $400 million, up from $365 million in 2014. That ranked No. 16 in the 30-team league. The team pulled in an estimated $122 million in revenue last year.
The Ducks captured their fourth straight Pacific Division crown but couldn’t get out of the first round of the NHL playoffs against the Nashville Predators, dropping Game 7 on home ice for the fourth consecutive year.
The sour finish led to the firing of head coach Bruce Boudreau and the rehiring of Randy Carlyle, who led the franchise to its first and only Stanley Cup in 2007.
Samueli also owns Anaheim Arena Management LLC, which operates the city-owned Honda Center, the Ducks’ home ice.
Samueli and wife, Susan, also own a stake in KDOC-TV in Anaheim, which broadcasts Ducks games that aren’t scheduled by cable channel Fox Sports West.
Samueli Foundation in Corona del Mar, run by the couple, in June gave an additional $10 million to the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at University of California-Los Angeles.
—Chris Casacchia
2 David Sun
Co-founder, chief operating officer
Kingston Technology Co.
Estimated worth: $4 billion
2 John Tu
Co-founder, president
Kingston Technology Co.
Estimated worth: $4 billion
A blockbuster buy initiated by another OC tech titan has provided new insight into the market value of Kingston Technology Inc. and ultimately its co-founders.
Irvine-based Western Digital Corp.’s $19 billion buy in May of SanDisk Corp. in Milpitas established a better baseline to assess Kingston’s value.
Both companies compete heavily in the consumer market of USB and flash drives, a segment that accounted for less than half of Kingston’s estimated annual revenue of $6.5 billion last year. The Fountain Valley-based company, however, has made big strides to diversify its product lineup the last few years as its embedded products business has seen strong demand.
The world’s largest memory products maker for computers and consumer electronics kicked off the year by signing a licensing deal with Microsoft to manufacture headsets for Xbox One, a big evolution for its growing HyperX division, which targets gamers and now is separately branded. HyperX has new partnerships with Ubisoft, the French video game maker behind the Tom Clancy franchise, that includes a free game with a headset purchase—a Kingston first—and Cyprus-based Wargaming. Kingston’s Latin American unit is working with counterparts at Blizzard Entertainment on cross-promotions.
We’ve pegged their wealth at $4 billion apiece, up from $3.5 billion a year ago. The increase stems from a better understanding of Kingston’s value provided by SanDisk’s sale, the continued growth of the business last year—Kingston’s revenue was up $600 million from 2014—and the success of its ongoing diversification, which includes some well-timed gaming-related products.
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. They co-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 whose band, JT & Friends, plays benefits.
—Chris Casacchia
6 James Jannard
Founder
Red Digital Cinema Camera Co.
Estimated worth: $3.2 billion
The man who built two global brands—Red Digital Cinema Camera Co. in Irvine, which he runs with President Jarred Land, and Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc., which he sold to Luxottica Group SPA—is up to something new, or as he puts it, “the single most important thing I have ever worked on or been involved with” (see related story, page 1).
That’s a mouthful for the USC School of Pharmacy dropout who began selling motorcycle grips out of his car in 1975—a venture he named Oakley after his English Setter. Motorcycle and ski googles came next, followed by designs for state-of-the-art sunglasses. He took the company public in 1995 and sold it to Italy-based Luxottica in 2007 for $2.1 billion. Jannard’s share of proceeds amounted to about $1.3 billion.
“I started Oakley with $300 and then proceeded to put over 5,000 people to work in California,” he reflected in a 2013 post to an online forum that attracts Red camera users. “Against all odds, we passed RayBan in worldwide sales in 1996. I am so proud of what we accomplished at Oakley. Inventions wrapped in art.”
Red Digital, two years after Jannard launched it in 2005, released Red One, “a 4k camera for $20k,” while competitor Sony was selling its digital cinema cameras for about $200,000. He also bought Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood in 2010 and renamed it Red Studios.
Directors Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott and James Cameron are among his customers, and the cameras have claimed many blockbusters, including “The Hobbit,” “Transformers,” “The Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” and the upcoming “Avatar” sequels. Red Digital’s sales are estimated at well over $300 million, with its work force of 500 engaged in manufacturing at its headquarters in the Irvine Spectrum; the Red Studios facility and store in Hollywood; Red’s United Kingdom, Germany, India and China offices; and retail stores in New York and Miami.
Red cameras have become a mainstream tool for creating 360-degree virtual-reality video, and are often paired with the Laguna Beach-based NextVR live broadcast system.
Jannard, meanwhile, has added “innkeeper” to his title of “mad scientist”—for about $10,000 a night, guests can stay at one of three villas at his Vatuvara Private Island, one of Fiji’s more than 330. He’s married to Misha and has four children and 14 grandchildren. He splits his time between Washington, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
We’re estimating his wealth at $3.2 billion, up slightly more than 10% from a year ago, crediting him for Red’s increasing status as a tool of choice for Hollywood filmmakers, ad agencies and other production houses. Forbes Magazine pegged him at $4.4 billion for 2016, a number that doesn’t reflect Jannard’s statement to the Business Journal some years back that he had given away some $1.5 billion, about half his fortune at the time.
—Mediha DiMartino
6 Henry T. Nicholas III
Co-founder
Broadcom Corp.
Estimated worth: $3.2 billion
Nicholas, who established Broadcom Corp. in 1991 in a spare bedroom of his Redondo Beach home with fellow OC’s Wealthiest list member Henry Samueli, boosted his wealth significantly after the company’s $37 billion sale in February to Avago Technologies Inc. in Singapore.
We estimate the sale added $1 billion to his net worth, bringing the total to $3.2 billion.
The jump is based on the 25% premium Avago placed on Broadcom shares before the deal was announced, as well as some new insights uncovered in regulatory filings related to the sale that created the world’s third largest chipmaker, with annual sales of $15 billion and a recent market value of some $61 billion.
Nicholas is the sole trustee of the Nicholas Technology Holding Trust, which held about 26.2 million Broadcom shares that were worth more than $1.4 billion based on the share price of $54.50 when the deal was announced.
Nicholas for the last six years had 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 had sold an estimated $1.2 billion in shares since the company went public in 1998.
Nicholas is a champion of victims’ rights and an avid OC philanthropist. His Nicholas Academic Centers, founded in 2008 with retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jack Mandel, has graduated more than 600 under-served, primarily Latino-American students in the Santa Ana Unified School District.
He financially backs and advocates for Marsy’s Law, named for his sister who was murdered in 1983. The bill was approved in Nevada last year and in Illinois in 2014. It continues to progress in several other states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Kentucky. The law is modeled after California’s version, which strengthened the rights of crime victims.
—Chris Casacchia
8 William Gross
Portfolio manager
Janus Capital Group Inc.
Estimated net worth: $2.6 billion
Gross has been with Janus Capital Group Inc. for about two years, heading its Unconstrained Bond Fund with some $1.4 billion in assets, about half of which come from the Bond King himself.
Janus and the fund are a change for Gross, who spent more than 40 years at bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., which he co-founded in 1971 and helped grow into a global force with about $2 trillion in assets under management at its peak.
Gross managed the Total Return Fund, which was the largest bond fund in the world with $293 billion in assets at its high-water mark, prior to his abrupt departure from Pimco in 2014. He walked away from a compensation package that paid out in the nine-figure range annually.
Gross’ departure was part of an internal shakeup that has continued to some degree ever since, with the most recent example the reassignment of Doug Hodge, who stepped away from the CEO post, which is now filled by Emmanuel “Manny” Roman.
Gross is no doubt seeing smaller checks from Janus compared with his Pimco days. We estimate his net worth up by $100 million, based on the performance of the Janus fund over the past year and assuming that Gross is a savvy investor with a conservative bent including a mix of equities and other asset classes in his personal portfolio, which is believed to reflect his penchant for flipping high-end residential real estate.
The fund has gained about 2.5% over the past year or so, beating 78% of peers, according to Morningstar data.
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 in 2014. In it, he said that he’s given away between $600 million and $700 million, including through his family foundation, the William and Sue Gross Family Foundation.
The couple has a primary focus on health care; earlier this year they donated $40 million to the University of California-Irvine to create a nursing school, and two years ago they gave $10 million to Mission Hospital Laguna Beach, which named its emergency department after them.
They also gave $240,000 to Saddleback College in their one-time 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 Bill got his undergraduate degree, $10 million to UCI 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.
—Michael de los Reyes
9 Rodney Sacks
Chairman, chief executive
Monster Beverage Corp.
Estimated worth: $2.5 billion
9 Hilton H. Schlosberg
President, chief operating officer,
chief financial officer
Monster Beverage Corp.
Estimated worth: $2.5 billion
The success of these longtime partners and OC denizens was known to all when Coca-Cola Co. in 2014 said it would buy a minority stake in their Corona-based Monster Beverage Corp., a maker of revved up energy drinks.
That deal closed in June 2015, when Coca-Cola paid $2.15 billion for 16.7% of the company. The companies exchanged several brands to assure that Monster focused on energy drinks, and expanded their partnership in other ways.
Recently the partners were listed as directly or indirectly owning about 16 million shares each of Monster. At a recent price of $156—more than double the $65 a share price when the deal with Coke was announced—those stakes are each worth about $2.5 billion.
The deal came after a number of years of growth and healthy profits for Monster, which in 2014 netted nearly $500 million on $2.5 billion in sales. Monster’s market cap is $31 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 sought to buy a public company as they looked for 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, and referencing the then-unknown “nutraceuticals” that in time became all the rage.
Hansen’s eventual growth with Monster—the company still makes natural sodas, but the energy drink is the big driver—have certainly proved him right.
The executives recently have plunged into the commercial real estate market, creating a venture that has purchased about three office buildings over the past year (see related story, page 1).
Sacks has a house in Laguna Beach, and Schlosberg keeps a Big Canyon address.
Sacks’ recent giving included donations to U.S. Senator Marco Rubio for president. He backed Mitt Romney’s presidential effort in 2012, as well as the Republican National Committee.
—Michael de los Reyes
11 George Argyros
Chairman, chief executive
Arnel & Affiliates
Founding Partner
Westar Capital LLC
Estimated worth: $2.35 billion
George Argyros and his family have made headlines giving away portions of their vast fortune, rather than adding to it, over the past year.
We’ve estimated Argyros, one of OC’s richest real estate owners and most politically connected businessmen, to be worth $2.35 billion this year.
That’s a $100 million, or nearly 4.5%, increase from a year ago, reflecting our estimate of modest-to-small gains for stock holdings, but better returns for his extensive commercial real estate portfolio.
Argyros owns Costa Mesa-based Arnel & Affiliates, a development and investment company he started in 1968. Arnel has close to 5,500 apartments in its portfolio; about 4,500 of those units are reported to be in Orange County.
The company also owns some 2 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space in and around OC.
Argyros, the former owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team and one-time partner of fellow OC’s Wealthiest member William Lyon in AirCal—also has a large stock portfolio, in addition to other investments, much of that through Costa Mesa-based Westar Capital LLC, his family’s investment firm.
The family remains active on the philanthropy front. Its foundation has given millions to Chapman University, the Alzheimer’s Association, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, the Nixon Library and numerous other local causes.
Its long history of backing the local arts community took center-stage last year with a $13.5 million gift to Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, the largest contribution yet in the arts campus’ $68 million fundraising campaign. A public town square at the center will be named Julianne and George Argyros Plaza and include a stage, plus guest amenities.
The family also has given theater-related gifts to Chapman University and Discovery Cube in Santa Ana. In June, it pledged $2.5 million to the Croswell Opera House in Adrian, Mich., where Julia lived in her youth.
—Mark Mueller
12 Arturo R. Moreno
Owner
Angels Baseball LP
Estimated worth: $1.8 billion
Moreno’s Angels are facing big questions on and off the diamond, as the 2016 season appears to be a lost cause.
The team recently put together a winning streak to raise some hope in what’s otherwise been a desultory season. Insult to injury: Its farm is in dire need of a jolt.
The franchise also has some clouds hanging over its future in terms of location. There’s been little news in the last year or so regarding negotiations between Moreno and the city of Anaheim to renew the team’s lease on the nearly 50-year-old ballpark.
Moreno can exercise an opt-out clause through 2019, but if that window closes the team is locked in at Anaheim through 2029.
The club added about $20 million to the payroll before opening day, hitting $166.8 million. The figure is the seventh highest among 30 teams for the second consecutive year. The club is still on the hook for about $50 million of Josh Hamilton’s five-year, $125 million contract, even though the troubled outfielder was unloaded to the Texas Rangers last year. Hamilton did not play a game this year and recently underwent season-ending surgery to repair a torn ACL.
We estimate the wealth of the 14-year owner of one of OC’s two major professional sports franchises at $1.8 billion, up $100 million from last year.
Forbes boosted the Angels’ worth about 3% from a year ago to $1.34 billion.
The club serves as Moreno’s chief asset.
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 has 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
13 Paul Merage
Chairman
MIG Management Services LLC
Estimated net worth: $1.6 billion
The entrepreneur whose name graces the University of California-Irvine’s business school made his fortune on frozen food products and continues to make his mark through philanthropy in Orange County and beyond.
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 American 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.
His philanthropy includes a clear emphasis on education. He gave a $30 million gift in 2005 to UCI’s business school. The Paul & Elisabeth Merage Family Foundation has been a big backer of El Sol Science and Arts Academy, a charter school in Santa Ana.
Merage also has given to the Orange County Community Foundation, among other organizations, supports Israeli entrepreneurs and promotes relationship building between the U.S. and Israel through the Merage Institute.
We’ve upped our estimate of the net worth for Merage, who was born in Iran during WWII and moved to the U.S. as a teenager, by $100 million this year based on an assumption that his commercial real estate holdings have more than enough appreciation to offset the nearly even equities markets of the past 12 months.
The MIG Real Estate arm, headed by nephew Greg, focuses on acquiring and managing commercial, office, hospitality and multifamily properties.
MIG Real Estate recently acquired The Berkshire, a 274-unit apartment community in Washington state, for an undisclosed amount. The real estate investment trust also recently bought the 244,028-square-foot Dry Creek Business Park near Denver for an undisclosed sum. In August it acquired two Hilton “select-service” hotels in Georgia. Another subsidiary, MIG Capital, bought a $25.7 million stake in Harley-Davidson Inc. and a $16.2 million stake in Charles Schwab Corp. in last year’s fourth quarter.
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.
—Deirdre Newman
14 Vinny Smith
Founder
Toba Capital
Estimated worth: $1.5 billion
Smith and his small team of researchers, executives and finance experts at Newport Beach-based Toba Capital continue to scan the globe for investment deals.
His $500 million evergreen fund has invested about $400 million and has 40 companies in its portfolio. Several local companies have been backed by the former software chief executive, including Laguna Beach-based virtual content maker NextVR, security software maker SecureAuth Corp., and fast-growing data analytics software company Alteryx Inc., both based in Irvine.
Other local tech companies backed by Toba include Trace 3, FloQast, Specular Theory VR, Synoptek and Peer Street.
Smith’s latest investment interests have focused on alternative energy sources, including three solar deals and one wind investment.
The Business Journal estimates Smith’s wealth to be flat from a year ago at $1.5 billion, with money flowing into new deals, including a number focused on “impact investing” (see related story, page 1), and no significant exits to speak of over the past 12 months.
The majority of his wealth stems from the $800 million he netted in 2012 on the $2.8 billion sale of Quest Software to Dell.
He earmarked part of that windfall to establish Toba with former Quest colleagues. The VC firm is the largest based in OC in terms of total funding and also topped the leaderboard in local investments last year, with $23 million committed, according to Business Journal research on the industry.
Toba already has notched more than six big exits since launching the evergreen fund, including four sales that hit at least $100 million. A few more could be added in the next few months, according to the company.
Smith supports over 100 charities, including Orphan Starfish, which provides after-school training in orphanages and shelters in 25 Latin American locations and the Philippines. He has begun to focus more heavily on cancer research.
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
15 Anne Catherine Getty Earhart
Heiress, philanthropist
Estimated worth: $1.35 billion
15 Caroline Getty
Heiress, philanthropist
Estimated worth: $1.35 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 when she hosted a breakfast fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at her north Laguna Beach home before his commencement address at the University of California-Irvine at Angel Stadium.
She has funded runs by Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Al Franken, Jerry Brown, Congressman Jerry McNerney, and the late George McGovern, and also has given to the Democratic National Committee and the party’s congressional committee.
Earhart’s giving in Southern California has focused on women’s issues, among others; statewide and nationally she’s also given to environmental causes, including Garden Conservancy Inc.
She previously was married to John Earhart, a founder of the Global Environment Fund.
She launched the Laguna Beach-based Marisla Foundation in 1986; daughter Sara’s middle name is Marisla.
The foundation unsuccessfully fought the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road in the 1990s but had success in an initiative battle over global warming in 2010. It had $55.5 million in assets at the end of 2014, the most recent data available from the Foundation Center.
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 $1.35 billion, up by less than 5%, reflecting a generally strong run for bonds and so-so run for equities over the past 12 months.
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 $400 million each.
Anne and Caroline are two of the three oldest grandchildren in the family, born to J. Paul Getty’s oldest son, George.
—Deirdre Newman
17 Lynsi Snyder
Owner, president
In-N-Out Burger Inc.
Estimated worth: $1.2 billion
Snyder is the sole owner of the Irvine-based burger chain, and recently stated she has no intentions to take it public or sell franchises.
“My heart is totally connected to this company because of my family,” Snyder said during a TV interview at the grand opening of the first In-N-Out in Oregon. “The fact that they are not here, I have a strong tie to keep it the way that they would want it.”
The granddaughter of late founders Harry and Esther Snyder assumed the top spot in 2006—she was 24 at the time, and the company had 200 restaurants, 11,000 workers and about $350 million in revenue. Now the 317-store chain employs 23,695 in six states, a 27.4% uptick from a year ago.
We’ve estimated Snyder to be worth about $1.2 billion, the same as last year. We assumed that a 5% gain in revenue for In-N-Out, which ended 2015 with $614.5 million in sales, was reinvested in the company’s expansion into Texas and Oregon.
In-N-Out’s value likely has held steady, nonetheless, amid a lackluster run for the restaurant sector in general.
The chain, of which Snyder gets full control next year when she turns 35, competes in the “quick service restaurants plus” category that also includes Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, El Pollo Loco Inc. in Costa Mesa, and others who offer food that’s deemed higher in freshness and quality but at a lower price point than fast-casual chains.
In-N-Out, which starts its employees at $10.50 an hour—well above the standard for the fast-food industry—ranked No. 13 on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work for 2016, ahead of Apple Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Salesforce.com. Snyder also placed No. 17 on the job search website’s list of “Highest Rated CEOs” for 2016, with 94% of surveyed employees approving her performance. She also was the top-ranked female on the list.
—Mediha DiMartino
18 William Lyon
Chairman emeritus
William Lyon Homes
Estimated worth: $1.1 billion
A down year for the stock of his namesake homebuilding company wasn’t enough to knock the general off our list of local billionaires this year.
In fact, we’ve given a slight boost to the estimate for Lyon and his family to $1.1 billion, keeping them above the $1 billion mark for the third year running.
The increase isn’t tied to the stock performance of builder William Lyon Homes, where Lyon, 93, serves as chairman emeritus.
The Newport Beach-based company’s stock is down about 25% from a year ago, a decline similar to other big builders across the country.
Lyon and his family—son Bill H. Lyon is the company’s chairman of the board and executive chairman—own all the company’s Class B stock, which is worth a little more than $100 million, according to regulatory filings.
The family also controlled a 50.5% voting stake in the company—which has a market value of about $500 million—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, which has been in business for 60 years.
The estimated gains to the Lyons’ fortune are related largely to their 50% ownership of Newport Beach-based Lyon Communities, an apartment owner with about 11,000 units to its name.
The apartment company, formed about 25 years ago, is valued at more than $2 billion, and its valuation no doubt is 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 at an estimated $600 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 about doubled his money with a sale to American Airlines five years later.
Lyon also is known for his classic car and plane collections. He has some 100 classic and 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.
His 135-acre Coto de Caza estate features a citrus grove and a private, 23,000-square-foot automobile museum “where Cadillacs, Packards and Duesenbergs rest their treads on a white marble floor,” according to a 2015 profile in the Guardian, which noted that he owns a 1941 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser W150 Offener Tourenwagen, a war-era car that Hitler once rode in.
Known as “The General,” 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
18 William Wang
Co-founder, chief executive
Vizio Inc.
Estimated worth: $1.1 billion
Our estimate for Wang’s wealth more than doubles with the pending $2 billion sale of Vizio Inc. to Chinese conglomerate LeEco.
We peg Wang at $1.1 billion, up from $350 million last year. The estimate is largely based on the newly established market value his 54.7% stake in the Irvine-based consumer electronics brand he founded, plus a little extra based on a presumption of savvy investing over recent years, as Vizio grew rapidly to compete with Samsung for the title of top seller of smart TVs in the U.S.
The sale of Vizio, expected to close in the fourth quarter, could face some regulatory hurdles here and in China, based on recent trends in big deals with China-based buyers.
The agreement calls for Wang to cede his role at Vizio and become chairman and chief executive of the company’s developing data business, Inscape, which will spin out and operate as a separate, privately owned company.
Wang will retain a 51% stake of the burgeoning data business line, which will keep its headquarters in Irvine.
Vizio’s largest minority owners are Taiwan-based AmTRAN Technology Co., which controls 20.4% of common stock, and Q-Run Holdings Ltd., an affiliate of Taipei, Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Co. that holds an 8.3% stake. Hon Hai, better known as FoxConn, is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer. La Jolla-based V-TW Holdings LLC has a 7.7% stake.
Wang, who co-founded Vizio in 2002, has grown it to become the sixth largest privately held company based in Orange County.
Vizio entered this year as the No. 1-ranked seller of soundbars and the No. 2 seller of smart, high-definition TVs in the U.S., with sales of $3.1 billion last year.
TVs accounted for 94% of its revenue last year, according to filings.
Vizio’s products are carried in more than 8,000 U.S. retail outlets.
It has been profitable for the last ten years.
The company recently introduced the Vizio SmartCast Ultra HD home theater system synced with Google Cast and a new line of VIZIO SmartCast soundbars (see related story, page 1).
—Chris Casacchia
20 Ron Simon
Founder, chairman
RSI Holding LLC
Estimated net worth: $950 million
Simon heads a holding company that operates a cabinet maker and a homebuilder.
His RSI Communities has been busy lately building single-family home developments throughout Southern California and Texas. Simon says the venture now has more than 3,000 homes under way. RSI in July announced its acquisition of a master-planned community in San Antonio. Taking on the role of developer and homebuilder, the company plans to build 780 energy-efficient, single-family homes. This is another sign of momentum under the leadership of Todd Palmaer, a veteran of Standard Pacific Homes who took on the CEO post at RSI Communities this year.
RSI Communities also is partnering with land owners closer to headquarters, 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. It also operates RSI Professional Cabinet Solutions as a division focused on made-to-order frameless cabinets selling primarily to builders and dealers.
Strong real estate and consumer markets, along with a presumption that Simon is a savvy personal investor, led us to estimate a gain of $50 million in his net worth since last year.
Simon is a first-generation American who was born in East Los Angeles to a Russian mother and English father. He earned an engineering degree 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 into 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 $25 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. It also partnered with Chapman University and Orange High School to form the Simon STEM Scholarship Program.
—Michael de los Reyes
21 Victor Tsao
General partner
‡ Janie Tsao
President
Miven Venture Partners
Estimated worth: $850 million
The tech power couple is spending less time in OC these days and more time in Asia as they traverse the globe hunting for various deals.
The Tsaos remain one of the wealthiest business couples but keep a very low public profile.
“We are still diligently working hard on various projects,” Victor Tsao told the Business Journal in a recent email.
We estimate their wealth at $850 million, flat from a year ago.
Our estimate of their wealth begins with the sale of home networking group Linksys Group Inc. to Cisco Systems Inc. for $500 million in 2003, and considers other investments they’ve made since then. Cisco sold the Irvine-based Linksys operations in 2013 to Belkin International Inc. in Playa Vista on undisclosed terms.
The tech couple behind the first wireless router are enshrined in the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame.
They built Irvine-based Linksys into a major global player that helped usher in the era of affordable home networking.
The Tsaos’ Miven Venture Partners in Newport Beach doesn’t have a website and rarely publicizes a financing deal. And we haven’t found one investment the firm has made in the past six years.
It did score an exit a few years ago when one of its long-held portfolio companies, San Jose-based A10 Networks Inc., raised $187.5 million in an initial public offering.
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
22 Peter Cooper
Owner
Cooper and Company
Estimated worth: $750 million
Cooper is a real estate developer and investor here and in New Zealand, where he was born in Kaitaia, on North Island, the location of the country’s largest city, Auckland, and most of his work is there.
He carried a law degree into the corporate world for a career track that put him on an upward trajectory. Then he seized an opportunity to redevelop and restore historic buildings in downtown Auckland in a 15-acre project called Britomart, and built four luxury residences at The Landing—think the Villas at Montage Laguna Beach—in the Bay of Islands resort area and natural preserve.
The now Newport Beach resident brought his entrepreneurial drive to the U.S. in about 1989 when he and his late business partner, Brian Stebbins, laid out the city center of Southlake, Texas, near Dallas-Ft. Worth; the Southlake Town Square master plan included a town hall, library and post office.
The 130-acre project also has 840,000 square feet of hotel space and high-end retail, with more than 215 shops and restaurants bringing in about 10 million customers annually. Some 2 million square feet are still to be developed.
Cooper and Company last year took space in Irvine Company’s 520 Newport Center office tower.
We estimate Cooper’s wealth based on his 2015 “Rich List” entry in the New Zealand-based National Business Review.
Some of Cooper’s wealth is held through Dimensional Fund Advisors, an Austin, Texas-based money manager with about $400 billion in assets.
He and his wife Susan in October pledged $50 million of their Dimensional holdings to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., for athletics and leadership work. All five Cooper kids are alumni of the Jesuit school, and Peter Cooper retired from its board of trustees in 2013.
Cooper also gave $1 million and artwork to establish the Britomart Arts Foundation in New Zealand, a news report said.
He was made a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in the Queen’s New Year Honors list for 2014, and in 2008 received an award as “Outstanding Māori Business Leader”—Māori refers to the indigenous peoples of New Zealand.
Cooper previously was an attorney in commercial and property law, and chief executive of LD Nathan & Co., a New Zealand retailer that merged with an international brewer in 1988.
—Paul Hughes
23 Howard F. Ahmanson Jr.
Heir, philanthropist
Estimated worth: $725 million
Ahmanson is the son of and heir to the late Home Savings founder Howard Fieldstad Ahmanson. He was 18 when his father died in 1968, and the estate was split with the Ahmanson Foundation. The savings and loan sold 30 years later for $10 billion to Washington Mutual.
Howard and Roberta Green Ahmanson, a former journalist, married in 1986 and have an adult son, David. The two have dovetailing interests—the couple’s family office, Fieldstead & Co. in Irvine, reflects his love of books, with shelves filled to the brim with an eclectic mix of titles, while her affinity for the visual arts comes clear through paintings, sculptures and an overall decor that features a vivid color palette.
Just as eclectic is the crowd drawn to regular salons at the office, which is nondescript from street level but hosts speakers from a cross-section of society, including authors, activists and others on any given Sunday evening.
The couple keeps a storybook-like home—all stone and comfort, completed in 2010 for $30 million—in Corona del Mar. They also travel well beyond, covering the U.S. and globe, including a recent jaunt that took them to Singapore and China—which Howard wrote about on his BlueKennel.com blog.
The family’s assets are managed by Fieldstead and sometimes disbursed through a charitable trust, also in Irvine. Giving focuses on faith-based and art-focused projects, international relief, and Orange County charities including Pacific Symphony Orchestra and Orange County Rescue Mission.
Howard Ahmanson notes that upcoming projects under those banners include “sponsoring a series of conferences at Chapman (University) on local government matters” and helping underwrite a tour of the U.S. and Europe in 2017 by “Christian and anti-jihadist Muslims from Indonesia.”
“We believe we need to make the world aware of this alternative,” he said. “This is a big project.”
Ahmanson holds a bachelor’s in economics from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a master’s in linguistics from the University of Texas.
—Paul Hughes
24 John L. Curci
Lido Peninsula Co. LLC
Estimated Wealth: $700 million
Another year for this low-profile patriarch who heads a family whose wealth we very well might have underestimated.
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 and agricultural property throughout Southern California and up the coast to boot, according to sources with knowledge of the holdings.
A big piece of the family’s wealth is said to stem from about 23 acres owned by Lido Peninsula Co., which includes manufactured houses that have been developed and sold with ground leases. Notable tenants include the Lido Yacht Anchorage & Drystack and well-known Sabatino’s Sausage Co.
Early and longstanding investments in Ed Roski’s Majestic Realty Co. also are said to have bolstered the family’s holdings through 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.
“Buying land in California is smart if you’ve got staying power,” the elder Curci was fond of saying, according to sources familiar with the family.
He went on to play a key role in the development of 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 $50 million from last year, in any case, based on the appreciation of the real estate market, and new information on the basis of today’s wealth.
He gives through family foundations, among other organizations.
—Michael de los Reyes
25 David Wilson
Owner, chief executive
Wilson Automotive Group
Estimated worth: $650 million
Wilson’s 19 dealerships combined for a 13% revenue jump last year to $2.1 billion, outpacing a strong national market for new cars—U.S. auto dealers last year sold some 17.4 million vehicles, a 5.7% increase compared to 2014, according to Autodata Corp. in New York.
The Wilson group’s operations consist of eight dealerships that sell Toyota brand vehicles, 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. A ninth Toyota dealership is in the works in Tepic, Mexico.
Toyota of Orange is the group’s top performer at about $300 million in 2015 revenue, followed by Right Toyota in Scottsdale at $225 million, Newport Lexus at $185 million, and Toyota of Riverside a close fourth at $162 million. David Wilson’s Villa Ford in Orange posted a 122% increase in sales to $109.3 million. Toyota of Las Vegas, which he bought from fellow list member Fletcher Jones, is up 83% to $134.2 million. The numbers include proceeds from new and used vehicle sales, service and parts, as well as finance and insurance revenue.
The double-digit growth outpaced the lackluster performance of equities over the past year, prompting us to increase Wilson’s estimated personal net worth by $100 million.
Wilson worked nights and weekends while attending University of Northern Iowa, changing oil and tires at a local car dealership. He became a car salesman—and eventually a dealer—after leaving an oil filter off of a telephone company’s van, which ruined its engine. His laborer’s wages couldn’t cover the damages, so he switched to sales, which turned out to be his strong suit.
Wilson extended his philanthropic support again this year to Chapman University, Orangewood Children’s Foundation, SchoolPower in Laguna Beach, and the Boys & Girls Clubs.
—Mediha DiMartino
26 Fletcher “Ted” Jones Jr.
Chief executive
Fletcher Jones Management Group Inc.
Estimated worth: $600 million
Fletcher Jones Management Group—among the top 15 dealers in the nation—tracked the momentum of U.S. auto sales, which marked a sixth consecutive year of growth.
The Jones group posted $2.27 billion in revenue last year, an 8.2% increase from its 2014 totals. Its flagship property, Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach, brought in $622 million, followed by Audi Beverly Hills with $157.1 million, Fletcher Jones Motorcars of Fremont at $148.3 million, and Fletcher Jones Imports in Las Vegas with $146.6 million, according to WardsAuto’s Dealer 500 list.
Jones’ father, Fletcher Jones Sr., started the company in 1946 in Los Angeles at 7th Street and Vermont Avenue, and it is now headquartered in Las Vegas. Its portfolio of 17 dealerships spans four states—Hawaii, California, Nevada and Illinois. Eight stores sell the Mercedes-Benz brand; two offer Audis, and another two sell Porsche models. There also are three Honda dealerships, one Ford store, and one Volkswagen nameplate.
Jones is looking to construct a $28 million, three-story, 61,459-square-foot Mercedes-Benz dealership with roof deck parking and a detached car wash in Palo Alto, at the former site of Ming’s Chinese Restaurant. His proposal estimated “annual sales tax revenue to the city to be approximately $948,527,” according to a city council staff report, which means Jones is counting on about $100 million in revenue from the new dealership.
We’re estimating his wealth at $600 million, up $25 million from last year based on the strong performance of his dealerships.
Jones lives at Pelican Point in Newport Coast and keeps an office in Newport Beach. He married Asia Fellows in June.
—Mediha DiMartino
27 Fariborz Maseeh
Founder, managing principal
Picoco LLC
Estimated worth: $575 million
Maseeh’s below-the-radar personal style is punctuated by the occasional soiree 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 has donated at least $82,000 to Republicans—recipients include local Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, former House Speaker John Boehner, and former presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Rand Paul—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 philanthropic efforts: A prayer and meditation room at Children’s Hospital of Orange County bears the family name, as does a chapel at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.
The native of Iran runs his Newport Beach-based hedge fund Picoco, which never publicizes a deal. He also has dedicated time and money to The Port, a renovated theater in Corona del Mar that has served as host for film festivals and beauty pageants, as well as various films, cultural performances and events. Maseeh bought it in 2007 and has put more than $1 million into its makeover into 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 missionary of the Presbyterian denomination 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, as well as professorships in Persian performing arts and for Persian history.
Among other recipients of his philanthropy are the 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 $25 million from a year ago, based on the likelihood that savvy investing got him better-than-average returns over the past 12 months. Our baseline for Maseeh presumes he cashed a significant amount of the Corning shares he got in the sale of IntelliSense before the stock crashed in 2001. Our increased estimate this year assumes that he remained committed to various charities and took advantage of the occasional growth spurt in the market and other asset classes over the last 12 months, despite the flat activity in the market.
—Michael de los Reyes
28 James Downey
Co-founder
EnCore Aerospace LLC
Estimated worth: $550 million
Downey has lined up a sizeable deal with Boeing to equip the manufacturing giant with custom seats for its new 737 Boeing Sky Interior.
The agreement announced in April at the Hamburg Aircraft Interiors Expo ushered in his latest aerospace venture, LIFT by EnCore.
The division of Huntington Beach-based EnCore Aerospace LLC, which he co-founded in 2011 with Tom McFarland, has developed a line dubbed Tourist Class Seating geared for next-generation 737 and 737 MAX airplanes.
The seats, designed to produce an open and comfortable environment in the main cabin, will begin delivery in about a year.
EnCore is Downey’s third venture in the aerospace sector.
C&D Aerospace, which he grew to about $400 million in annual revenue and a work force of some 4,000 in 15 locations around the world, 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 $50 million to reflect strong product demand at EnCore’s three business units, which generate more than $100 million in sales annually, with an emphasis on the fast start by LIFT.
EnCore Interiors in Huntington Beach supplies galleys, closets, partitions, dividers and other stand-up compartments on commercial airplanes for a roster of established customers, including Southwest, Delta and American.
EnCore Composite Structures, which operates out of a 120,000-square-foot factory in Brea, has seen sales double since Downey in 2011 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.
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
28 Anthony Maglica
Founder, president
Mag Instrument Inc.
Estimated worth: $550 million
Maglica’s flashlight business continues to grow—it added sales in 10 countries over the past year—and the Anaheim Hills resident’s holdings include an extensive portfolio of real estate abroad.
Much of his interests track back to his native Europe, though, and the past 12 months have been marked by uncertainty wrought by everything from terrorist attacks to the Brexit vote.
Ontario-based Mag Instrument Inc., meanwhile, was already in more than 100 countries, which means the 10 new markets likely brought a limited boost.
Those are key reasons—along with the generally so-so mark for equities over the past 12 months—why we kept our estimate for Maglica even with last year.
Not that his company is standing still—Mag Instrument continues to innovate and obtain patents in the U.S. and internationally. Maglica has added about 100 patents to its portfolio in the last few years, for a total of over 200.
The 85-year-old founder and chief executive of Mag Instrument was born in New York but moved and grew up in Croatia due to the Great Depression, 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 a New York Post article several years ago. “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 Zlarin, Croatia, and seeing the “extent of pollution” there. The foundation focuses on environmental protection and economic revitalization in the Adriatic region. Maglica in 2000 sponsored the construction of a waste processing plant there.
—Michael de los Reyes
30 Duane Roberts
Chairman, chief executive
Entrepreneurial Corporate Group
Estimated worth: $500 million
We’ve placed a cool $500 million valuation on the wealth of frozen burrito entrepreneur Roberts.
The latest estimate of Roberts’ wealth is up from $475 million a year ago, and is based on presumed higher valuations of his investments, companies and extensive real estate holdings.
His Newport Beach-based Entrepreneurial Corporate Group keeps a low-key local presence, much like its chairman—good luck finding a website for the firm, let alone a list of its investments.
Sources tell the Business Journal the firm owns more than 10,000 apartments—primarily in the Southwestern U.S.—in addition to British food manufacturers, restaurants, a fleet of charter aircrafts, hotel-related investments, 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 age 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.
The company had an estimated $85 million in yearly sales when the family sold it to Central Soya Inc. in 1980.
The business 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 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 have more prominent names in local business. His 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
31 Gary Jabara
Founder, chief executive
Mobilitie LLC
Estimated worth: $425 million
Small cells are providing a big boost to Jabara’s wealth.
We’ve upped our estimate of the wealth of Jabara, the founder of Newport Beach-based wireless infrastructure company Mobilitie, to $425 million this year.
That’s an increase of $50 million from last year, and the hike factors in likely gains for his primary line of business, which is starting to get plenty of national attention, along with extensive real-estate holdings and related investments.
Mobilitie is among the country’s largest privately held providers of cellphone towers and related wireless infrastructure. The company scored its first big payday in 2012 with the $1.1 billion sale of 2,300 towers, representing a “portion” of its assets.
The company also has a growing line of business providing upgraded wireless service to sports arenas, concert venues, casinos and other large venues.
It recently began a venture with Sprint and majority owner SoftBank of Japan to roll out the installation of 70,000 cell phone stations in the U.S., which the company describes as the largest network deployment of its type in U.S. history.
The billion-dollar rollout involves the deployment of so-called “small cells,” or low-power cellular antennas that can be placed on utility poles, buildings and other locations. They’re cheaper to install than traditional cellphone towers, and result in less network congestion for wireless carriers.
Mobilitie also landed a $700 million deal with TMobile to finance and own towers and networks nationally.
Jabara also has a growing real estate portfolio, primarily in Orange County.
He’s spent more than $200 million on residential and commercial real estate since 2012, including several buildings in Newport Beach.
“I am most bullish on my Newport Beach portfolio of shopping centers and multifamily holdings compared to nearly everything else in my portfolio,” he told the Business Journal this year.
Jabara’s also the main financial backer of Villa Real Estate, a luxury home brokerage that’s among the largest in SoCal’s coastal markets.
Philanthropic efforts include support of several local schools and charities, including Sage Hill School in Newport Beach and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.
—Mark Mueller
32 Dale Fowler
Owner
Dale Fowler Real Estate
Estimated worth: $400 million
We’ve given a $25 million boost to the bottom line of Dale Fowler’s estimated wealth over the past year, a conservative bump that factors in healthy gains in real estate but a minimal amount of appreciation in his other assets, reflecting the so-so performance in stocks over the past 12 months.
We estimate Fowler, a longtime area real estate investor better known locally for his charitable work, to have a $400 million net worth, up from $375 million a year ago.
This is the third year we’ve included Fowler on our OC’s Wealthiest list—the low-key local real estate owner debuted after he and his wife, Sarah Ann, gave $55 million gift to his alma mater, Chapman University in Orange.
Chapman in turn named its law school after him.
Dale Fowler serves on Chapman’s board of trustees and is said to help the school with many of its real estate transactions.
He said Chapman’s development under President Jim Doti was a factor in his decision to give the initial $55 million gift. And he credited another list member—fellow Chapman grad George Argyros—with an assist.
Fowler grew up in Santa Ana, helping his grandfather, father and uncle with the family’s gravel business. He said he’s lived more than 60 years within 3 miles of Chapman’s campus.
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 a timely buy of about 200 acres near Ontario Airport.
—Mark Mueller
32 Pawan Seth
Drug developer, founder
Pharma Pass LLC
Estimated worth: $400 million
Seth continues to keep an extraordinarily low personal profile, although chances are you’re 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 it’s up $25 million from a year ago, based on word that he continues to work closely with various drugmakers, along with the modest 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 remains active in developing therapies, according to his website. He said that he’s looking at peripheral arterial disease, osteoarthritis, neurodegenerative and coronary diseases that do not have effective drug or other medical therapies. He also said on his site that he wants to provide the therapies to “underdeveloped and developing nations through charitable foundations.”
Seth received a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France. He worked in Europe before immigrating to the U.S. in 1995. The Irvine resident has a home on multiple lots in Shady Canyon.
—Vita Reed
34 Joe Kiani
Founder, chairman, chief executive
Masimo Corp.
Estimated net worth: $375 million
Kiani debuts on the list this year, largely on the strength of his 13.7% beneficial ownership in Irvine-based Masimo Corp.
He founded medical device maker Masimo in 1989; its shares traded recently at $52 and a market cap of about $2.6 billion.
Kiani holds 7 million shares directly and via trusts. His salary, bonus, and stock options have totaled about $16 million in the last three years. He sold 300,000 shares in July 2015 and again in June 2016; the combined transactions totaled $28 million in proceeds.
Kiani until last year had been guaranteed 300,000 stock options annually since 2007, with other benefits. Based on Masimo share prices of $18 to $42 between 2007 and 2015, the options would’ve been worth about $5.4 million to $12.6 million annually.
In 2015 he agreed to swap annual options for a single award valued at $112 million and $35 million in cash he’ll collect if his employment ends before 2018. Shares are up by a third since then.
He also is chairman and chief executive of Cercacor Laboratories Inc., a Masimo spinoff that it maintains licensing agreements with, and chairman of a nonprofit foundation bearing the Masimo name.
He received Chapman University’s Argyros Medal in 2013 for his entrepreneurship and patient safety work.
Kiani was born in Iran and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University.
—Paul Hughes
34 Stacey E. Nicholas
Estimated worth: $375 million
Nicholas’ private foundation is making a mark in Orange County, despite its headquarters in Los Angeles.
Her Opus Foundation ranked No. 32 in OC giving among private foundations here, with $279,000 in local grants and giving.
Beneficiaries included Pacific Symphony, South Coast Repertory, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, Star Rock Ministries and Cradle to Career. The foundation made a splash two years ago, pledging $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 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. co-founder Henry Nicholas tracks her fortune to the couple’s divorce settlement seven years ago.
The Business Journal estimates her worth at $375 million, flat from a year ago, as the equities markets have been fairly steady in the last year. It also takes into account the property and assets she retained from her 20-plus-year marriage to Nicholas.
Stacey (maiden name Feller) married Nicholas in 1987.
She is a member of the Samueli School’s Engineering Leadership Council and Diversity Advisory Board.
She 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 co-founder Henry Samueli.
—Chris Casacchia
34 Mark Wetterau
Chief executive, chairman
Golden State Foods Corp.
Wetterau Associates LLC
Estimated worth: $375 million
Wetterau is majority owner of the Irvine-based food processor and distributor. Golden State Foods Corp. sells meats, sauces, produce and dairy, with distribution to 125,000 quick-service restaurants and stores from more than 50 locations on five continents. Its customer list features such fast-food heavyweights as McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Chipotle.
We’ve upgraded our estimate on Wetterau by $25 million, based mostly on another year of big chunks of growth at his privately held Golden State Foods, which has surpassed $7 billion in annual sales. Its latest deal came in April, when it bought the portions it didn’t already own of Arkansas City, Kan.-based KanPak U.S. and Shanghai-based KanPak China on undisclosed terms.
The Business Journal ranked Golden State Foods as the No. 2 privately owned company based in OC, and the largest food and beverage supplier here.
GSF recently opened a $45 million meat processing facility in the Northeast Opelika Industrial Park in Alabama. It plans to create around 175 jobs at the plant, which will be responsible for production of 25% of the 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 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 its 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 in 1992 to Super Valu Inc. for $1.1 billion.
Wetterau also serves as chairman of GSF Foundation. The volunteer-run organization has raised more than $28 million since its inception and has donated to more than 550 charities focused on serving children.
—Michael de los Reyes
37 Kobe Bryant
Los Angeles Lakers
Estimated worth: $350 million
The Black Mamba went out in grand fashion, scoring 60 points against the Utah Jazz in his last game as a pro baller.
The five-time champion entered his final season in the NBA as the game’s highest paid player at $25 million, edging out the Miami Heat’s Joe Johnson and Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James.
Bryant’s legacy will extend far beyond the hardcourt, particularly in China, where he helped globalize the sport while raking in several endorsement deals.
Forbes put his earnings at $34 million last year, joining a small club with Michael Jordan as the only basketball players to top the $30 million benchmark. Forbes estimates his basketball earnings at $330 million over 21 years in the NBA, and even more off the court.
Endorsement deals have continued despite his goodbye to the game—Bryant signed a deal last year with Chinese e-commerce king Alibaba, a new contract with Nike, and deals with luxury Swiss watch maker Hublot, consumer electronics brand Lenovo, sports-card maker Panini and Turkish Air.
He has been a frequent visitor to China, where he recently gave a TedX Salon talk atop the 126-floor of the Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in the Middle Kingdom.
We estimate the Newport Coast resident’s wealth at $350 million, up from $325 million last year based on his final year’s salary of $25 million, his slate of endorsement deals, and a general boost to his personal interests from the attention drawn to his final tour through the league.
Bryant appears eager for life and business after basketball, already seeking advice from Hollywood titans Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Jerry Bruckheimer on his Newport Beach-based publishing and production studio, Kobe Inc.
Bryant in 2014 acquired its headquarters, a two-story, 16,650-square-foot building, for $5.8 million, and planned to pour nearly that amount into renovations.
The company now has nearly 20 employees, according to published reports.
Kobe Inc. in May filed to trademark Bryant’s nickname, Black Mamba, according to records with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and use it for a swath of products (see related story, page 1).
Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, give in OC and elsewhere through the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. Local beneficiaries include Mamba FC, an OC youth soccer club.
—Chris Casacchia
37 Joan Irvine Smith
Heiress, philanthropist
Estimated worth: $350 million
Irvine Smith traces her history to local landowner James Irvine, who joined with three partners to buy 120,000 acres of land here in the mid-19th century. James Irvine’s eponymous son—Joan Irvine Smith’s grandfather—incorporated it as Irvine Land Company in the 1890s.
The bulk of her assets stem from that founding and a century-later settlement with Irvine Company Chairman and fellow Wealthiest list member Donald Bren in 1991—a deal that brought her and her mother, Athalie Clarke, a combined $256 million for their 11% stake.
The Joan Irvine Smith & Athalie R. Clarke Foundation started shortly after the sales of their shares in 1991, and Clarke died two years later.
The foundation supports environmental causes, medical research, and the arts; it showed $5.3 million in assets as of April 30, 2015, according to GuideStar.
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.
She has supported Democratic Party candidates, including 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 gave $1 million to help start UCI’s School of Law.
The foundation also has supported Mission San Juan Capistrano.
We’ve kept our estimate of Smith even this year, based on an assumption of a conservative portfolio and the lackluster past 12 months for equities.
—Deirdre Newman
37 Toshiaki Ogasawara
Chairman
Simmons Co. Ltd.
Special Advisor Nifco Inc., Nifsan Pty. Ltd.
Founder
Japan Times
Estimated wealth: $350 million
Ogasawara has residences in Hong Kong and Tokyo, but it was his purchase of One Pelican Hill for nearly $19 million four years ago that landed him on this list.
It seems he’ll have more time to hang around the Newport Coast showcase after an April resignation from his posts as chairman and chief executive at Japan Times Ltd., which publishes the largest English-language newspaper in Japan. The paper said his daughter Yukiko has stepped into those roles.
Ogasawara also stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Nifco Inc., which makes plastic parts and components for industrial uses. It had about $176 million in net income on $2.6 billion in net sales in its fiscal year ended March 31.
Japanese and international automakers and other manufacturers are among its key customers, including Toyota, Honda and Sony.
We are estimating Ogasawara’s wealth to be flat from a year ago, at $350 million, with the generally lackluster equities markets of the past year and a weak yen likely offsetting increases in sales and earnings at Nifco.
A 2014 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.
There is no shortage of income streams for Ogasawara, who’s a prominent developer in Australia, where a unit called Nifsan Group is developing 600 apartments in the Emerald Lakes area and plans to develop another 1,600 on his once-private estate and golf course in Nerang, known as The Villa.
Ogasawara remains chairman of Simmons Co. Ltd., 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 the 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.
—Michael de los Reyes
40 Edward O. Thorp
Founder, owner
Edward O. Thorp & Associates
Estimated net worth: $325 million
Our estimate on the original “quant” is bumped up to $325 million, again conceding that it’s a rough estimate and could be well below the mark. We’re also betting that he retains his investment savvy and continues to beat the market by a good measure.
Thorp’s interest in mathematics has led to vocations ranging from being a blackjack pro and math professor to author and hedge fund manager.
The circle is turning again, too, with his latest book—tentatively titled: “A Man For All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street”—in the works with Random House and slated for publication in January. It’s expected to chronicle Thorp’s personal experience in how social relationships and arrangements can get rearranged with the arrival of a personal fortune.
Thorp’s fortune started when he beat the Vegas market with card counting, an effort helped along when he devised the first wearable computer in 1961. He developed his system while teaching at MIT, then published the bestseller “Beat the Dealer.” Fellow OC’s Wealthiest list member Bill Gross read it while hospitalized after an accident and went on to win enough at the blackjack tables to get him through graduate school.
Thorp brought the gambling concept to Wall Street and wrote “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 come 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 money through a family office.
—Michael de los Reyes
41 David Pyott
Former chief executive
Allergan Inc. [now Allergan PLC]
Estimated worth: $275 million
The longtime fixture of Orange County’s business community via Scotland and a few other overseas locations is in his second year on the OC’s Wealthiest list.
Pyott has not led Allergan, which he sold to Ireland’s Actavis PLC in November 2014 for $72.5 billion, in nearly two years, but he’s never been far away from the public eye. Interest remains, thanks largely to Pyott’s successful efforts to fend off a hostile takeover attempt by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and hedge fund boss Bill Ackman that played out for nearly a year before Allergan got a big premium from Actavis, which has since taken the Allergan name.
The saga got a renewed round of attention this year, as Canada-based Valeant, which has OC roots though ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., has melted down, largely justifying Allergan’s moves to buck the takeover attempt in the face of what initially appeared to be overwhelming odds.
Pyott got a good deal of ink in the summer edition of Vanity Fair magazine—a story that painted him in a flattering light while taking a searing look at former Valeant boss Michael Pearson.
Pyott followed up with an appearance during OCTANe’s Orange County Ophthalmology Technology Summit in June.
The Business Journal estimates his personal fortune at $275 million, up by 25%, which reflects our belief that he’s both a savvy investor who’s capable of outpacing the generally lackluster performance of equities markets over the past 12 months, and also lives up to the reputation he’s built for himself as an exemplar of the frugality that’s been attached to Scots for centuries.
Pyott first made our list last year after converting Allergan stock to a total of $534 million in cash following the company’s sale to Actavis, 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 lives in Irvine, might have apportioned his windfall—last year 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, is not on the board of Allergan, which has its on-the-books headquarters in Ireland for tax purposes and operations centered in Parsippany, N.J., and also recently stepped down as chairman of the Allergan Foundation, its nonprofit arm.
Pyott has joined several corporate boards since his retirement from Allergan. He joined the board of Novato-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in January, and became a director of Cambridge, Mass.-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. in December. He also wants to devote time to philanthropy—he has said he wants to bring ophthalmic centers to Africa or Indonesia.
His past giving has included an emphasis on healthcare and politics, with donations to Republican congressional and senatorial committees and candidates; political action committees; 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.
—Vita Reed
41 Sheldon Razin
Founder, chairman emeritus
Quality Systems Inc.
Estimated worth: $275 million
Boston native Razin began Quality Systems Inc. with a $2,000 investment four decades ago and is in a new role with the Irvine-based maker of software that doctors and dentists use to manage their practices.
Quality named director Jeffrey Margolis Razin’s successor as chairman in November. Razin, who is 78, moved to the position of chairman emeritus and remains a corporate director.
The company’s also been undergoing operational realignment, including an April announcement that it is cutting some 150 jobs, or about 6% of its work force.
Most of Razin’s wealth comes from his stake in Quality—10.2 million shares that are good for 17% of the company and were worth some $125 million at a recent check.
Quality’s shares are about even in the past 12 months. We kept his estimate even with last year, based on the flat run of his company shares and the middling performance of equities in general over the period.
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 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.
—Vita Reed
43 Tim Busch
Founder, chief executive
Pacific Hospitality Group
Estimated net worth: $250 million
Busch debuts on the list at the baseline, but his wealth could be greater.
Pacific Hospitality Group—a DBA of Pacific Hospitality Group Ventures Inc.—is managing partner and holds stakes in 12 hotels, counting the AC Hotel by Marriott at the Park Place project in Irvine that it’s agreed to buy when it opens near year-end.
Half its roster is in Orange County, including the recently opened Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach, where it has partnered with R.D. Olson Development, and Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach, where Busch’s outfit teams up with Irvine-based Eagle Four Partners. It also has resorts in Napa, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Hawaii.
The hotels are worth an estimated $1.5 billion.
Busch’s holdings include a 7-acre estate winery, Trinitas Cellars in Napa, at one of the resorts.
He’s a partner in Busch’s Inc., a Michigan-based chain of 16 upscale grocery stores founded by his father in 1949.
Various companies with ties to the younger Busch have owned office buildings, including the one on Dupont Drive housing PHG and his law firm, which specializes in estate planning; tax, real estate and corporate law; and representing religious groups.
Busch family giving focuses on efforts related to Roman Catholic charities and organizations.
He and his wife, Steph, helped launch JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano and St. Anne School in Laguna Niguel. Busch formerly co-chaired the capital campaign committee to transform the former Crystal Cathedral campus into Christ Cathedral—the operations center for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.
The Busches and Jesuit physicist Fr. Robert Spitzer co-founded Magis Institute—which offers a perspective on science informed by Roman Catholic teachings—and Napa Institute, which holds cultural and intellectual conferences.
Busch has started several chapters of Legatus, a Catholic business organization.
The Busch Family Foundation in April gave $15 million to Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., the lead gift in a $62 million campaign for a business school that will bear the couple’s name.
—Paul Hughes
43 Michael Harrah
Owner, president
Caribou Industries Inc.
Estimated worth: $250 million
Big Mike’s back.
We’ve included Harrah, Santa Ana’s largest commercial real estate owner, in our latest list after a few years’ absence as we waited to see how the recovery and downtown Santa Ana’s ongoing redevelopment affected his core holdings. Another point pending is the development of his One Broadway tower planned for that city. The 37-story project, more than a decade in the making, would be his crowning achievement.
That project has yet to break ground, but recent acquisitions involving Harrah and some more insight into his finances have prompted us to add him back to the rich list this year.
We’ve estimated his wealth at $250 million, based on an overview of his real estate holdings in and outside OC, other assets, and bank records.
That estimate could be low; Harrah pegs his wealth at well over $250 million.
He owns Caribou Industries, a development, construction, tenant-improvement and property-management company that has owned more than 70 buildings in Santa Ana over the years, totaling over 5 million square feet.
He still owns a substantial portfolio in the city, and also has significant real estate investments in Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.
He garnered headlines this year when he bought the 14.3 acres surrounding the Santa Ana headquarters of the Orange County Register in a deal he said was valued at $34 million. He already owned the five-story 625 N. Grand Ave. office building that held the paper’s operations after paying a reported $27 million for it two years ago.
He’s planning an ambitious mixed-use development of the Register property, potentially including a pair of condo towers, a mall and other buildings (see related story, page 1).
He also owns multiple jets, helicopters and a collection of rare and vintage automobiles.
Harrah still is finalizing an anchor tenant for his One Broadway project in the city that could boost his wealth significantly.
Harrah said he’s now planning to break ground for that $350 million project in the next year.
Harrah is a designer, builder and contractor for the campus of the Orange County High School of the Arts, where he has given more than $2 million. He also supports the Boys & Girls Club, D.A.R.E. and was awarded the top honor of Making a Difference by the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Orange County in 2007, and in 2014 was given the “William H. Spurgeon Pioneer” award for his considerable investment in Santa Ana over the year.
—Mark Mueller
43 Peter Ueberroth
Chairman, managing director
Contrarian Group Inc.
Estimated net worth: $250 million
The lifelong entrepreneur, one-time Major League Baseball commissioner, Olympic impresario, and committed philanthropist debuts on the list this year—a distinction that seems overdue for a couple of reasons.
The first reason came to the Business Journal’s attention when word recently surfaced about an early-stage investment Contrarian Fund made some time ago in Stemcentrx Inc., a South San Francisco-based cancer drug developer. Stemcentrx more recently struck a deal to sell to Big Pharma’s AbbVie Inc. for $5.8 billion upfront and as much as $4 billion more in milestones.
The second is the modest public image Ueberroth maintains, which has made it difficult in the past to peg his net worth, despite his role as co-chairman and co-owner of Pebble Beach Co., titles he shares with partner Dick Ferris, former head of United Airlines.
A few things are certain about Ueberroth—including the fact that he dislikes debt nearly as much as he disdains braggadocio.
That means his stake in Pebble Beach alone likely gets him close to the $250 million minimum for this list.
Not bad for a guy whose bent nose offers evidence that he scrapped his way to a business degree from San Jose State University on a water polo scholarship. He soon married wife, Ginny, and moved to Hawaii, starting a career in the travel industry by working for another legend, Kirk Kerkorian. Ueberroth went on to found First Travel Corp. in 1962 and built it into the second largest travel business in North America before a 1980 sale to Carlson Travel Group on undisclosed terms.
Ueberroth became a global personage as organizer of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The first privately financed games resuscitated the ailing Olympic movement, provided a halo effect for the host city, and finished with a $238 million surplus. He went on to serve as MLB commissioner from 1984 to 1989, then oversaw Rebuild LA in the wake of the 1992 riots, a challenge he took on at the request of Tom Bradley, the legendary Los Angeles mayor who had forged a bond with Ueberroth on the Olympics.
Honors have ranged from Time Magazine Man of the Year in 1984 to a Theodore Roosevelt Award from the NCAA this year—the highest form of recognition the organization bestows. Ueberroth is the first water polo player to get the award, which is reserved for one-time NCAA athletes who have gone on to distinguished careers beyond sports. The roster of honorees includes four U.S. presidents.
Contrarian has made various local investments, including in CT Realty, Payoff and PrimeSport Holdings, which sells tickets, suites and hospitality packages to events such as the Final Four, tennis Grand Slams. It’s the second largest shareholder of Century Golf Partners in Texas, which manages 160 golf courses, resorts and private clubs nationwide. He has interests in Marrone Bio Innovations and Sauce Labs, which also drew backing from fellow OC’s Wealthiest member Vinny Smith.
—Jerry Sullivan
