The following are profiles of some of the most wealthy individuals who live or do extensive business in the San Fernando Valley area. John Anderson Age 88 President, CEO Topa Equities John Anderson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Topa Equities, has a far-flung empire which includes banking, insurance, real estate, and beverage and automobile companies. In the San Fernando Valley, Anderson owns the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall. Forbes Magazine listed Anderson, who resides in Bel-Air, among the world’s billionaires with a worth of $1.4 billion. A native of Minnesota, Anderson attended UCLA on a hockey scholarship. He co-founded the Kindel & Anderson law firm and Kayne, Anderson Investment Managements Inc. His Topa Equities investment firm oversees some 30 companies, including Ace Beverages, Mission Beverages and Paradise Beverages. In 1987, Anderson made the third-largest donation to a business school in 1987 for which UCLA’s Graduate School of Business was named for him. Billy Blanks Age 50 Owner, Billy Blanks World Training Center Blanks, famous for developing the Tae Bo martial arts and exercise program, first started teaching the program in 1975 in Boston. In 1989, he moved to Los Angeles and built up a list of celebrity clients. His first celebrity clients included Paula Abdul, Pamela Anderson, Jessica Alba and others. He launched a series of well-known infomercials, sold a series of fitness videos, and he appeared on talk shows and made television guest appearances as his fame grew. In 1999, Blanks and his wife Gayle started the Billy Blanks Foundation, which works to give high-risk people, mainly women and children, skills that can make them productive members of society. He’s also become involved in a national campaign which aims to raise awareness of obesity throughout the country. Blanks, who lives in Hidden Hills, frequently appears as a motivational speaker at universities, corporations and professional societies, and in 2005 and 2006 he traveled to Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and several other countries to work with members of the U.S. Armed Forces and visit injured troops. He started acting in the 1980s, and has appeared in 18 movies including “Kiss the Girls,” “The Last Boy Scout,” “Lionheart” and others. Bert Boeckmann Age 75 Owner of Galpin Motors Owning the largest Ford dealership in the world is only part of what makes Bert Boeckmann one of the best-known businessmen in the San Fernando Valley. Boeckmann also oversees a foundation in his name that contributes to charities around the world. Boeckmann started his 50-plus year career in the automotive sales industry at a Glendale Nash dealership before taking a position with Galpin in 1953. In 1968, he bought out the dealership from Frank Galpin and proceeded to turn it into one that was selling 20,000 cars a year based on a philosophy of treating the customer right. As well as being a generous donor to political primarily Republican campaigns, Boeckmann has also served two stints on the Los Angeles Police Commission. He has attended presidential inaugurations and presented an award to Mother Teresa. “I think we’ve been blessed by the lord and I think we work very hard,” Boeckmann said in a 2004 interview explaining a few of the reasons for his success. “We really do care for our customers. We know how important they are to us. I tell my employees the only reason why we’re in business is to serve our customers. Some people argue and say ‘no we’re here to make a paycheck.’ But I tell them ‘No, the paycheck comes from our being here to serve our customers.”’ Mark R. Madler Roy Disney Age 76 Chairman, Shamrock Capital Advisors Walt Disney’s nephew spent two years heading the stockholders’ revolt against Michael Eisner’s control over his uncle Walt Disney’s company. He initially protested the board’s approval of Robert Iger, saying it was obliged to look more thoroughly, but has since pledged his full support to Iger. Disney’s interests range from racing yachts in New Zealand to spending time at his castle in Ireland. Last August, he donated his $7 million, 86-foot championship boat to the Orange Coast College’s School of Sailing and Seamanship. Last year his private investment firm, Shamrock Capital Advisors, announced it had raised another $104 million for a fund that will invest in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in Kern County and every county to the South. Genesis Real Estate Fund II will assist developers on projects ranging from $10 million to $80 million. The first Genesis fund invested in Hollywood Studios in Hollywood and also helped develop the Van Nuys Industrial Park and a retail center in Hawthorne. Shamrock Holdings’ Capital Growth Fund also purchased 80 percent of the Harlem Globe Trotters. Disney’s personal fortune is about $1.2 billion. Disney worked at his uncle’s company for decades as a film editor, writer and producer. After disagreement with management he left in the ’70s and came back as vice chairman in 1984, where most of his attention was directed toward animated movies. Alfred Mann Age 80 Chairman and CEO, MannKind Corp. Mann’s entrepreneurial efforts have given rise to some of the region’s most recognizable medical and biotechnology companies. He founded Minimed, diabetes treatment company, which he sold to Medtronic in 2001 with another company for $3.7 billion. He also started Advanced Bionics, which develops ear implants and treatments for chronic pain. The company was sold to Boston Scientific in 2004 for $4.5 billion, which will be paid over 10 years. Mann is personally worth $2.1 billion. His newest company, MannKind Corp., went public in 2004. It’s developing an inhaled insulin product to compete with products like Exubera, developed by Pfizer, which is the first inhaled insulin product on the market. Mann has said the drug could be one of the most valuable medical advancements ever, and experts expect that with the number of people with diabetes continuing to grow, the inhaled insulin market could easily be in the billions of dollars. Mann has donated hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, giving $50 million to the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC, and has said he plans to give money to close to a dozen other research institutions. He’s pledged, for example, $100 million to Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology. Michael Milken Age 59 Chairman, Milken Institute; Founder, FasterCures, Prostate Cancer Foundation Since 1993, Milken has raised more than $250 million for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has helped to move drugs to trial stages faster and fund research through FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, which he founded in 2003 in Washington, D.C. Milken was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1993, and 10 members of his family have died from cancer. He owns a stake in Knowledge Universe, which invests in day care centers, private schools and educational toys, and is invested elsewhere, which sustains his $2 billion fortune. Milken, who lives in Encino, rose to huge success in the 1980s working during the spate of leverage buyouts in the financial industry. He was in charge of junk bond trading at Drexel Burnham Lambert and is credited with founding the high-yield debt market. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to six counts of securities fraud and ended up paying a $200 million settlement to the government, creditors and litigators and serving 22 months in prison. He has an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton School. Milken also supports education, presenting 100 outstanding teachers with $25,000 every year. Angelo Mozilo Age 67 Chairman and CEO, Countrywide Financial Corporation Mozilo helped to found Countrywide Financial Corp. in 1969. The company has been the largest mortgage lender in the country for the last several years, and Mozilo’s compensation, including salary, bonuses and exercised stock options, was close to $160 million last year. He won an award from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 2002 for pioneering the application of information technology within his company, which was years ahead of the industry as a whole. He is seen as extremely influential in the world of real estate, having doggedly pursued partnerships with real estate brokerages and home builders, a practice that the rest of the industry is imitating. Mozilo is an influential voice in the real estate world, making headlines in October, for example, when he said that the real estate market appears to have reached its peak. He did not expect a sharp drop in single-family home prices, but expected that prices will likely level off. He also said in January that the company expected further consolidation in the mortgage industry and will be actively looking for possible acquisitions. David Murdock Age 82 Owner of Dole Foods and Castle & Cooke Murdock’s involvement with the giant fruit company began in 1985 when he became chief executive officer of Castle & Cooke, of which Dole Foods was a division. Eighteen years later, he acquired the company outright, a move that propelled Murdock into the ranks of the world’s richest people. Forbes Magazine listed Murdock’s value this year at $4 billion. A high school dropout, Murdock started his financial career in the 1940s when he bought and later sold a restaurant. The proceeds were the beginning of a real estate empire in Arizona that culminated in the purchase of Dole and taking the company private. Dole’s Westlake Village campus also includes the Dole Nutrition Institute and the Dole Wellness Center, Spa and Hotel. Murdock is also chief executive office of Castle & Cooke, a developer of hotels and resorts, residential and office projects. Properties owned by Castle & Cooke in the Valley include the 18-hole championship Sherwood Country Club and the Lake Sherwood Residences; and an aviation services company based at Van Nuys Airport. Last year, Murdock unveiled his plans for a $1 billion research facility in North Carolina. Alan Purwin 43 Chairman of Helinet Aviation Service When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last summer, helicopters from Helinet Aviation Service were the only aircraft documenting the damage to land and property. That use of Helinet’s fleet was yet another feather in the cap of company owner and founder Alan Purwin. Holder of a helicopter pilot’s license since he was in his teens, Purwin went into business for himself in 1987 when he and a partner started West Coast Helicopters. The name was later changed to Helinet Aviation Services and became headquartered at the Van Nuys Airport. Today, Helinet has 13 bases around the country employing 50 people, including pilots, camera operators and administrative staff. Helinet services the helicopters used by Los Angeles area television stations and provides charter services. Helinet was a recipient of a 2006 American Spirit Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration for its work in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.
