Net Worth: $6.5 billion
LAST YEAR: $4.3 billion
CHANGE: 51%
AGE: 78
RESIDENCE: Encino
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Investments
Milken has investments in private equity, hedge funds, venture capital and more than one asset management. He is also behind Silver Rock Financial, which was launched in 2016 and has since grown to more than $8 billion in assets, according to Pitchbook. He also chairs the Milken Institute think tank, which produces the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. Milken, who is the mind behind high-yield debt, has been a heavy backer of medical research, public health initiatives and education. Work is on schedule for the opening next year of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream in Washington, D.C., which will promote equal access to education, job training, financing and health care. In the last year, the Milken Family Foundation has given more than $700,000 in grants to educators and scholarships to students. Milken is also a co-founder of the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at a UCLA research park now under construction in Westwood. He was granted a pardon in February 2020 by then-President Donald Trump after serving time in prison in the early 1990s for violating securities laws.
Education: Milken graduated from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys where he was on the basketball, tennis and track teams, and was president of the Service Honor Society. He was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was president of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity and graduated with highest honors. Milken earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he was a Joseph Wharton fellow.
Family: He and his wife, Lori, who have three children and 10 grandchildren, have been married since 1968.
VIPs: Milken has met with heads of state around the world, including seven U.S. presidents (Biden, Trump, Obama, G.W. Bush, Clinton, G.H.W. Bush and Carter) and the leaders of the U.K., Russia, Georgia, Israel, Singapore, Mexico, Rwanda, Bahrain, Iceland
and Albania.
Key Dates
â—† 1969: Milken began his career on Wall Street, landing a summer job at what was then known as Drexel Harriman Ripley. After completing his MBA, he joined the company as a director of low-grade bond research.
◆ 1972: His wife’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Milken has devoted much of his life to looking for cures.
◆ 1973: Drexel merged with Burnham and Co. to form Drexel Burnham. Milken became the firm’s head of convertibles. He started a high-yield bond trading department.
â—† 1976: The company merged with the American arm of the Belgian firm George Bruxelles Lambert to become Drexel Burnham Lambert.
â—† 1978: The high-yield bond operation was moved to Century City.
â—† 1982: Milken co-founded the Milken Family Foundation with his brother Lowell Milken.
â—† 1989: Milken was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud in an insider trading investigation. In a plea deal, he pleaded guilty to securities and reporting violations only and was sentenced to time in prison and fined.
â—† 1991: The Milken Insitute was founded.
â—† 1993: Milken founded the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
â—† 1996: Milken and his brother Lowell Milken founded Knowledge Universe. It was sold in 2015.
â—† 2007: Milken launched the Melanoma Research Alliance.
â—† 2016: Milken invested in a new hedge fund, Silver Rock Financial, which has since grown to more than $8 billion in assets. It was formerly his family office.
â—† 2020: Milken was pardoned by President Donald Trump.
