Stewart Resnick

Chairman and President

Wonderful Co.

THE LATEST: Resnick and wife Lynda&s $750 million gift to Caltech last year was the second-largest donation ever to a U.S. university and the largest to date for environmental sustainability research. The university plans to use part of the funds to construct the 75, 000-square-foot Resnick Sustainability Resource Center, which carries a projected cost of $100 million. Stewart Resnick oversees Wonderful Co.&s finance, legal, real estate, strategy, human resources and business unit operations.

BACKGROUND: Resnick met his wife, Lynda, a year after selling the janitorial business he started in college for $2.5 million. Together they acquired Teleflora in 1979 and the Franklin Mint in 1985, while also expanding into agriculture with the purchase of the Paramount Citrus association in 1981. In 2015, they renamed their corporation, Roll Global, as the Wonderful Co., which now is valued at about $5 billion and also includes pest control-provider Suterra, shipping company Neptune Pacific Line, Fiji Water and a vineyard in Paso Robles.

YEARS ON THE LA500: 5

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