Newcomers

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By DAN TURNER

Staff Reporter

If there is one thing most of the newcomers to the list of L.A.’s wealthiest have in common, it’s that they tend to keep under the media radar screen.

Or at least they did until recently.

Few of the 11 additions to this year’s list became multimillionaires overnight; they were rich last year, too, but until they made news by selling their companies or making large donations, they were quite content to count their shekels behind closed doors. Outside their business associates and inner circles, some were unknown to the world at large.

Selim K. Zilkha is an example. In January, he and his son Michael sold Zilkha Energy Co. to Sonat Inc. for shares worth more than $1 billion. Before the deal, it was impossible to guess Zilkha’s equity in privately held Zilkha Energy, but after the transaction he became a major stockholder in a publicly held firm making it possible for the first time to assess his net worth.

Until last year, 72-year-old Alfred E. Mann was an obscure, hard-working entrepreneur known to few people outside the biotech community. Then he announced plans to donate $200 million for research institutes at USC and UCLA, and the little-known Mann suddenly became one of L.A.’s top philanthropists.

Not all of the newcomers to the list made news last year. In fact, some have seldom seen their names in print, and their net worths have never before been reported. These were uncovered through various local sources.

Norman Lear is the high-profile producer of classic TV shows, but while many know his name, few realize that he is one of the nation’s wealthiest people. He parlayed his TV show royalties into shrewd entertainment-industry investments and is now worth an estimated $700 million.

Another newcomer is Gary Winnick, who has never appeared in the Forbes 400, despite the fact that he recently joined the billionaire’s club. The Drexel Burnham alumnus runs an investment bank, Pacific Capital Group, that has quietly invested in massive ventures like the Playa Vista development and a multibillion-dollar venture to connect the world through undersea cables.

Other newcomers include the Whittier family, so privacy-obsessed that some members refuse to put their addresses on their driver’s licenses, and Lloyd Cotsen, who struck it rich after selling Neutrogena Corp. in 1994 and has been quietly managing his money ever since.

Also new to the list are: Ronald Burkle, of supermarket holding company Yucaipa Cos.; Stewart Resnick, whose holding company controls the Franklin Mint and Teleflora; Aubrey Chernick, founder of Candle Corp.; Richard Colburn, a construction equipment entrepreneur; and Robert Addison Day, founder of Trust Co. of the West.

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