Net Worth: $2.0 B

LAST YEAR: 2

CHANGE: 0%

AGE: 75

RESIDENCE: Bel Air

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Telecommunications, technology, real estate, financial services



THE MONEY: Winnick began building his fortune in the 1970s at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he was a senior vice president working with fellow billionaire Michael Milken’s high-yield bond team. Winnick later founded Global Crossing in the late 1990s, which built the first global fiberoptic network. Winnick earned much of his wealth through the sale of $734 million worth of stock in Global Crossing, which later went bankrupt in 2002. Today, he is chair of Winnick & Co., a private investment firm and family office that he founded in 1985. The company has created more than $100 billion in value for investors over the last 25 years. He is exploring offers of several billion dollars to buy additional spectrum licenses currently owned by major telecom operators.



THE BUZZ: Winnick’s wife, Karen, is a children’s author and the long-serving president of the Los Angeles Zoo commission. The couple listed their Bel Air home for $250 million in June, making it the most expensive private home on the U.S. market at the time. The couple also owns properties in Malibu and Manhattan.