20. Don Hankey — $3.7 billion | Los Angeles Business Journal

20

NET WORTH: $3.7 billion
AGE: 77
RESIDENCE: Malibu
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Auto financing
LAST YEAR: $3.4 billion
CHANGE: +9%

THE MONEY: Hankey first made his mark in the auto business by acquiring Midway Ford in 1972. But the majority of Hankey’s fortune came from financing subprime car loans through his company, Westlake Financial Services. Today, he serves as chief executive of Hankey Group, a collection of seven companies that generated $755 million in net income for fiscal 2020.

THE BUZZ: Hankey’s Westlake Financial funded more preowned auto sales at used-car dealers than any other lender nationwide last year, according to Experian’s AutoCount market reporting. This year, his leadership team is focused on successfully navigating Hankey Group’s roughly 4,000 employees through the coronavirus pandemic. Hankey is a majority shareholder in Hankey Investment Co., which features a portfolio of properties across Southern California worth a total of $1 billion. Hankey and his wife, Debbie, oversee the charitable Hankey Foundation. They own the Xanadu estate in Malibu, which has been valued at $35 million.

Return to the 2020 edition of the LA500.