50. Donald Friese

NET WORTH: $1.2 billion
AGE: 79
RESIDENCE: Chatsworth
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Manufacturing
LAST YEAR: N/A
CHANGE: NEW

THE MONEY: Friese owned glass products company CR Laurence Co. Inc. until 2015, when he sold the company to Irish building supplier Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope Inc. for $1.3 billion. Friese’s take was about $885 million after taxes. In 2018, he decided to sell off his $350 million real estate portfolio, the vast majority of which was land underneath CR Laurence buildings around the globe. He is still in the process of selling the last remaining portion.

THE BUZZ: Raised an orphan in Pennsylvania, Friese came to L.A. with $125 in his pocket. He joined CR Laurence in 1961 as a warehouse worker before rising through the ranks, becoming the sole owner and expanding the company’s reach globally. Friese garnered headlines for distributing $86 million to CR Laurence employees days after the sale to Oldcastle closed. He retired from the company in 2018 and launched the Friese Foundation that same year with $63 million from sale of land owned by CR Laurence. The nonprofit mostly funds services to military personnel, with some gifts going toward the treatment of abused animals, as well as to hospitals and religious and youth organizations. In 2017, Friese bought a $16 million home in Malibu.

Return to the 2020 edition of the LA500.

Reader Poll

READER POLL: How much time do you plan to take off for the holidays?