39. Gary Winnick — $1.9 billion | Los Angeles Business Journal

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NET WORTH: $1.9 billion
AGE: 72
RESIDENCE: Bel Air
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Technology, real estate, financial services
LAST YEAR: $1.7 billion
CHANGE: +12%

THE MONEY: Winnick gained fame, and the bulk of his fortune, in the late 1990s as founder and chairman of telecommunications company Global Crossing. The company — which built the first privately financed, global undersea fiber-optic network — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002. Prior to that venture, Winnick worked at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert as a senior vice president on Michael Milken’s high-yield bond team. He currently heads Winnick & Co., a private investment firm he founded in 1985 as Pacific Capital Group.

THE BUZZ: Winnick made headlines in October for placing his Bel Air home, Casa Encantada, on the market for $225 million. The lofty price tag made it the most expensive publicly listed home in America at the time. Winnick bought the 1930s mansion from Dole Foods Chairman David Murdock in 2000 for $94 million. He and his wife, Karen, back a number of philanthropic efforts through the Winnick Family Foundation, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Skirball Cultural Center and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Winnick has funded scholarships at Stanford University and Brown University. He serves on the board of the Museum of Modern Art.

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