30. Lowell Milken

NET WORTH:$2.6 billion
AGE: 71
RESIDENCE: Los Angeles
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Investments
LAST YEAR: $2.4 billion
CHANGE: +8%

THE MONEY: Milken’s investments range from private ventures to real estate development, the latter mostly in single-family, multifamily and industrial properties. He also has a sizable equity portfolio of technology companies, as well as investments in bonds and private equity. His core holdings include Heron International, a London-based property investment and development company he chairs, whose landmark London Heron Tower he said is fully current on rents. Though his childhood education business, Knowledge Universe, sold its subsidiary of 800 schools in 2015 for $1.3 billion, Milken’s company retained the underlying real estate, owned and managed by National Realty Trust Inc., of which Milken is chairman and a major investor.

THE BUZZ: Milken, the younger brother of fellow Wealthiest Angeleno Michael Milken, has held major investments in Santa Monica-based VC firms, including Act One Ventures and March Capital Partners, which is co-managed by Sumant Mandal, Jamie Montgomery and Gregory Milken, Michael’s son. Lowell Milken also leads more than $1.5 billion of property development in Reno, Nev. He is co-founder and chairman of the Milken Family Foundation, aimed at leading advances in education. He also founded and chairs the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, which has helped support more than 2.75 million students and 275,000 educators in 8,500 schools, 90% of which are high need, in 20 states. The organization’s rubrics have been integrated into teacher-preparation programs at more than 75 colleges and universities.

Return to the 2020 edition of the LA500.

Reader Poll

READER POLL: Should local officials make programs allowing expanded outdoor dining space and loosening other regulations permanent?

Reader Poll

READER POLL: Should local officials make programs allowing expanded outdoor dining space and loosening other regulations permanent?