Steven Rales

Steven Rales with Lalage Rales in Gravenwezel, Antwerp

Steven Rales (* 1951 in Pittsburgh ) is an American entrepreneur . He is Chairman of the Board of Danaher Corporation and, according to Forbes magazine with a fortune of 3.5 billion US dollars , the 149th richest person in the United States (as of 2016).

Life

Steven Rales grew up in a Jewish family. His father, Norman Rales, was a businessman known as a philanthropist who later sold his construction company to his employees. This was the first transaction under the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in the United States. Rales attended Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland . After graduating in 1973, he studied at DePauw University . There he belonged to the student fraternity Beta Theta Pi. After his bachelor's degree , he moved to American University , where he graduated with a Juris Doctor .

In 1979 he left their parents' company with his brother Mitchell Rales : The two founded Equity Group Holdings and bought various companies through high-yield bonds. First they changed the name of their company to Diversified Mortgage Investors in 1978 and then to Danaher in 1984, where he was CEO until 1990 and then Chairman. Some of their largest acquisitions were aluminum maker Easco .

In 1988 they tried to buy Interco , which was owned by Converse and Ethan Allen at the time. When the company responded with a poison pill , they went to court and turned out a profit of $ 60 million. In 1995 the two brothers founded the Colfax Corporation .

Rales also owns Indian Paintbrush , a film production company that has made Darjeeling Limited (2007), The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Jeff Who Lives at Home (2011), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), In Search of One , among others Friend for the End of the World (2012) and Labor Day funded. At the Oscar ceremony in 2015 , the film was The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson for the Best Picture nomination.

Private

In 1983 he married Christine Plank, with whom he has three children. The couple divorced in 2003. He has been married to Lalage Damerell since 2012. The couple live on Mount Desert Island .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Forbes 400: Steven Rales. Forbes Magazine , accessed January 17, 2015 . 
2. ^ Remembering Norman R. Rales 1923-2012. In: Jewish Family Service. March 15, 2012, accessed January 18, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Bio: Mitchell P. Rales and Steven M. Rales. In: Business Week Magazine . February 19, 2007, accessed January 18, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Profile at Danaher ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Rales Brothers Sell Their Interco Stake". New York Times , December 16, 1988, accessed January 18, 2015 . 
6. ^ Bill Trotter: Another billionaire to build on Mount Desert Island. Bangor Daily News , October 21, 2013, accessed January 18, 2015 .