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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 315 Denise Coates|# 317 Eric Wittouck ➡

# 316 Steven Rales 

$8.91B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 12/23/2024
$47.6M (0.53%)

# 316 Steven Rales 

$8.91B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 12/23/2024
$47.6M (0.53%)
OccupationChair, Danaher
Source of WealthManufacturing, Investments
Age73
ResidenceSanta Barbara, California
Marital StatusMarried
Children3
EducationLaw Degree, American University; BS, DePauw University
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$3.70B
Steven Rales
Steven Rales
United States
Net worth: $8.91B

Self-Made Score 

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Black Dial Automatic Men's Watch

Wealth History

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Biography

Overview

Steven M. Rales was born on March 31, 1951, in the United States.
He was raised in a Jewish family in Bethesda, Maryland.
Rales is one of four sons of Ruth and Norman Rales, both of whom were philanthropists.
His father, Norman Rales, was credited for enacting the first employee stock ownership plan transaction in U.S. history.
In 1969, Rales graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland.
He earned his undergraduate degree from DePauw University in 1973, where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Rales received a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from American University in 1978.
Rales co-founded Equity Group Holdings in 1979 with his brother Mitchell Rales.
In 1983, they acquired a REIT and merged it into their firm Danaher, which they founded in 1984.
He serves as chairman of the board at Danaher, a diversified firm with around $31.5 billion in sales in 2022.
In July 2016, Danaher spun off some assets into Fortive Corporation.
Rales founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006.
Indian Paintbrush frequently collaborates with filmmaker Wes Anderson, producing acclaimed films such as Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs.
For his work with Anderson, Rales has earned three Academy Award nominations and won Best Live Action Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023).

Career

In 1979, Rales left his father's real estate firm to found Equity Group Holdings with his brother.
Using junk bonds, they acquired diverse businesses including Mastershield, Mohawk Rubber Company, and Diversified Mortgage Group, which later became Danaher in 1984.
He has been serving as Chairman of the Board at Danaher since January 1984.
In 1985, they acquired Easco Corporation, a leading aluminum extrusion and hand tool manufacturer.
In 1988, they pursued a hostile takeover bid for Interco, which they later ended after prevailing in court.
In 1992, Rales and his brother acquired the AM side of WGMS, converting it into the first frequency for WTEM, a sports talk radio station.
They founded Colfax Corporation in 1995, an industrial pumps manufacturer, and engineered its IPO in 2008.

Indian Paintbrush Films

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
Isle of Dogs (2018)
The French Dispatch (2021)
Asteroid City (2023)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
North Star (2023)
My Old Ass (2024)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2023)
The Phoenician Scheme (TBA)

Personal Life

Rales was married to Christine Plank from 1983 to 2003, and they have three children: Alexander, Gregory, and Stephanie.
He married Lalage Damerell in 2012, who is the mother of writer and former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy.
Rales was a major donor in the 2002 dedication of the Peeler Art Center at DePauw University.

Steven Rales's Wealth is Equivalent to:

6,856,813 Herman Miller Aeron Chairs

Herman Miller Aeron Chair

1,685,336 Gold Bars (50 gram)

24K Solid 50g Gold Ingot

91,032 Tiny Homes

Tiny House, Two Bedroom Solar Prefab Home

How long would it take you to become as rich as Steven Rales?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 42.82% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Steven Rales's net worth of $8.91B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 67.72% compared to 25.94% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Steven Rales is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Steven Rales, Manufacturing and Investments are the primary sources. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We only recommend products or services we believe will add value to our readers.

Edited by: Lee Bailey