Steven Rales

Last updated

Steven Rales
Steven Rales.jpg
Rales in 2016
Born (1951-03-31) March 31, 1951 (age 73)
Education
Occupations
TitleFounder, Danaher and Indian Paintbrush
Spouses
  • Christine Plank
    (m. 1983;div. 2003)
  • Lalage Damerell
    (m. 2012)
Children3
Family Mitchell Rales (brother)

Steven M. Rales (born March 31, 1951) is an American businessman and film producer. He founded Danaher Corporation in 1984 with his brother Mitchell Rales and is chairman of the board. Rales also founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006, which works closely with filmmaker Wes Anderson. His work with Anderson has earned him three Academy Award nominations, winning Best Live Action Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023). Rales also owns a 20% stake in the Indiana Pacers, a National Basketball Association (NBA) team.

Contents

Early life and education

Raised in a Jewish family, [1] Rales is one of four sons of Ruth (née Abramson) and Norman Rales. [2] His father was raised in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York and later became a businessman in Washington, D.C. credited for enacting the first employee stock ownership plan transaction in U.S. history. [3] His father was also a philanthropist, founding the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation and the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service. [4] [5]

In 1969, Rales graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. [6] In 1973, he graduated from DePauw University, where he was in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. In 1978, he received a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from American University.

Career

In 1979, he left his father's real estate firm to found Equity Group Holdings with his brother Mitchell Rales. Using junk bonds, they bought a diversified line of businesses. They changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors in 1978 and then Danaher in 1984. [7] He has served as Danaher's Chairman of the Board since January 1984. [8] In 1985, they bought Easco Corporation, the then-largest independent aluminum extrusion manufacturer and hand tool manufacturer which produced the Craftsman brand of sockets and wrenches for Sears.

In 1988, they made a hostile takeover bid for Interco, a conglomerate comprising manufacturers as diverse as Converse shoes and Ethan Allen furniture. [9] [10] When the company responded with a poison pill, they sued, and prevailed in court. [11] They later ended the bid after five months with a profit of $60 million. [12]

In 1992, the AM side of WGMS was sold off to the Rales brothers who converted the music station into the first frequency for WTEM, the first full-time sports talk radio station in the Washington metropolitan area. He and his brother founded Colfax Corporation in 1995, an industrial pumps manufacturer based in Richmond, Virginia. In 2008, Rales engineered the initial public offering of the company. [13] His net worth was estimated by Forbes in July 2023 to be $7.3 billion. [14] Rales also owns a 20% stake in the Indiana Pacers, a National Basketball Association (NBA) team. [15]

Indian Paintbrush

Rales founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006. The company works frequently with filmmaker Wes Anderson, producing films such as Moonrise Kingdom , The Grand Budapest Hotel , and Isle of Dogs . [16] [17] Rales has earned three Academy Award nominations for his work with Anderson, winning Best Live Action Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) at the 96th Academy Awards. [18]

List of films produced by Rales
YearTitleDirected by
2012 Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson
2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson
2015 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
2018 Isle of Dogs Wes Anderson
2021 The French Dispatch Wes Anderson
2023 Asteroid City Wes Anderson
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Wes Anderson
North Star Kristin Scott Thomas
2024 My Old Ass Megan Park
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More Wes Anderson
TBA The Phoenician Scheme Wes Anderson

Personal life

Rales and his wife Lalage in 2016 Steven and Lalage Rales Stairs (cropped).jpg
Rales and his wife Lalage in 2016

Rales was married to Christine Plank from 1983 to 2003. [19] [20] They have three children: Alexander, Gregory, and Stephanie. [21] [22] [23] He married Lalage Damerell in 2012, 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. [24]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Quiet Man</i> 1952 romantic comedy-drama film by John Ford

The Quiet Man is a 1952 American romantic comedy-drama film directed and produced by John Ford, and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen, Barry Fitzgerald, and Ward Bond. The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story of the same name by Irish author Maurice Walsh, later published as part of a collection titled The Green Rushes. The film features Winton Hoch's lush photography of the Irish countryside and a long, climactic, semi-comic fist fight.

Charles Bronfman, is a Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family. With an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023, Bronfman was ranked by Forbes as the 1,217th wealthiest person in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Marcus</span> American billionaire businessman

Bernard Marcus is an American billionaire businessman. He co-founded The Home Depot. He was the company's first CEO and first chairman until retiring in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Cohen (businessman)</span> American billionaire hedge-fund manager, sports team owner (born 1956)

Steven A. Cohen is an American hedge-fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball since September 14, 2020, owning just over 97% of the team. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Management and S.A.C. Capital Advisors, which closed after pleading guilty to insider trading and other financial crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danaher Corporation</span> American conglomerate

Danaher Corporation is an American globally diversified conglomerate founded by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales in 1984. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company designs, manufactures, and markets medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. It has primarily grown by acquisitions, and historically has tried to maintain a very low public profile. Danaher was one of the first companies in North America to adopt the Kaizen principles to manufacturing, which is a lean manufacturing Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement and elimination of waste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitchell Rales</span> American businessman and art collector (born 1956)

Mitchell P. Rales is an American businessman and art collector best known for co-founding Danaher Corporation with his brother Steven Rales and the art museum Glenstone with his wife Emily Wei. Rales is also the chairman of ESAB, president of the National Gallery of Art, and a limited partner of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). His net worth was estimated by Forbes in February 2024 to be $4.8 billion.

Sidney J. Kimmel is an American businessman, philanthropist, and film producer. He is ranked 2141st in the Forbes list of the richest people alive in 2021.

Marc Lasry is an American billionaire businessman and private equity manager. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Avenue Capital Group. He was a co-owner of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks basketball team from 2014 to 2023.

Furniture Brands International, Inc., was a Clayton, Missouri-based home furnishings company. The company began in 1911 as International Shoe Company with the merger of Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company and Peters Shoe Company. In 1966 the company changed its name to Interco as the result of diversification, and once the company exited the shoe business, adopted the name Furniture Brands International. Some of the brands it owned in the furniture industry included Broyhill, Thomasville, Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Hickory Chair, Pearson, Laneventure, and Maitland-Smith. In 2013, Furniture Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell most of its divisions. New owner KPS Capital Partners announced the formation of Heritage Home Group on November 25 of that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Hellman</span> American businessman and philanthropist

F. Warren Hellman was an American billionaire investment banker and private equity investor, the co-founder of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. Hellman also co-founded Hellman, Ferri Investment Associates, today known as Matrix Partners. He started and funded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. Hellman died on December 18, 2011, of complications from his treatment for leukemia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Adelson</span> American and Israeli physician and billionaire (born 1945)

Miriam Adelson is an American and Israeli physician, philanthropist and political donor. She was married to Sheldon Adelson from 1991 until his death in 2021. After his death, she became the owner of the Las Vegas Sands and is estimated to be the fifth richest woman in America, with a net worth of $32.8 billion, as of November 2023. She is the richest Israeli in the world, and the 42nd richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Forbes places her as the 44th.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Paintbrush (company)</span> American film production company

Indian Paintbrush Productions LLC is an American film production company founded by businessman Steven Rales in 2006. It is based in Santa Monica, California, and specializes in the production and distribution of comedy-drama and romantic films. Rales and Indian Paintbrush have financed and produced several releases by filmmaker Wes Anderson, such as The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023). Other notable credits include Like Crazy (2011) and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Harris (businessman)</span> American investor and sports team owner (born 1964)

Joshua Jordan Harris is an American investor, sports team owner, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and a managing partner of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL's New Jersey Devils, and the NFL's Washington Commanders. Harris is also a general partner of the English football club Crystal Palace and owns a minority stake in Joe Gibbs Racing. He has an estimated net worth of around US$9 billion.

John Joseph Fisher is an American heir. He is the principal owner of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball, the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer and the Texas Rattlers of the Professional Bull Riders organization. He is a former part-owner of the San Francisco Giants, having purchased a stake in the team in 1992 with his father as part of an investment group formed in an ultimately-successful effort to prevent the team from relocating to Tampa Bay, Florida. He sold that stake away in order to complete a sale to buy the Athletics. He is the son of Gap founders Donald Fisher and Doris F. Fisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Hat Company</span> American manufacturing company

International Hat Company, formerly named the International Harvest Hat Company, was a St. Louis, Missouri-based manufacturer of commercial hats and military helmets. The company was one of the largest hat manufacturers in the United States and, at one time, the largest manufacturer of harvest hats in the world. It is best remembered for its design and mass production of tropical shaped, pressed fiber military sun helmets for service members of the United States Army, Marines, and Navy during and after World War II. Additionally, the American owned company was a major producer of harvest hats, straw hats, fiber sun hats, enameled dress hats, baseball caps, and earmuffs throughout most of the 20th century. However, it is the International Hat military sun helmets that have become the most notable collector's items.

Fortive Corporation is an American industrial technology conglomerate company headquartered in Everett, Washington. The company specializes in providing essential technologies for connected workflow solutions; designing, developing, manufacturing and distributing professional and engineered products, software and services. Their products and services are split into three strategic segments; Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. As of December 2022, Fortive has over 18,000 employees in 60 countries worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wes Anderson filmography</span>

Wes Anderson is an American filmmaker known for feature films, commercials, and short films.

The Phoenician Scheme is an upcoming American adventure film directed by Wes Anderson from a script he wrote with Roman Coppola. Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, and Mia Threapleton star in the film. It will be produced by Anderson through his company American Empirical Pictures and Steven Rales through his company Indian Paintbrush.

References

  1. Washington Jewish Week: "Five local Jews make Forbes richest list" Archived September 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine October 7, 2009
  2. "Obituary On Sunday, March 28, 2004, Ruth Rales, of Hillsboro Beach, FL and Potomac, MD". The Washington Post . March 30, 2004.
  3. "Remembering Norman R. Rales 1923-2012". Jewish Family Service. March 15, 2012. Archived from the original on September 29, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
  4. Sun Sentinel: "Norman Rales, orphan to wealthy businessman and philanthropist, is dead at 88" By Lisa J. Huriash March 15, 2012
  5. Jewish Family Service: "Ruth Rales, 81, Philanthropist by Tal Abbady April 1, 2004
  6. Murphy, Carolyn and Lynn Stander (September 2005). "We Knew Them When". Bethesda Magazine . Archived from the original on August 20, 2008.
  7. "Steven Rales". Forbes. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  8. "Steven M. Rales". Forbes . Archived from the original on June 9, 2009.
  9. David A. Vise; Steve Coll (August 23, 1988). "The Rales Brothers Play for Big Stakes; Little-Known Area Family Builds an Industrial Empire". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. "COMPANY NEWS; Request on Interco". The New York Times. August 4, 1988.
  11. Patrick A. Gaughan (2002). Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings. John Wiley and Sons. p. 217. ISBN   978-0-471-23729-7.
  12. "COMPANY NEWS; Rales Brothers Sell Their Interco Stake". The New York Times. December 16, 1988.
  13. Thomas Heath (July 7, 2008). "The Quiet Dynamism of the Brothers Rales". The Washington Post.
  14. "Steven Rales". Forbes . Retrieved July 7, 2023.
  15. Badenhausen, Kurt; Novy-Williams, Eben (November 30, 2023). "Billionaire Steven Rales to Buy 15% of NBA's Pacers at $3.47B Valuation". Sportico. Retrieved April 4, 2024. Rales, whose brother Mitchell is an investor in the Washington Commanders, now owns 20% of the NBA team, according to the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private.
  16. Eisler, Kim (December 11, 2007). "What's a DC Billionaire Doing Aboard The Darjeeling Limited?". Washingtonian.com. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  17. "Wes Anderson, Focus Features, And Indian Paintbrush Reunite On Asteroid City". Focus Features. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  18. Hoffman, Jordan (March 11, 2024). "Wes Anderson thanks team and his chance meeting with Owen Wilson in Oscars acceptance remarks from Germany". GoldDerby. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  19. Washingtonian Magazine: "Best Places To Live" by Kimberly Palmer And Mollie Reilly May 2012
  20. DePauw University: Peeler Art Center Dedicated as Donor Remembers the Building's Namesake, Her Former Professor October 11, 2002
  21. Find A Case: CHRISTINE P. RALES, APPELLANT v. STEVEN M. RALES, APPELLEE September 28, 2006
  22. The Ron Brown Scholar Program:Remembering Norman R. Rales - 2010 American Journey Award Recipient" [ permanent dead link ] March 13, 2012
  23. Hartford Courant: In the Matter of Marilyn Plank July 11, 2007
  24. Peeler Art Center Dedicated as Donor Remembers the Building's Namesake, Her Former Professor, DePauw University Archived January 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine