OC'S WEALTHIEST

Orange County Business Journal, Aug 9-Aug 15, 2004 by Padilla, Mathew, Lyster, Michael, Simons, Andrew, Cruz, Sherri, Bellantonio, Jennifer

Rady, who lives in La Jolla, makes our list because a big chunk of his wealth comes from here.

His other businesses include San Diego-based American Assets Inc., a real estate developer and owner; and San Diego's ICW Group, a trio of insurers including Insurance Company of the West.

In December, American Assets paid $136 million to the California State Teachers' Retirement System for a pair of San Antonio, Texas, shopping centers.

American Assets owns 25 retail, office, apartment and industrial properties in all.

Rady's business dealings don't end there. In 2002, he sold his 53% stake in oil producer Summit Resources Ltd. to Paramount Resources Ltd., both of Calgary, Alberta, as part of Paramount's $225 million buy of Summit.

In 2001, Rady sold his stake in San Diego's Coast Distributing as part of Anheuser-Busch Cos.' buy of the beer distributor.

Earlier, Rady owned San Diego radio stations, part of the San Diego Padres baseball team and the San Diego Sockers soccer team.

Rady cofounded Westcorp in 1972 and has been its driving force since. The 66-year-old comes to the company's Irvine office regularly and meets with clients and investors.

A Canadian, Rady's come a long way from his days in Manitoba. He earned degrees in law and commerce from the University of Manitoba and came to San Diego in 1966.

Rady and wife Evelyn made big news earlier this year when they gave $30 million to the fledgling School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. The school now is named after the publicity-shy Rady.

In 2000, the Radys gave $2 million to San Diego's Children's Convalescent Hospital. Ernest Rady served as chair of the children's hospital's board. The second floor of the Children's Way Pavilion at the hospital is named for Dr. Max and Rose Rady, his parents.

At the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in San Diego's Golden Triangle area, an administration center is named for the Radys. They also are big supporters of the San Diego Performing Arts League. Ernest Rady also is a trustee of the SaIk Institute for Biological Studies.

-Michael Lyster

No. 3

HENRY NICHOLAS

Cofounder, Broadcom Corp.

Estimated worth: $1.6 billion

No. 4

HENRY SAMUELI

Cofounder, chairman,

chief technical officer,

Broadcom Corp.

Estimated worth: $1.55 billion

It's shaping up to be an off summer in an otherwise good year for Broadcom Corp.'s two dominant owners.

After a steady rise in the past 12 months, shares in the Irvine chipmaker are off 25% since late June on worries about slowing sales and a buildup of unsold products. Even so, Broadcom shares still are up about 40% since a year ago.

Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli each own about 29 million shares of Irvine-based Broadcom, stakes worth about $950 million each at recent check. We estimate both men to be nearly double that based on years of stock sales by the two.

A proviso: Even with Broadcom's stock gains in the past year, this year's estimates for Nicholas and Samueli are unchanged from last year, based on what we feel is a more thorough calculation of past stock sales by the two.