Donald Bren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald Leroy Bren (born 1932) is a US real estate mogul born in Los Angeles, and currently residing in Newport Beach, CA.
He is the son of Hollywood producer Milton Bren and the stepson of actress Claire Trevor. He attended the University of Washington, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, received a ski scholarship and tried out for the Olympic team in 1956. He holds a degree in business administration and economics. After college he served in the Marines. He is married to attorney Brigitte Bren.
In 1977 Bren joined a group of 34 investors to purchase the Irvine Company. By 1994, he had bought out all outstanding shares to become the sole owner.
Forbes magazine, in its 2007 edition of "The 400 Richest Americans", ranked Bren as the wealthiest real estate owner in the US with an estimated net worth of $13 billion.
He is a donor to many Orange County institutions, including University of California, Irvine, Chapman University, and The Orange County Museum of Art. At UCI, the Donald Bren School of Law, the Bren Events Center, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and the recently built Donald Bren Hall are named after him, honoring his patronage of the school. UCI also named its School of the Arts after his stepmother, Claire Trevor, and the University of California, Santa Barbara named the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management after him as well.
In August 2007, Bren gave $20 million to UCI's recently-established law school. The purpose of the gift was to establish an endowment to help recruit and support a nationally recognized dean and 11 distinguished law scholars, and also to provide the dean with discretionary start-up funding. In recognition of the gift, the school, which is expected to open in Fall of 2009, will be named the Donald Bren School of Law.
