Steven M. Rales

Steven M. Rales (born 1951) is chairman of Danaher Corporation.

Contents

Education

Steven was a 1969 graduate of Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Maryland.[1]

He was a 1973 graduate of DePauw University, where he was in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

He was awarded a J.D. from American University in 1978.[2]

Investments

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: first Mastershield, a vinyl siding manufacturer, then Mohawk Rubber Company, then Diversified Mortgage Group. They changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors, in 1978, and then Danaher, in 1984.

In 1985 they bought EASCO, an aluminum siding manufacturer, and hand tool manufacturer.

In 1988, they made a hostile takeover bid for Interco, (including Converse (shoe company), and Ethan Allen (furniture company)).[3][4] When the company responded with a poison pill, they sued, and prevailed in court.[5] They later ended the bid after five months with a profit of $60 million.[6]

In the 1980s, the AM side of WGMS was sold off to Washington, D.C., venture capitalists Steven and Mitchell Rales, who converted the music station into the first frequency for WTEM, a sports-talk station, in 1992.

He has served as Chairman of the board, of Danaher, since January 1984.[7]

In May 2008, he engineered the initial public offering of Colfax, a Richmond, Virginia industrial pumps manufacturer.[8]

Filmography

Rales owns his own production company Indian Paintbrush,[9] which has funded The Darjeeling Limited - (2007), and The Fantastic Mr. Fox - (2009).[10][11][12]

Philanthropy

He has been a major supporter of the Washington Ballet. In 2002, he was a major donor in the dedication of the Peeler Art Center at DePauw University.[13] He was a donor to GolfRocks.[14]

He is number 130 on the List of Americans by net worth.

Wealth

He is worth over $3.2 billion US dollars.[15]

References

  1. ^ Murphy, Carolyn and Lynn Stander (September 2005). "We Knew Them When". Bethesda Magazine. http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/sept05/when.php. 
  2. ^ "Bio: Mitchell P. Rales and Steven M. Rales". Business Week Magazine. February 19, 2007. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_08/b4022069.htm. 
  3. ^ 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. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1274918.html. 
  4. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Request on Interco". The New York Times. August 4, 1988. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DF173AF937A3575BC0A96E948260. 
  5. ^ Patrick A. Gaughan (2002). Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings. John Wiley and Sons. p. 217. ISBN 9780471237297. http://books.google.com/books?id=jeqOmOTSJ3sC&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=Steven+M.+Rales&source=bl&ots=lRIo6FoiKe&sig=AY36FU09Ip_CiEG4AemZXP45QpE&hl=en&ei=ehKwSeGSHdKgtwfrtdDdBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA217,M1. 
  6. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Rales Brothers Sell Their Interco Stake". The New York Times. December 16, 1988. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D91338F935A25751C1A96E948260. 
  7. ^ "Steven M. Rales". Forbes Magazine. http://people.forbes.com/profile/steven-m-rales/25091. 
  8. ^ Thomas Heath (July 7, 2008). "The Quiet Dynamism of the Brothers Rales". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/06/AR2008070601875.html. 
  9. ^ Kaufman, Anthony (2007-09-07). "Money men with a yen for films". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117971643.html. Retrieved 19 March 2010. 
  10. ^ Steven M. Rales, hollywood.com
  11. ^ Steven M. Rales, imdb.com
  12. ^ Kim Eisler (December 11, 2007). "What’s a DC Billionaire Doing Aboard The Darjeeling Limited?". Washingtonian. http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/News%20&%20Features/capitalcomment/5831.html. 
  13. ^ Peeler Art Center Dedicated as Donor Remembers the Building's Namesake, Her Former Professor, DePauw University
  14. ^ Sponsors, GolfRocks
  15. ^ Kiger, Patrick J. (November 1994). "The good guys: Steven and Mitchell Rales have quietly brown-bagged their way to fortunes worth half a billion dollars. But they'd rather you didn't know that. Or them.". Regardie's Magazine. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9301324_ITM. 

External references