Business and industry

DEVELOPERS

Built one of the largest real estate development companies in the nation.

Home builder who fled Armenia for Iraq before coming to the United States and building up his family company.

Orange County developer, financier and philanthropist.

Philanthropist and human rights activist whose family real estate firm helped develop Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade and preserve the Helms Bakery building.

Prominent landowner and Democratic Party activist transformed the landscape of Orange County by developing Rancho Mission Viejo.

Businessman who with his two brothers transformed a family construction company into a leading Southern California home builder.

Influential L.A. developer and philathropist.

Casino owner developed the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas.

Prolific builder who did much to define the look of modern Los Angeles.

ENTREPRENEURS

One of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game.

Teamed up with his wife to build the Laura Ashley fashion and home furnishings brand into a global business.

Made a San Diego product called WD-40 into a national sensation.

"Tomato King" made a fortune in America as an illegal immigrant and returned home to hold office in Mexico.

Innovative restaurateur who helped bridge the gap between fast food and fine dining with his casual chains Chili's, Bennigan's and Steak & Ale.

Leader of family pie business helped make Marie Callender's a household name in Southern California.

Pioneered yogurt in America in the early 1940s.

Comic-book collector who was the architect behind the pop-culture showcase in San Diego now known as Comic-Con.

Pioneered neighborhood casinos in Las Vegas.

Co-founded Gap clothing chain.

Self-made millionaire who founded Habitat for Humanity.

Electronics industry executive who was founder and CEO of analog chip maker Maxim Integrated Products.

Founder of Rite Aid drugstore chain.

Physician and HMO pioneer who built the managed-care giant FHP then used his fortune to found the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.

Started test preparation company.

Entrepreneur whose TapouTÖ clothing line capitalized on the emerging sport of mixed martial arts, killed in car crash.

Founder of FoodCraft company and arts patron financed restoration of valuable 1930s-era mural at City of Hope.

Retired chairman of the meat-processing company that bears his name

German billionaire commits suicide after his business empire begins to collapse in the worldwide financial crisis.

Cinematographer was co-founder of Panavision.

Entrepreneur who built up Simmons Airlines, a regional carrier in the Midwest.

The trained engineer founded a tableware firm in 1954 to introduce Scandinavian design to Americans.

Owner of New York's famous Carnegie Deli.

Owner of Minnesota Twins baseball team and one of the richest men in America, said to be worth $3.8 billion.

Businessman changed the retail industry by founding the landmark warehouse chain Price Club.

Longtime Los Angeles nightclub owner, hotel executive and restaurateur.

Co-founded a women's clothing store with her husband in 1947 and oversaw its growth into a catalog powerhouse and retail chain.

Businessman in downtown L.A. who was nicknamed the Mayor of 2nd Street.

Entrepreneur helped advance study of sports as a business.

EXECUTIVES AND AGENTS

United Artists official was fired over "Heaven's Gate" debacle and wrote best-selling memoir on making of movie.

Ocean Pacific chief helped shape surf wear industry.

Former senior executive with Federated Department stores who for several years was president of Bullock's department stores in Los Angeles.

Former Union Oil executive was nation's third transportation secretary.

Hilton Hotels Corp. executive who was a confidant of company founder Conrad Hilton and chief executive Barron Hilton.

Nephew of Walt Disney who mounted revolts that led to the unseating of two of the company's chief executives and a revival of the studio's legendary animation unit.

Head of data storage company and contributor to Bush campaign became ambassador to Ireland.

Lockheed engineer who played a central role in the creation of the Polaris and Poseidon missiles before rising to the top of the aeronautics and aerospace giant.

President and chief executive of Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys.

Civil engineer from Texas who rose to chairman and chief executive of Standard Oil Co. of California before it became Chevron.

Former chairman of Icelandair pioneered cheap flights between Europe and the United States.

Former marketing vice president for Netscape who pioneered commercial use of the World Wide Web.

President and chairman of Marvin Windows and Doors responsible for its growth into a major manufacturer.

Helped engineer the technology that paved the way for the world's first cellular phone during a 45-year career at Motorola, where he was president from 1980 to 1995.

Longtime CBS executive was one of first women to get through entertainment industry's glass ceiling.

Former chairman of Texas Instruments presided over firm's historic growth.

Former vice chairman of American International Group Inc. and a self-made billionaire.

Former top executive at Hertz hired O.J. Simpson as television pitchman.

First woman to manage a major Las Vegas Strip casino.

EXPERTS

Wife and collaborator of economist Milton Friedman.

Russian economist thrust by the Soviet collapse into the thankless task of molding a plausible free market from the wreckage of communism.

FDIC chairman led the federal response to S&L crisis in the 1980s.

Former general manager of San Francisco Public Utility Commission and a leading expert on infrastructure development.

Economic advisor to President Reagan.

Aviation advocate who pushed to rejuvenate struggling small aircraft manufacturers in the 1990s.

FINANCIERS

Former chairman of the National Credit Union Administration.

Money manager built the Dreyfus Fund, one of the largest mutual fund firms in the country.

Wall Street leader who sidestepped the 1929 market crash and helped rescue stock brokers Kidder, Peabody & Co. in the Depression.

Founder of the subprime mortgage giant New Century Financial.

Member of a pioneering Fullerton family and the chief executive officer of Fullerton Community Bank.

Former head of brokerage firm A.G. Edwards & Son oversaw large expansion.

Chief executive of investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert who helped create the modern junk-bond market in the 1980s before the firm's collapse.

The accused O.C. financier faced fraud charges. His wife's murder case raised questions of his possible ties to a Taiwanese triad.

Philanthropist accused of profiting by more than $7 billion from the investment schemes of his longtime friend Bernard Madoff.

Founder and chairman of New York-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

A former Los Angeles-based leader of the savings and loan industry and a philanthropist who was a major donor to UC Irvine.

Chairman and CEO of Continental Illinois Bank in 1984, when the largest financial institution between the East and West coasts nearly collapsed.

Entrepreneur who founded Tech Coast Angels, an Orange County angel investment group.

Chief executive of investment bank Lazard Ltd. and a prominent Wall Street deal maker.

Key figure in the 1980s savings and loan scandal, jumped to his death.

INDUSTRIALISTS

Cotton magnate created California's first giant agribusiness and one of the nation's largest farming empires.

Oxnard rancher and philanthropist who was a major supporter of California State University Channel Islands.

United Technologies Corp. chief executive who is credited with transforming the company into an industrial conglomerate.

Founding member of farming partnership Tanimura & Antle Fresh Foods.

SELLERS AND ADVERTISERS

Cultivated a niche as a real estate appraiser to the stars.

Salesman and co-founder of the real estate behemoth Century 21.

Merchandising executive who designed the environmentally conscious character Woodsy Owl.

Founder of real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis.

Founder and owner of Book Soup, the landmark West Hollywood book store.

Businessman who owned a chain of Southern California car dealerships.

Car sales mogul and owner of the Utah Jazz NBA team.

Co-founder of Tooley & Co. commercial real estate firm.