The Los Angeles Business Journal released its annual report of the wealthiest people in Los Angeles in May. The listing, presented in order of net worth, considers real estate, holdings in stocks, investments and debt. To be a candidate you need to be willing to participate, live in Los Angeles County and, of course, have money.
Patrick Soon-Shiong topped the list at No. 1, followed by Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk, Eli Broad, Sean Parker and John Tu. Here’s a closer look at Asians in the top 50:
No. 1: Patrick Soon-Shiong
Topping off the list at No. 1, Patrick Soon-Shiong – who has a net worth of $15.4 billion – kept the title for a second year in a row. Soon after graduating medical school at 23, Soon-Shiong made his first billion selling two pharmaceutical firms, American Pharmaceutical Partners and Abraxis BioScience, for $9 billion. Now 63, the Chinese American doctor continues his work through NantWorks, which aims to revolutionize the health care experience by connecting a patient’s health data and genetic information.
No. 5: John Tu
John Tu is not new to the list. Coming up from No. 8 last year, he now has a net worth of $7.1 billion. The Chinese-born American went to school in Germany, and soon after graduating came to America to start a successful computer memory business. However, he lost everything with the stock market crash in 1987. Despite his losses, Tu co-founded Kingston Technology, which has since become the leading independent manufacturer of memory products.
No. 10: Do Won & Jin Sook Chang
Do Won and Jin Sook Chang are also familiar faces with their net worth of $4.76 billion. However, they have dropped from their No. 7 spot last year. Coming from South Korea with nothing but high school educations, the couple had a rocky start. Do Won opened his own clothing store in 1984 called Fashion 21, mimicking the street fashion of Seoul. Now rebranded as Forever 21, the company has over 700 stores across America, Asia and Europe.
No. 34: Bobby Murphy
One of the youngest people on the list, Bobby Murphy has a net worth of $1.6 billion. The Filipino American studied at Stanford University, where he met Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown, with whom he would co-found the popular social media app Snapchat. Originally called Picaboo, the app gained little traction in the beginning. After rebranding to Snapchat, the app is now logging 10 billion videos a day as of 2016, according to Bloomberg.
