What is Steven Rales's Net Worth?
Steven Rales is a businessman and film producer who has a net worth of $9.6 billion. That net worth makes Steven Rales the richest person in Washington D.C.
Steven Rales is known for founding the film production company Indian Paintbrush and co-founding Danaher Corporation with his brother Mitchell Rales. Additionally, he owns the film distribution companies Janus Films and the Criterion Collection. In other business endeavors, Rales owns a 20% stake in the NBA team the Indiana Pacers.
Early Life and Education
Steven Rales was born on March 31, 1951 in Bethesda, Maryland as one of four sons of Jewish parents Ruth and Norman. As a teenager, he attended Walt Whitman High School, graduating in 1969. Rales went on to attend DePauw University in Indiana, from which he graduated with his BA degree in 1973. He subsequently went to law school at American University in Washington, DC, earning his JD degree in 1978.
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Brothers in Business
Rales started his career working for his father's real estate firm. In the late 1970s, he left the firm and co-founded Equity Group Holdings with his brother Mitchell, acquiring a diversified line of businesses. In 1984, the Rales brothers founded Danaher Corporation, a global conglomerate headquartered in Washington, DC. Steven became the chairman of the board. The company grew quickly, acquiring 12 companies within two years of its founding to become a leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. Danaher contains divisions in life sciences and diagnostics, with subsidiaries including Abcam, Leica Microsystems, Pall Corporation, Cepheid, and Radiometer. The company also spawned the spinoff companies Fortive Corporation and Veralto.
In other business ventures, the Rales brothers mounted a hostile takeover bid of the conglomerate Interco in 1988. After an acrimonious battle with the company, they ended the bid five months later with a profit of $60 million. A little later, the Rales brothers purchased the AM side of the radio station WGMS, which they eventually converted to the sports-talk station WTEM in the Washington metro area. In 1995, the brothers co-founded the medical technology company Colfax Corporation in Richmond, Virginia. Focusing on orthopedics, the company was later moved to Wilmington, Delaware and rebranded as Enovis in 2022.
Indian Paintbrush
In 2006, Rales founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in Santa Monica, California. The company is best known for producing films by writer-director Wes Anderson, starting with "The Darjeeling Limited" in 2007. As a producer, Rales earned Academy Award nominations for Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014), "Isle of Dogs" (2018), and "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" (2023), winning Best Live Action Short Film for the lattermost title. Other films produced by Indian Paintbrush have included the romantic drama "Like Crazy" (2011); Park Chan-wook's thriller "Stoker" (2013); the Sundance award-winning coming-of-age dramedy "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" (2015); and Edward Berger's papal thriller "Conclave" (2024).
Film Distribution
In the spring of 2024, Rales acquired two major media distribution companies: Janus Films and the Criterion Collection. Both are renowned for licensing, restoring, and distributing an array of films from around the world, including classic and contemporary works. Janus has a close business relationship with Criterion, and also distributes films theatrically.
Personal Life
Rales married his first wife, Christine Plank, in 1983. They had three children named Alexander, Gregory, and Stephanie. The couple divorced in 2003. Rales went on to wed Lalage Damerell in 2012.
