Ethan Thornton, founder/CEO, Mach Industries ETHAN THORNTON FOUNDER / CEO MACH INDUSTRIES WHY: Founded Huntington Beach defense startup Mach Industries as a teen in 2023. Aims to make nimbler, smarter next generation weapons for the U.S. military. IN THE NEWS: Defense company in March said it will make military drones Read More
Wil Smith, founder of Greenlaw Partners WIL SMITH FOUNDER / CEO / PRESIDENT GREENLAW PARTNERS WHY: Founder of Greenlaw Partners, which has completed more than $10B worth of transactions across 340-plus deals. The Irvine-based real estate company has about 12M square feet of assets under management and another 15M square Read More
TEJ PATEL CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT FLUXERGY TEJ PATEL CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT FLUXERGY WHY: Co-founded medical diagnostics company with the goal of making pointof-care testing more accessible via its Fluxergy Analyzer, which can run a majority of lab tests in one compact system. Was among the first in the country during the pandemic Read More
TONY SMITH CO-FOUNDER / CEO RESTAURANT365 WHY: In 2011, co-founded Irvine-based restaurant-specific accounting and back-office software platform, Restaurant365. Firm has topped $100M in annual revenue and is among Orange County’s most valuable privately held companies with a valuation of $1B or above. Total employee headcount up to 900 after acquiring Read More
Reza Rofougaran and Maryam Rofougaran MARYAM ROFOUGARAN CO-FOUNDER / CEO MOVANDI REZA ROFOUGARAN CO-FOUNDER / CTO MOVANDI WHY: Iranian siblings who immigrated after Islamic revolution, co-founded Innovent Systems, which was bought by Broadcom where they became star engineers. Then in 2016 co-founded Movandi, a wireless technology equipment maker looking to Read More
TAYLOR SHUPE CEO/FOUNDER FUTURESTITCH TAYLOR SHUPE CEO / FOUNDER FUTURESTITCH WHY: Founder and CEO of textile manufacturer FutureStitch, based in San Clemente with 20K-square-feet of production facilities in Oceanside. His first local venture was San Clemente-based Stance. Making socks, sleeves and knit footwear using Italian circular knitting machines for retail Read More
RJ SCARINGE FOUNDER/CEO RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE INC. RJ SCARINGE FOUNDER / CEO RIVIAN AUTOMOTIVE INC WHY: Founder and chief executive of Irvine-based electric vehicle company Rivian Automotive Inc. (NYSE: RIVN), Orange County’s largest automaker based on local headcount. Led the EV maker to annual sales of almost $5B, which has more Read More
DAN RODRIGUES CO-FOUNDER / CEO TEBRA TECHNOLOGIES INC. WHY: Co-founded Scour, a music search engine that was sold in 2000. In 2004, founded company to make medical billing easier for doctors and their staff. In 2022, raised $72M with a $1B valuation. Tebra was derived from “vertebrae” and symbolizes its Read More
Tim Nguyen and Nicolaas Vlok, CEO of MeridianLink TIM NGUYEN CO-FOUNDER / FORMER CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER MERIDIANLINK WHY: Co-founded in 1998 MeridianLink, a software company that provides software for credit unions, small banks and consumer reporting agencies. Raised $343M when company went public in 2021; now sports $1.3B market cap Read More
TAM NGUYEN CHAIRMAN ADVANCE BEAUTY COLLEGE WHY: Chairman of Garden Grove-based Advance Beauty College, which also has campus in Laguna Hills. College has 50K graduates. Founding board member of Newport Beach-based Genesis Bank. NOTABLE: Active in OC community. Serves on the board of the Orange County Community Foundation, was Chairman Read More
