Henry Pyle HENRY PYLE CO-FOUNDER/OPERATING PARTNER CHARTWELL REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT WHY: Has accumulated 2M square feet of real estate since founding Chartwell Real Estate Development in 2017. Also bought Balboa Fun Zone on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula in 2020 and plans to revitalize the amusement park. Father is David Pyle, Read More
RYAN WESTERDAHL CO-FOUNDER / CEO TURION SPACE CORP. WHY: Worked for eight years as dynamics engineer at SpaceX. Co-founded Turion in 2021 to clean up junk in space and mine asteroids for precious metals. Has more than 70 employees. As of December, has raised $26.5M when the value of its Read More
Todd Watts, co-founder/CEO, PatientFi TODD WATTS CO-FOUNDER / CEO PATIENTFI WHY: Co-founded company that developed a payment technology platform for elective procedures. Estimated to have helped 320K patients qualify for over $3B in out-of-pocket healthcare expenses to date. Started PatientFi in 2017 with a few people in a small office Read More
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
