Donald bren, son
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Donald Bren
American businessman
Donald Leroy Bren (born May 11, 1932) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and owner of the Irvine Company, a U.S. real estate development corporation.[5] With a net worth of $18 billion, he ranks number 104 on the 2024 Forbes Billionaires List.[6]
Early life
Bren is the son of Marion Newbert and Milton Bren.[7] His Jewish father Milton was a naval officer, talent agent, and movie producer. His mother Marion, who is of partial Irish descent, was a civic leader. Following their divorce in 1948, Bren's father remarried Academy Award-winning actress Claire Trevor in the same year. His mother later got remarried to steel businessman Earle M. Jorgensen[7] in 1953.
Bren was graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics.[8] While at the University of Washington, Bren became a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He failed to qualify for the 1956 Olympic ski team following an injury.[9] After
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“Orange County looks like Orange County…because of the influence of Bren.”
— The Los Angeles Times
Master Planner, Builder and Philanthropist
Donald Bren, an acclaimed master planner and builder, grew up in Los Angeles, where from an early age he loved exploring the surrounding oak woodlands, sandstone canyons and Pacific Coast beaches.
“I’ve always viewed Southern California as a very special place where the countryside meets the sea,” he has said.
After earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Washington and spending three years as a U.S. Marine Corps officer, Bren, then 25, returned to build his first house in Newport Beach. In that same year, he founded the Bren Company to build more local homes and in 1963 helped launch the Mission Viejo Company, which planned and developed the 11,000-acre city of Mission Viejo.
In 1968, Bren moved on to help create other master-planned communities, including Westlake Village and Newhall Ranch in Southern California and Foster City in the San Francisco Bay Area. Five years later, he joined a group of investor
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Donald Bren | Biography of America's Wealthiest Real Estate Developer
Donald Bren’s Career Building Communities
Mr. Bren Starts As An Orange County Home Builder
A Los Angeles native and former marine, Donald Bren started as a new home builder in Orange County, California. Mr. Bren would eventually partner with the O’Neill family in the Mission Viejo Company in 1963. The company had a vision of developing a master planned community on the Rancho Mission Viejo that had been in the O’Neill family since the mid 1800’s.
The Master Planned Community of Mission Viejo
The opportunity with the Mission Viejo Company would allow Donald Bren to build his skills of master planning, master building, and creating a community from the ground up. He and his team went to work creating the plan and building the infrastructure that would give birth to the community of Mission Viejo that would come to represent approximately 11 thousand acres of the 52 thousand acre rancho.
Donald Bren Moves On To Develop More Planned Communities
After his experience in Missi
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