Gary Winnick (October 13, 1947 – November 4, 2023) was an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman,

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

, and investment banker. He served as the chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Winnick & Company, a private equity firm that he originally established as Pacific Capital Group in 1985. In 2020, he established WCO Spectrum, a company that invests in wireless spectrum licenses in the United States.

Early life

Winnick was raised in a Jewish family on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He is the son of Blanche and Arnold Winnick. Winnick's first business was a snow-removal operation when he was 12 years of age, employing other children in his neighbourhood to clear local roads and driveways. Winnick attended public schools in Long Island and graduated from Roslyn High School in Roslyn, New York in 1965. He attended CW Post College, and graduated in 1969.

Career

Winnick's first job in financial services was as a bond salesman with

Drexel Burnham Lambert Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, i ...

. In 1978, he joined the staff of

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for High-yield debt, high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony ...

at Drexel's high-yield bond operation in California. He was head of the convertible desk. Winnick's work at Drexel provided initial capital and mid-cap financing to new U.S. companies in the fields of telecommunications, healthcare and gaming. Winnick is also credited with proposing the design of the California unit's X-shaped trading desk in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

. In 1985, Winnick founded a private equity firm. In 1996, Winnick formed a partnership with the

AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

that was responsible for recovering the Playa Vista development in Los Angeles, a large planned community on the Westside of Los Angeles.

Global Crossing

In 1998, Winnick founded

Global Crossing Global Crossing Limited was a telecommunications company that provided computer networking services and operated a tier 1 carrier. It maintained a large backbone network and offered peering, virtual private networks, leased lines, audio and vid ...

, an early global fiber optic network company which by 1999 was valued at $20 billion dollars. The company owned and managed a network of fiberoptics in more than 50 countries and connections to more than 70 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 amid allegations of accounting fraud and other financial irregularities. Winnick was not charged in relation to the bankruptcy, and he settled a lawsuit related to the case for $55 million without admitting guilt. Winnick was investigated for

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informati ...

regarding

. He allegedly sold large amounts of his Global Crossing stock while having non-public information about the company's financial troubles and impending bankruptcy. These stock sales attracted scrutiny from regulators and investors who claimed he benefited personally while other shareholders suffered significant losses. Winnick and other executives at the company were accused of providing misleading information to investors. They allegedly downplayed the company's financial problems and painted an overly positive picture of its prospects, which led some investors to make ill-informed decisions. Winnick and other executives were also criticized for their excessive compensation packages, with ''

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'' describing him as an "emperor of greed" for using Global Crossing as his "personal bank account."

Personal life

Winnick was married to Karen B. Winnick, chairman of the

Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The city of Los Angeles owns the zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. History Eastlake Zoo, opened in Eastlak ...

Commission and author of children's books. The couple had three children and eight grandchildren. In 2000, Winnick and his wife purchased and restored " Casa Encantada", the former Conrad Hilton estate — a 40,000-square-foot, 1930s-era trophy property in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. Winnick died at his home in

Bel Air, Los Angeles Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Los Angeles Westside, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California. Together with Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills, Bel Air fo ...

, on November 4, 2023, at the age of 76.

Philanthropy and awards

The Winnick Family Foundation is a

charitable foundation A foundation (also referred to as a charitable foundation) is a type of nonprofit organization or charitable trust that usually provides funding and support to other charitable organizations through grants, while also potentially participating d ...

started by Karen B. Winnick and Gary Winnick in 1983. In May 2000, Gary Winnick received the

Simon Wiesenthal Center The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating antisemitism, tolerance educati ...

's Humanitarian Laureate Award. Winnick received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the C.W. Post Campus of

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

References

External links

Radsoft Fibergate: Gary Winnick

Karen B. Winnick

The 2000 Slate 60: The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winnick, Gary 1947 births 2023 deaths American philanthropists 20th-century American businesspeople Drexel Burnham Lambert 21st-century American Jews Businesspeople from New York City People from Bel Air, Los Angeles