Gary Winnick

Gary Winnick is an American financier best known for founding and being Chairman of Global Crossing between 1997 and 2002. He resigned from the company in 2002 just before the company filed for bankruptcy protection. He is a global philanthropist who has funded hospitals, museums, schools and college scholarships. The Winnick Family Foundation has funded scholarships at Stanford University, Cornell University, Brown University, Tufts University and LIU Post, and endowed a faculty position at Columbia University.

As of April 1999, Winnick had amassed the fastest billion dollar fortune in history with $4.5 billion in 18 months from a $15 million investment in Global Crossing. He reached the mark faster than Jeff Bezos (4 years), Mark Zuckerberg (4 years) and Bill Gates (12 years).

He is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Winnick & Company, a Los Angeles-based private investment firm founded in 1985.

Winnick was born to an Jewish family in 1947 and grew up in New York, New York. His father owned a restaurant-supply business. When he was 16, he got his first job at a Howard Johnson's on Northern Boulevard. He graduated from the C.W. Post University, part of Long Island University, in 1969.

Drexel Burnham Lambert

Winnick joined Drexel Burnham in 1972. There he was senior vice president and a partner of Michael Milken.

Winnick & Company

In 1985, Winnick formed Pacific Capital Group, a private investment firm focused on private equity and restructuring. In 2013 the name of Pacific Capital Group changed to Winnick & Company. Winnick & Company invests in a select group of industries, including digital media, entertainment, technology, telecommunications, health care, and real estate.

Global Crossing Limited

In 1997, Winnick founded Global Crossing Limited. Global Crossing laid the first privately financed underwater fiber optic cable network across the Atlantic Ocean and partnered with Microsoft and Softbank Corp. to build a high capacity telecommunications network in Asia. The company, which Winnick served as Chairman, went public in 1998. Global Crossing was profitable its first year in operation.

In January 2002, Global Crossing reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced that Singapore Technologies Telemedia would take a controlling interest in the company. Winnick resigned as Chairman of Global Crossing in December 2002. Winnick made $734 million by selling his shares in the company nine months before it collapsed, and donated $25 million to Global Crossing employees who lost money in the company’s 401k retirement plan.

Winnick founded The Winnick Family Foundation in 1983. As Chairman, he funds such initiatives as The Winnick Family Clinical Research Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and The Winnick International Conference Center of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem. He has endowed a Winnick Faculty Scholar at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Winnick serves on several boards, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, Hillel International, and The Greatest Generations Foundation.

Winnick has funded student scholarships at Brown University, Cornell University, Syracuse University and the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University. At Long Island University, he restored the Post Mansion and transformed the main cafeteria into the Arnold S Winnick Student Center, named in memory of his late father. Among the many grantees the foundation supports are the Winnick Popular Library at the Los Angeles Central Library, Teach for America, the Winnick Family Children's Zoo in Los Angeles Zoo, Skirball Cultural Center's Winnick Hall, and the Los Angeles Police Foundation.

He received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, C.W. Post Campus, in 2004. He is married to his wife, Karen Beth Winnick; they have three sons. Karen is an author, illustrator, and publisher of children's books. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, Winnick is the owner of the 28,000-square-foot “Bellagio House” near the Bel-Air Country Club.