William Rockefeller Jr.: Being Shrewd Can Be Rewarding

William Rockefeller Jr. was an American financier who co-founded the Standard Oil with his elder brother John. A member of the prominent Rockefeller family, William was born on May 31, 1841 in Richford, New York.

William first engaged in the oil business in 1865 when he established his own oil refinery. Rockefeller & Andrews, a partnership where John was a partner, absorbed William’s refinery in 1867. This partnership became the Standard Oil in 1870. William was said to be very adept when it comes to business matters. Standard Oil appointed him to be the company’s representative in New York until 1911. William also had interests in other industries including public utilities, railways and copper. He also helped establish the National City Bank of New York which is a part of the Citigroup today.

Together with Henry Rogers, a fellow principal in Standard Oil, William established the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. The duo devised a deceptive plan of making a profit of $36 million. They acquired Anaconda Properties for $39 million with the agreement that the check will be deposited in the National City Bank and remain there for a period of time. (The National City Bank was ran by William’s friends.) William and Henry established a paper organization and named it Amalgamated Copper Mining Company using their employees as dummy directors and priced the company at $75 million. Then they had Amalgamated Copper purchase Anaconda from them at $75 million worth of capital stock. Then, using Amalgamated Copper as collateral, they loaned $39 million from the bank. They sold $75 million worth of Amalgamated Copper capital stock to the public, acquired Anaconda for $36 million, and kept $39 million in profit.

Harold Harmsworth: Success Worth Emulating

Harold Harmsworth was a British newspaper publisher and owner of the Associated Newspapers Ltd. His success in the newspaper business began with his partnership with his brother Alfred, after the duo founded the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Harmsworth is known in the publishing industry as the one who pioneered popular journalism.

Aside from Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, Harmsworth also acquired Glasgow Record and Mail in 1910. In 1915, he also acquired Sunday Pictorial. Among the other newspaper companies that Harmsworth consequently bought included Evening News and Sunday Mail. The Harmsworth brothers shared the ownership of Associated Newspapers later.

In 1922, Alfred Harmsworth suddenly died without an heir. Harmsworth acquired his brother’s interest in the Associated Newspapers and paid £1.6 million to gain the controlling interest in the company. In 1923, Harmsworth also acquired the Hulton newspaper chain. That year, Harmsworth gained control of three of the nation’s morning newspapers and three Sunday newspapers, two of London’s evening newspapers, four of the provincial daily newspapers, and three of the provincial Sunday newspapers.

To maintain his focus on publishing provincial newspapers, Harmsworth decided to sell his interests in his magazine company Amalgamated Newspapers in 1926. He launched evening newspapers in the provincial cities in 1926 by establishing the Northcliffe Newspapers Ltd. This ushered what the industry called “newspaper war” in 1928, which was punctuated with Harmsworth’s founding of new evening newspapers in Derby and Bristol. Harmsworth ended the year 1929 by owning fourteen daily and Sunday newspapers aside from significant interests in three other newspapers.

In 1910, Harmsworth became a baronet of Horsey. He was elevated to Baron Rothermere of Hempstead in 1914. Later, he was granted the rank of Viscount Rothermere of Hempstead in 1919 following his stint as President of the Air Council during the World War I.

The Legacies of Ralph Rogers

Ralph Rogers was an American business executive, industrialist and philanthropist. At the slump of the economy during the presidency of Richard Nixon, Rogers helped save the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); hence, he was known as the Founding Father of PBS.

Rogers was a successful industrialist. Among the industrial firms that he ran were the Indian Motorcycles and Cummins Diesel Engine. He also served as chairman, president and CEO of Texas Industries from 1973 to 1979. During his time with Texas Industries, the company was named into the Fortune 500 list. Texas Industries has had several business interests although the company’s main focus was on cement production.

Wanting to pool over 200 public TV stations together in one organization, Rogers co-founded the Children’s Television Workshop which eventually brought the award-winning TV series Sesame Street in the mainstream. Following his recovery from rheumatic fever, Rogers helped fund a research that would improve the treatment of the disease.

Rogers became a prominent philanthropist in the Dallas area. He died on November 4, 1997.

How Julius Rosenwald Used His Business Successes to Advance His Social Advocacies

Julius Rosenwald used the fortunes he amassed from his successful businesses to finance his social advocacies and become one of the biggest contributors to the philanthropic causes during the first half of the 20th century. He was one of the leaders of the Sears, Roebuck and Company which diversified from manufacturing watches to dealing consumer goods. Rosenwald founded the Rosenwald Fund to match the millions of donations to educate African American children in the rural communities of the South. He also co-founded the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and became its major financial backer and provided over $5 million in philanthropic causes.

Rosenwald was born on August 12, 1862 in Springfield, Illinois where he grew up as a boy. At sixteen, he moved to New York City and worked as an apprentice in the clothing business of his uncles. Rosenwald and his brother Morris, established their own clothing manufacturing business but was faced with difficulties and was closed in 1885 due to a recession.

Following the American Civil War, several clothiers have manufactured clothes based on standardized sizes taken from data gathered during the War. Rosenwald believed in the system so, along with Morris, they moved their manufacturing facility in Chicago and expected that rural communities around would become his market. In Chicago, the Rosenwalds were joined by their cousin Julius Weil and established the Rosenwald and Weil Clothiers.

Rosenwald and Weil became one of the major suppliers of men’s clothing to the watch company Sears, Roebuck & Company when it decided to diversify. But the Panic of 1893 and the declining health of owner Alvah Roebuck forced him to leave the company and place his interests in the hand of co-owner Richard Sears. Sears, in turn sold half of the company to Aaron Nusbaum who happened to be Rosenwald’s brother-in-law. A new partnership was formed between Rosenwald, Sears and Nausbaum. In 1903, Rosenwald and Sears bought out Nusbaum for $1.3 million.

Under Rosenwald’s leadership as Vice President, Sears, Roebuck & Company diversified into drugs, dry goods, consumer goods, furniture, hardware and practically anything that a farm household needs. From annual sales of $750,000, Rosenwald’s tenure grew its sales to $50 million. Rosenwald became the company’s president in 1908 following Sear’s resignation.

Rosenwald was already into many philanthropic efforts to help educate the African American children in the South when he founded the Rosenwald Fund in 1917, which he said was established for “the well-being of mankind.” Throughout his lifetime, Rosenwald has donated more than $70 million in charities.

Laurance Rockefeller: Keeping the Legacy Going

Laurance Rockefeller was an American financier, businessman, major conservationist and philanthropist. As the fourth son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Laurance belonged to the third-generation of the prominent Rockefeller family.

Laurance was born on May 26, 1910 in New York City. He was an alumnus of Princeton University. He took up law in Harvard Law School but quit when he decided he did not want to be a lawyer in his second year at Harvard. His first great shot in business came in 1937 when he inherited the seat of his grandfather on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1940, he became a founding trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He served the Fund for thirty-two years, becoming its president from 1958 to 1968 and chairman from 1968 to 1980.

Together with his five brothers and only sister, Laurance became pioneer in venture capital after the siblings formed a joint partnership in 1946. Later, this venture company became known as Venrock Associates, which was the earliest investor in Apple and Intel. Laurance became the chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission which focused on conservation. In 1967, he was known as “America’s leading conservationist.

Richard Riordan: From Business to Public Service

Richard Joseph Riordan is an American businessman, public servant, and politician who served from 1993 to 2001 as the thirty-ninth Mayor of Los Angeles. Riordan is a Republican. He was born on May 1, 1930 in Flushing, New York. Riordan grew up in Westchester County, New York. After earning his bachelor of laws degree, Riordan moved to Los Angeles and became an attorney for O’Melveny & Myers law offices in 1956. He resigned from the firm in 1959 and joined Nossaman LLP as partner.

From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Riordan was a venture capitalist who invested in startups in the medical, computer and semiconductor sectors. Riordan and J. Christopher Lewis co-founded a private equity in 1982. This company is known today as Riordan, Lewis & Haden.

In 1983, Riordan co-founded another private equity company, the Riordan, Freeman and Spogli. This company was one of the earliest sponsors of leveraged buyout transactions which focused on the supermarket sector. Among the grocery chains acquired by Riordan, Freeman & Spogli were Boys Markets in Los Angeles, Bayless Southwest in Phoenix, Piggly Wiggly in various Southern states, P&C Foods in Syracuse, and Tops Markets in New York and Pennsylvania. After Riordan resigned from the company in the late 1980s, Bradford Freeman and Ronald Spogli renamed the company as Freeman Spogli & Co. and continued with leveraged buyouts.

Riordan organized The Riordan Foundation in 1981 to help people in acquiring the necessary skills to successfully compete in society. The Foundation is teaching children to read and write. It nurtures the leadership skills of young adults. Today, after over 25 years, more than 2,300 young people have graduated from the computer-based literacy programs, and youth and leadership development programs that the Foundation has offered. The Foundation has also distributed more than 23,400 computer sets to hundreds of schools and purchased books for elementary school libraries.

In 1993, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley retired from public office. Riordan became interested in running for the position. The 1993 election was pivotal in many ways. Since Bradley served for five terms, his successor would be a new face in twenty years. These twenty years witnessed rising crimes and traffic jams that damaged the city’s image. The robust economy built three decades before that time fizzled. Plus the Los Angeles riots that erupted following the acquittal of four LAPD agents after beating Afro-American motorist Rodney King did not die down.

Riordan ran for mayor against Mike Woo of the Democrats. His campaign tagline presented him as the businessman “tough enough to turn LA around.” Riordan won the election to become the first Republican mayor of LA in 30 years.