Ronald Burkle

Ronald Burkle Biography

Ronald Wayne Burkle (born November 12, 1952) is an American business magnate.

Life and career

Burkle was born in Pomona, California. He got his start in the supermarket business as a bag boy at his father's grocery store in neighboring Claremont. He later dropped out of college and founded Yucaipa Companies, a private equity firm which invests in retail, manufacturing, and distribution. He also founded the Ronald W. Burkle Foundation.

Burkle has served as chairman of the board and controlling shareholder of numerous companies, including Alliance Entertainment, Golden State Foods, Dominick's, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, and Food4Less. He is currently a member of the board of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, KB Home, and Yahoo!

Burkle is a well-known Democratic supporter and fundraiser who raised more than $1,000,000 for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Bill Clinton is employed by The Yucaipa Companies to help identify possible investment opportunities. He has supported California State Treasurer Phil Angelides and employed former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, both of whom are former California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) board members, but has also made contributions to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Robert Novak reported in June 2007 that 98 percent of Burkle's $1.5 million political contributions to date have gone to Democrats. Burkle helped finance Al Gore's cable Current TV network.

Burkle is also known for a tussle with the New York Post which tagged him the "Billionaire Party Boy".

Pittsburgh Penguins

He is part owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins National Hockey League team, although his current share is unknown. He co-owns the franchise with Penguins legend Mario Lemieux. The Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009.

Technology investments

He has invested in technology startup companies through A-Grade Investments, a venture capital fund founded by Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle. A-Grade's investments include SeatGeek, SoundCloud and Airbnb.

Media Investments

Burkle has recently invested in a branded entertainment company, Three Lions Entertainment, which focuses on branded entertainment events and cross platform marketing.

Wild Oats

Wild Oats Markets was an operator of natural foods stores and farmers' markets in North America. Burkle started buying Wild Oats stock in February 2005. By the time Whole Foods Market, a natural-foods grocer, agreed to pay $565 million for Wild Oats, Burkle was the largest shareholder of Wild Oats.

Golden State Foods

Burkle sold his majority stake in supplier Golden State Foods to St. Louis-based Wetterau Associates for about $110 million. Golden State, one of McDonald's biggest suppliers, operates 11 distribution centers in the United States and abroad and two U.S. processing plants.

Follieri and the Vati-Con scandal

On April 30, 2008, a Delaware judge dismissed Burkle's lawsuit against Raffaello Follieri, ex-boyfriend of actress Anne Hathaway, after he agreed to repay $1.3 million Burkle loaned to him in the Vati-Con Scandal.

Investments and transactions

Burkle's investments and transactions include:

Sold Dominick's chain to Safeway in 1998 for over $200 million in profits;
Owns 20.7% stake in Americold Realty Trust;
Leveraged buyouts of Jurgensen's, Fred Meyer, Food 4 Less, and Ralphs supermarket chains, and sold to Kroger for $13.5 billion;
Signed Fleming as sole food supplier to Kmart;
Majority stake in Pathmark grocery stores;
Cyrk, the former Beanie Baby promotion agency;
Merged Alliance Entertainment with Source Interlink;
49% of British jewelry brand Stephen Webster purchased in 2007;
Invested $100 million in Sean Combs's (P. Diddy) Sean John clothing line;
Purchased Enthusiast Media publications and assets of Primedia for $1.2 billion;
Burkle's investment firm, Yucaipa Cos., owns 18.7% of the common stock of Barnes & Noble. In early 2010 he sought to raise his stake to 37% without triggering the shareholders' rights plan; Chairman Len Riggio, with 27.8% ownership of the bookseller's common stock, is Barnes & Noble's largest shareholder;
Owns 6% stake in American Apparel, Inc.
In an attempted transaction, Burkle made an offer to purchase the financially troubled Sacramento Kings franchise and prevent the team from relocating to Anaheim; Burkle's plan was rejected by the current owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof.
A significant equity stake in Relativity Media.

Payola scandal

In April 2006, Burkle accused New York Post columnist Jared Paul Stern of attempting to extort money from him in exchange for stopping the publication of stories in Page Six, the paper's gossip column, about his private life. Burkle secretly videotaped two private meetings between himself and Stern, with the second meeting orchestrated and monitored by the FBI. Stern allegedly asked Burkle for a $220,000 investment in his clothing business in exchange for better coverage. Stern was subsequently fired by the Post.

Relationship with organized labor

Ron has received numerous honors and awards from labor including the AFL-CIO Murray Green Meany Kirkland Community Service Award and The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Man of the Year.

Personal

In 1974 Burkle married Janet Steeper, a great-grandniece of the Wright brothers. They divorced in 2003. They had three children.

Burkle is a fan of historic architecture. In 2011 he purchased the partially restored Ennis House, a Los Angeles landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Burkle also owns Greenacres, an estate built for Harold Lloyd. According to a Los Angeles Times article, Burkle aspired to be an architect as a teenager.