Ronald Burkle

[1] Joseph worked seven days a week, managing a Stater Bros. grocery store in Pomona and investing his savings in apartment buildings.

[11] At age 16, he graduated from high school and entered California State Polytechnic University, Pomona to study dentistry.

When he was 29, Petrolane decided to sell Stater Bros.[1] Burkle secretly organized a leveraged buyout with Charles Munger, vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who agreed to put up half of the equity.

Burkle's portfolio was by then worth some $5 million, and during the next five years, he continued to invest in stocks and oversaw his family's rental properties.

[14] He has served as chairman of the board and controlling shareholder of numerous companies, including Alliance Entertainment,[15] Golden State Foods, Dominick's, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, and Food4Less.

[22] Burkle's strong ties to union work also led him to be one of the owners helping Commissioner Gary Bettman negotiate an end to the 2012–13 NHL lockout.

[23][24][25] The Penguins, under the ownership of Burkle, are the only North American sports team with ties to private equity that has won a championship.

[27] On February 26, 2021, Burkle announced that he was pulling out his interests in Major League Soccer expansion club in Sacramento due to the COVID-19 pandemic in California.

[38] In January 2012, Burkle invested in Artist Group International, a concert-booking firm whose clients include Billy Joel, Metallica, and Rod Stewart.

[43] In 2018, Burkle's investment firm Yucaipa acquired a minority stake in the Spanish music festival Primavera Sound.

[47] Burkle sold his majority stake in supplier Golden State Foods to St. Louis-based Wetterau Associates for about $110 million.

[72][73] Burkle has hosted fundraisers for Bill and Hillary Clinton,[72][74] John Kerry,[6] Cory Booker,[7] and Terry McAuliffe,[75] as well as former Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,[1] among others.

[90] Burkle is a trustee of The Scripps Research Institute, The Carter Center,[4][91] the National Urban League,[4][91] Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy[92] and AIDS Project Los Angeles.

[95] Burkle hosts fundraising events for the non-profit Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign, which focuses on helping end childhood hunger in the United States.

In 2011, he purchased[102] the partially restored 1924 Ennis House, a Los Angeles landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

[104] In December 2013, Burkle purchased an Olympic gold medal won by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Games for $1.4 million[105] and owns William Faulkner's Nobel Prize for Literature.

[106][107] Burkle owns a Mediterranean-styled mansion overlooking the bluffs of Black's Beach on a nearly six-acre plot in the La Jolla Farms neighborhood of San Diego, California.

[108] Burkle has worked with Novak Djokovic, world No.1 tennis player at the time, on strategic marketing and charitable initiatives.

[111][112] 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 took what were described as humanitarian trips to Africa with Bill Clinton on Epstein's private Boeing 727, sometimes referred to as "the Lolita Express".