Steven Rales

Steven M. Rales (born March 31, 1951) is an American businessman and film producer. He founded Danaher Corporation in 1984 with his brother Mitchell Rales and is chairman of the board. Rales also founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006, which works closely with filmmaker Wes Anderson. Rales' net worth was estimated by Forbes in July 2023 to be over $7.3 billion. Early life and education Raised in a Jewish family, Rales is one of four sons of Ruth (née Abramson) and Norman Rales. His father was raised in an orphanage, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City, and became a businessman, who sold his building supply company in Washington, D.C. to his employees in what was the first employee stock ownership plan transaction in the US. His father was also a philanthropist, founding the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation and the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service. In 1969, Rales graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1973, he graduated from DePauw University, where he was in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. In 1978, he received a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from American University. Career In 1979, he left his father's real estate firm to found Equity Group Holdings with his brother Mitchell Rales. Using junk bonds, they bought a diversified line of businesses: first Mastershield, a vinyl siding manufacturer, then Mohawk Rubber Company, then Diversified Mortgage Group. They changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors, in 1978, and then Danaher in 1984. He has served as Danaher's Chairman of the Board since January 1984. In 1985, they bought Easco Corporation, the then-largest independent aluminum extrusion manufacturer and hand tool manufacturer which produced the Craftsman brand of sockets and wrenches for Sears.