Gary Winnick

Gary Winnick (October 13, 1947 – November 4, 2023) was an American billionaire businessman, industrialist, and investment banker. He was the chairman and CEO of Winnick & Company, a private equity firm that he originally established as Pacific Capital Group in 1985. He founded WCO Spectrum in 2020, which invests in wireless spectrum licenses in the United States.

Early life
Winnick was raised in a Jewish family on Long Island, New York. A son of Blanche and Arnold Winnick, his father owned a restaurant supply business in the greater New York Metropolitan Area.

Winnick’s first business was a snow-removal operation when he was 12 years old, employing other children in his neighborhood to clear local roads and driveways.

Winnick attended public schools in Long Island and graduated from Roslyn High School in Roslyn, New York, in 1965. He attended CW Post College, graduating in 1969.

Investment career
Winnick’s first job in financial services was as a bond salesman with Drexel Burnham Lambert. In 1978, he joined the staff of Michael Milken at Drexel's high-yield bond operation in California.

Winnick’s work at Drexel provided initial capital and mid-cap financing to new U.S. companies in the fields of telecommunications, healthcare and gaming. Winnick is also credited with proposing the design of the California unit's X-shaped trading desk in Beverly Hills.

In 1985, Winnick founded a private equity firm.

In 1996, Winnick formed a partnership with the AFL-CIO that was responsible for recovering the Playa Vista development in Los Angeles, a large planned community to be established on the Westside of Los Angeles.

Global Crossing
In 1998, Winnick founded Global Crossing, an early global fiber optic network company which by 1999 was valued at $20 billion dollars. The company owned and managed a network of fiberoptics in more than 50 countries and connections to more than 70 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 amid allegations of accounting fraud and other financial irregularities. Winnick was not charged in relation to the bankruptcy, and he settled a lawsuit related to the case for $55 million without admitting guilt.

Winnick was investigated for insider trading regarding Global Crossing. It was alleged that he sold large amounts of his Global Crossing stock while having non-public information about the company's financial troubles and impending bankruptcy. These stock sales attracted scrutiny from regulators and investors, who claimed that he benefited personally while other shareholders suffered significant losses.

Winnick and other executives at the company were accused of providing misleading information to investors. It was alleged that they downplayed the company's financial problems and painted an overly positive picture of its prospects, which led some investors to make ill-informed decisions.

Winnick and other executives were also criticized for their excessive compensation packages, with CNN Money describing him as an "emperor of greed" for using Global Crossing as his "personal bank account".

Personal life
Winnick was married to Karen B. Winnick, chairman of the Los Angeles Zoo Commission and author of children's books. The couple had three children and eight grandchildren.

In 2000, Winnick and his wife purchased and restored "Casa Encantada", the former Conrad Hilton estate – a 40,000-square-foot, 1930s-era trophy property in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Winnick died at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on November 4, 2023, at the age of 76.

Philanthropy and awards
The Winnick Family Foundation is a charitable foundation started by Karen B. Winnick and Gary Winnick in 1983.

In May 2000, Gary Winnick received the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Laureate Award.

Winnick received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.