In 1979, Rales left his father's real estate firm to found Equity Group Holdings with his brother,Steven Rales. Usingjunk bonds, they bought a diversified line of businesses. In 1978, they changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors and then to Danaher in 1984.[6] In the 1980s, the AM side of radio station WGMS was sold off to Rales, who converted itWTEM, a sports-talk station, in 1992. In 1988, he made a takeover bid of Interco, which was the largest manufacturer of furniture and men's shoes in the U.S. at the time.[7][8] He later ended the bid after five months with a profit of $60 million.[9]
In 1995, Rales and his brother foundedColfax Corporation, an industrial pumps manufacturer later rebranded as Enovis in 2022.[10] He is a majority shareholder ofFortive, which split off from Danaher in 2016, and served on their board of directors until June 2021.[6][11] In 2017, Rales paid a fine of $720,000 to theFederal Trade Commission after inadvertently reporting purchases of shares in Colfax and Danaher were not above the filing threshold, which violated theHart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.[12] He had previously been fined $850,000 by theU.S. Department of Justice in 1991 for violating the same act after buying Interco.[13]
Glenstone, an art museum founded with his wife in 2006
In 2006, Rales and his wifeEmily Wei Rales established the art museumGlenstone inPotomac, Maryland.[17][18] Rales had owned the land since 1986 and had previously made it his residence.[19] Glenstone displays the Rales's collection of post-World War II art, including paintings, sculptures, and both indoor and outdoor installations, and also functions as his personal residence.[20][21] In 2018, Glenstone finished a $219 million expansion which increased both the gallery space and the wooded land surrounding the galleries.[22] Rales donated $1.9 billion to the Glenstone Foundation in 2021, increasing the museum's asset value to $4.6 billion, nearly the same as theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[21] The museum is free to visit via online booking.[23][24]
Rales is Jewish and is one of four sons (Joshua,Steven, and Stewart) of Norman and Ruth Rales (née Abramson).[27][28] Norman was raised in theHebrew Orphan Asylum of New York and later became a businessman, who sold his building supply company in Washington, D.C. to his employees in what was the firstemployee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transaction in the US. Norman was also a philanthropist, having founded the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation and the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service.[27] In 1988, he took a fishing trip in Russia and nearly died after their helicopter crashed.[19]
