Henry Samueli | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Samueli (center) in 2008 | |
| Born | (1954-09-20)September 20, 1954 (age 71) Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (BS,MS,PhD) |
| Known for | Co-founder ofBroadcom Corporation Owner of theAnaheim Ducks |
| Spouse | Susan Samueli |
| Children | 3 |
Henry Samueli (born September 20, 1954) is an American businessman and engineer. He is a co-founder ofBroadcom Corporation, owner of theAnaheim Ducks of theNational Hockey League (NHL), and a prominentphilanthropist in theOrange County, California, community. He is chairman ofBroadcom Inc. He is also a professor (on leave of absence) in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA, and a distinguished adjunct professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department atUC Irvine.
He holdshonorary doctorate degrees from theTechnion-Israel Institute of Technology[1] and theNational Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.[2]
He is a named inventor in 75U.S. patents. He is a Fellow of theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to VLSI architectures and realizations for high-bit rate digital communication systems.[3] He is also a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He was also elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2003 for pioneering contributions to academic research and technology entrepreneurship in the broadband communications system-on-a-chip industry. In 2012 Samueli won theMarconi Prize and Fellowship for "pioneering advances in the development and commercialization of analog and mixed signal circuits for modern communication systems, in particular the cable modem.[4][5] He is the 80thwealthiest person in the world, with a net worth ofUS$25.3 billion as of December 17, 2024, according toForbes and theBloomberg Billionaires Index.
Samueli's parents, Sala and Aron, werePolish-Jewish immigrants who survived theGerman Nazi occupation of Europe and arrived in the United States with almost nothing.[6][7] Samueli stocked shelves in his family's Los Angeles liquor store and graduated fromBancroft Junior High School andFairfax High School.[6] Samueli became interested in electronics while building an AM/FM radio during a shop class at Bancroft.
Samueli attended theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, where he received hisbachelor's degree (1975),master's degree (1976), andPh.D (1980),[8] all in the field of electrical engineering. His Ph.D. advisor wasAlan N. Willson Jr. and his Ph.D. dissertation is titled "Nonperiodic forced overflow oscillations in digital filters."[9]
In 1991, while still working as a professor at UCLA, Samueli co-foundedBroadcom Corporation with one of his Ph.D. students,Henry Nicholas.[10] Each invested $5,000 and initially worked out of Nicholas' Redondo Beach home. They rented their first office in 1992 inWestwood, Los Angeles, near the UCLA campus and moved to Irvine, CA in 1995 at which time Samueli took a leave of absence from UCLA to be at Broadcom full-time. Broadcom went public three years after that. Samueli still remains on leave from UCLA and he continues to be listed on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department faculty roster.[11]
In 2003, the Samuelis purchased the management contract for the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim sports and entertainment venue, creating Anaheim Arena Management, LLC, to oversee all operations of the arena, and in 2005 they purchased the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim National Hockey League (NHL) club, the arena's largest tenant, from theWalt Disney Company[12] for $75 million. In 2006, the Samuelis announced the team's name change to theAnaheim Ducks and the arena's name change toHonda Center.[13] In 2007 the Anaheim Ducks became the first California team ever to win the Stanley Cup championship.[14]
As of December 2016, Samueli is on the executive committee of the NHL Board of Governors.[15]
In 2015, the Samuelis acquired ownership of the Ducks'American Hockey League affiliate, theNorfolk Admirals. They subsequently moved the franchise toSan Diego as part of the AHL's western expansion that year and the team was re-branded as the fourth incarnation of theSan Diego Gulls.[16]
In 2017,Forbes reported the Anaheim Ducks were worth $415 million.[17]
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After Broadcom went public in 1998 the Samueli Foundation was created.[18] The foundation focuses its giving in the areas of education, health, youth services, and Jewish culture and values. In 2012 the Samuelis joined theGiving Pledge,[19] initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, whose members pledge the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
Given Henry Samueli's background in engineering and education, some of their earliest philanthropic gifts were in these areas. In 1999 the Samuelis made major donations to theUCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science and theUC Irvine School of Engineering, both of which have since been named after him.
In 2009 Henry Samueli was a founding director of theBroadcom Foundation, a 501c(3) corporate nonprofit, and he is the chair of this philanthropy that advances science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Broadcom Foundation sponsors the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) and the Broadcom MASTERS International, programs of Society for Science and the Public that inspire middle school students to continue math and science courses into high school in order to create pathways to STEM careers. Samueli was inspired by his own seventh grade experience of building a short wave radio from aHeathkit for innovation that he funded the Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation with his Marconi Award.[5] Henry and Susan Samueli also sponsor the top prize, the $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize in the Broadcom MASTERS.
A major passion of Susan Samueli is in the areas of complementary and alternative medicine and integrative health and wellness. In 2001 the Samuelis established the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine atUC Irvine. They have also supported the research of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California, in cancer prevention and treatment.[20][circular reference] In 2017, the Samuelis made a transformational $200 million gift to UC Irvine to create the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, a first-of-its-kind College of Health Sciences focused on interdisciplinary integrative health. As part of the gift, the existing Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine was elevated to become the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute.[21][22]
Some of the other major naming gifts of the Samueli Foundation include the Samueli Theater at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 2000, the Samueli Jewish Campus in Irvine, CA in 2001, the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library atChapman University in 2003, the Samueli Academy, a public Charter High School in Santa Ana, CA for community, underserved, and foster teens in 2013.
In 2015, Samueli received a prize from theIsraeli government for his global contribution to innovation and his contribution to innovation in Israel, at the "Innovex" conference for innovation in technology.[23]
Samueli was named a 2017 Fellow by the National Academy of Inventors. Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional accolade bestowed to academic inventors.[24]
To date, the Samuelis have committed over $500 million to philanthropic causes.[25]
In June 2019, UCLA announced a $100-million gift from the Samuelis.[26] The gift will be used to expand the engineering school.[26]
Samueli resides with his wife Susan inNewport Beach, California.[27] As of 2025,Forbes estimates Samueli's net worth at US$36.3 billion.[28]
During the technology boom in the 2000s, Samueli and Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III awarded millions of stock options to attract and reward employees. Prosecutors alleged Samueli and Nicholas granted options to others, including some other top executives, but not themselves, to avoid having to report $2.2 billion in compensation costs to shareholders.[6] In 2006 both theSecurities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice began investigatingBroadcom Corporation forbackdating ofstock options.[29]
On May 15, 2008, Samueli resigned as chairman of the board and took a leave of absence as Chief Technology Officer after being named in a civil complaint by the SEC.[30]
On June 23, 2008, Samueli pleaded guilty for lying to SEC for $2.2 billion of backdating. Under theplea bargain, Samueli agreed to a sentence of five years probation, a $250,000 criminal fine, and a $12 million payment to the US Treasury.
Prosecutors focused on the fact that Samueli denied under oath any role in making options grants to high-ranking executives. As part of his plea agreement, Samueli admitted the statement was false, and admitted to being part of the options-granting process.[6] However, an internal Broadcom probe laid the majority of blame onCEO Henry Nicholas and CFO William Ruehle.
On September 8, 2008, U.S. District Court JudgeCormac Carney rejected the plea deal that called for Samueli to receive probation, writing: "The court cannot accept a plea agreement that gives the impression that justice is for sale".
Sixteen months later, on December 10, 2009, Judge Carney, after hearing the testimony of all the witnesses at the trial of CFO William Ruehle, dismissed the cases against Samueli, Ruehle, and Nicholas, citing prosecutorial misconduct (and in the case of Samueli, his testimony as well).[31] In his ruling Judge Carney stated,
The uncontroverted evidence at trial established that Dr. Samueli was a brilliant engineer and a man of incredible integrity. There was no evidence at trial to suggest that Dr. Samueli did anything wrong, let alone criminal. Yet, the government embarked on a campaign of intimidation and other misconduct to embarrass him and bring him down.[32]
In the ruling, Judge Carney went on, "Needless to say, the government’s treatment of Dr. Samueli was shameful and contrary to American values of decency and justice." The judge ordered Samueli's plea agreement to be expunged from his record, further stating, "Dr. Samueli now has a clean slate."[32]
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