David Nazarian
Education & Philanthropic Visionaries; Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Nimes Capital
Over his 30-year career, David Nazarian has established a consistent track record of identifying opportunities ahead of the pack, actively managing those investments and executing effective monetization strategies across a diverse range of investment classes and underlying industries. Mr. Nazarian's history as a visionary investor and business builder began with his active involvement in his family's early identification of the potential for wireless communications technology that ultimately became part of Qualcomm, Inc., one of the most successful corporations in the history of the telecommunications industry.
Capitalizing on the success of Qualcomm, Mr. Nazarian focused on investment opportunities that could be utilized to diversify his family's holdings. Mr. Nazarian displayed his acumen and investment vision by orchestrating the roll up of aerospace equipment manufacturers during a trough period in a highly cyclical industry; acquiring vast holdings of real estate from the Resolution Trust Corporation in the early 1990s; and strategically investing in the hotel industry following the economic downturn in the early 2000s. Mr. Nazarian started three early-stage venture funds concentrated on wireless communication and broadband infrastructure businesses and backed highly-innovative clean technology companies. Most recently, Mr. Nazarian has acquired a portfolio of mid-sized operating companies and vast real estate holdings focused on multi-family and student housing assets. These efforts have resulted in Mr. Nazarian controlling an asset base of operating businesses and real estate that stretch across the Southern and Western United States.
In addition to his business activities, Mr. Nazarian is extremely active in the greater Los Angeles community through a variety of civic and charitable activities. Mr. Nazarian is most proud of being honored by California State University, Northridge in 2014 with the renaming of its business school as the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. Additionally, Mr. Nazarian has served as Chair of the Investment Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the UCLA Foundation; is actively involved with the Board of Governors and Investment Committee for the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; is on the Executive Committee and Board of Governors of LAEDC; is a Member of the Asia Society's Global Board of Trustees; and is a member of the USC Marshall School of Business Board of Leaders. Mr. Nazarian received his BS from CSUN and his MBA from the University of Southern California.