Working World

The mission of Sam Nazarian’s SBE group of companies, as stated on their website, is to “redefine standards of excellence and innovation” with quality products “created for a discriminating and diverse clientele.” That clientele is often A-list celebrities who can be spotted at his trend-setting restaurants, nightclubs or hotels any night of the week: the paparazzi-infested restaurant Katsuya, Hyde nightclub or the new SLS Hotel in West Hollywood. Famous French interior designer Philippe Starck created the unique look of many of these venues. Additional companies in Nazarian’s entertainment-oriented empire include Bolthouse Vox, an event production concern, and film production company Element Films.

Nazarian has been enormously successful, but he did not have to worry about startup capital. He told Los Angeles Magazine, “It’s a very unique world when you’re fully financed.” His father and uncle, who owned a tool and die company years ago, invested in another company that merged with Qualcomm. When Qualcomm went public in 1991, the brothers became very, very rich. The Nazarians may be the wealthiest Persian Jewish family in the world, with current assets between $1 billion and $2 billion.  

Although he has no financial reason to work, Nazarian is very driven and has been working since he was 12 years old. Born in Tehran, his family left Iran during the revolution and he was raised in Beverly Hills from the age of three. He spent teen summers doing odd and often menial jobs like working in the family’s factory, cleaning up in a deli or sometimes selling retail. After high school he went to New York University, then to USC. In his early 20s he formed, then sold — at a huge profit — a cell phone company before taking over management of his family’s he real estate holdings.

In 2002, Nazarian established SBE at the age of 26. He set up shop in Madonna’s former record company headquarters and purchased his first night clubs, Shelter and Prey. Today, the divisions of SBE include nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, real estate and film production. Having conquered the L.A. landscape, he’s expanding geographically and recently bought the old Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and the Ritz Plaza in Miami’s fashionable South Beach.

In September 2009, the Jewish Journal said, “For him, the lousy economy presents opportunities for profit and, sure enough, his business is booming beautifully.” Nazarian admits he opened the SLS at what he calls (with perhaps a bit of hyperbole) “the worst possible time in human history...” and “...we’re the best-performing hotel in Los Angeles.”

Nazarian has been named one the 100 Most Powerful People in Southern California by Los Angeles Times Magazine and one of the “Influentials” by Los Angeles Magazine. He was recently appointed an airport commissioner by Mayor Villaraigosa, making him the youngest person, at 34, to ever serve on that board.

In spite of his fabulous wealth and his ability to do anything he wants, he told Los Angeles Magazine in 2005, “I can’t be that guy who sits on the beach . . . you live under that shadow that you want to prove to everybody that even if you didn’t have it, you would still succeed.”   

Suzanne Ridgway is a freelance writer and regular columnist for Working World and Working Nurse magazines. She also writes grant proposals for nonprofit organizations.