But if I had to do it again, I would.. According to an investigation by the Contra Costa Times, between 2000 and 2007 the Resnicks bought water for potentially as little as $28 per acre-foot (the amount needed to cover one acre in one foot of water) and then sold it for as much as $196 per acre-foot to the state, which used it to supply other farmers whose Delta supply had been previously curtailed. Pom was an overnight sensation, doing millions of dollars in sales by the end of the following yearand cementing Resnicks status as a marketing genius. Two entities are associated with this address: Lynda Resnick, Stewart A Resnick . Once built, the new 40,000-square-foot, LEED-certified, state-of-the-art hub will house . Having shrewdly maneuvered the backroom politics of Californias byzantine water rules, they are now thought to consume more of the states water than any other family, farm, or company. Stewart bought his first farmland parcel in California in 1978 as a hedge against inflation, thus beginning their agricultural empire. They live in Beverly Hills and have a home in Aspen, Colorado. The Resnicks met while he was president of American Protection Industries, Los Angeles, California, and she was pitching her ad agency to get his business. LEED-certified, state-of-the-art hub" and will "house classrooms, research and lab spaces, and student career . ", "America's Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever", Forbes Magazine: America's Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever, "How the 'Wonderful Company' Is the 'Amazing Company' for Fiji", "LA Times: Pom Wonderful case not wonderful enough, Supreme Court says", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lynda_Resnick&oldid=1135075039, This page was last edited on 22 January 2023, at 13:51. Lynda Resnick is vice-chairman and co-owner of The Wonderful Company, along with her husband, Stewart Resnick, who serves as chairman. Every year, Forbes compiles a list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. In 2007, a group called the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta began using lawsuits of its own to assign blame for the estuarys decline to just about everything except farming: housing development in Delta floodplains, pesticide use by Delta farms, dredging, power plants, sport fishing, and pollution from mothballed ships. According to the Wonderful vice president who chairs the Kern Water Bank Authority, the water bank enabled us to plant permanent crops such as fruit and nut trees. A grove of mature fruit trees not only line the front of the property, they create a beautiful barrier from the street. Legal actions were eventually dropped.[10]. If winter storms replenish the Kern Water Bank this year, they could again find themselves with a bumper crop of H2O. 1981 The Resnicks acquire Paramount Citrus Association. David Corn, Noah Lanard, and Dan Friedman. And now that people have to cut back on their water, all of a sudden it has become important.. According to Resnick's book, sales of Fiji Water soon increased by 300%[7] by 2008, becoming the largest imported bottled water brand in the United States. By the time she was 24, shed launched her own advertising agency, Lynda Limited, given birth to three children, and gotten divorced. In 2019 the company increased its minimum pay to $15 an hour for all of its California workers, three years ahead of the state-mandated deadline. Adam Keats, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety, describes the transfer of the water bank to the Resnicks and other farmers as an unconstitutional rip-off.. Resnick has been married twice. The Resnicks are people who, in Arax's words, "control more land and water 130 billion gallons a year than any other man and woman in California and still believe it isn't enough.". In the heart of the nut boom is Lost Hills, an entirely flat town where more than half the households have at least one adult who works for the Wonderful Company. According to Forbes, Wonderful Company uses "at least 120 billion gallons [450millionm3] a year, two-thirds on nuts, enough to supply San Francisco's 852,000 residents for a decade. The largest local recipient of donations under the program is Wasco Union High School, which during the past twelve years has received more than $210,000 thanks to Wonderful Giving. They are my rock stars.. Baskets on the tables were filled with free fruits and nuts for the taking. [35] Lynda Resnick described the brand as "created specifically for millennial women and older Gen Z'ers and the milestones they are celebrating in their blossoming and exhilarating lives. Her father, Jack Harris, produced the cult hit The Blob and later moved the family to California. We drove to the Wonderful pistachio factory for lunch. The $50 million gift will establish the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation, with $10 million of the Resnicks' gift to be directed toward annual competitive research . Today, Stewart Resnick is the world's largest irrigated farmer. 24-Hour Security Coverage, 24-Hour Reception, Valet Parking Service, Mall . By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. [57][58] As The New York Times notes, "in Lost Hills there are new health centers, new pre-K facilities, new housing projects, new gardens, new sidewalks and lights, a new community center and a new soccer field. Your email address will not be published. [4] Her mother, Muriel (ne Goodman), was an interior designer. The Resnicks purchased Teleflora in 1979,[7] at which time Lynda left her advertising job to become the company's executive vice president of marketing and eventually president. [41] The same year they also announced plans to bring a charter school, Paramount Bard Academy, to the Central Valley. The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA is among the leading centers in the world for comprehensive patient care, research and education in the fields of mental health, developmental disabilities and neurology. The Resnicks acquired the Fiji Water business in 2004,[25] after which Lynda supervised marketing that focused on promoting the uniqueness and exotic nature of the water. Its true that the Golden States vast network of dams, reservoirs, and canals has served the state so well over the past 80 years that Californians have come to take it for granted. The usual stay-at-home mom is now working.. By 1996, their agricultural company, Paramount Farms, had become the worlds largest producer and packager of pistachios and almonds, with sales of about $1.5 billion; it now owns 130,000 acres of farmland and grosses $4.8 billion. As part of its focus on its workers, the company has built in-house health clinics at its plants in Lost Hills and Delano. The bank held up to 488 billion gallons of water, and because it sat beneath a floodplain it could be easily recharged in wet years with rainfall and surplus water piped in from the Delta. She was struggling to keep things afloat. A gifted marketer, Lynda dropped out of college at 19 to . The coalitions website doesnt mention the Resnicks, but it originally listed a Paramount Farms fax number, and three of the four officers on its early tax documents were Resnick employees. [19][7][18] The Resnicks sold the Franklin Mint in 2006.[20]. "It ain't home, but it's much," she likes to say. The billionaire owners of Fiji Water, Teleflora, and POM Wonderful purchased this 36-acre property in 1994 for 4,875,000. Stewart and Lynda Resnick are the wealthiest farmers in America. Brown held a press conference in which he rebranded his plan as the California Water Fix. In 2016, the . The Central Valley is in some respects the ideal place to grow fruit and nut trees, with its Mediterranean combination of cool winters and hot summers perfectly promoting flowering, fruit setting, and ripening. RSS. They had two children: Jason Sinay and Jonathan Sinay. She even helped, scissoring the Top Secret stamps off documents to declassify them. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. The transfer market is often viewed as a quick fix, but too many new signings have broken Chelsea's 2022/23 season. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. The co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act reflects on a special milestone. Required fields are marked *. 150 UCLA Medical Plaza Los Angeles, California 90095 (310) 825-9111 Hospital information (310) 825-2111 Emergency Dept . The Resnicks are quick to point out that its not just plant workers whove benefitedthe nut boom has improved the lives of farmworkers, too. Some foreign conservationists criticize the Resnicks for "hogging the archipelago's precious water supply while island natives didn't always have water to drink themselves, due to crumbling and insufficient infrastructure. At first, it was classic civic gifts: $15 million to found UCLAs Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital; $35 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for an exhibition space designed by Renzo Piano and dubbed the Resnick Pavilion; $20 million for the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech, which focuses on making the breakthroughs that will change the balance of the worlds sustainability. (Wonderful claims to have developed an almond tree that has 30 percent higher yields than a conventional tree, using the same amount of water. . Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committees powerful energy and water panel, typically serves as the key negotiator on California-related water bills. The donation from the Resnick Foundation, a charity controlled by billionaire couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick, was sent to Dignity and Power Now in January 2016, said a spokesman for the Resnick . This year, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who are famous for Pom Wonderful, Fiji Water, and Halos oranges, are ranked No. In exchange, they got ownership of the Kern Water Bank, a naturally occurring underground reservoir that lies beneath 32 square miles of Kern County, which sits toward the southern end of the Central Valley. At the top of that list was Californias senior senator, Dianne Feinstein. It is a psychiatric facility. These last four years with this drought, nobody was looking until it affected them. The Resnicks also have chipped in another $250,000 to support Browns pet ballot measure to fund education. The Resnicks, whove been anticipating the drought for decades, seem shocked that it has taken everyone else so long to wake up. The couple pocketed more than $30 million in the process. #184 Stewart Resnick on the 2022 Forbes 400 - From almonds & oranges in California's Central Valley to grapefruits in South Texas, Stewart Resnick and This week, Forbes decided to calculate how much the Beverly Hills couple's 57% stake in the Kern Water Bank is worth. In 2014, a judge ruled that the Department of Water Resources had turned the water bank over to the farmers without properly analyzing environmental impacts. Links: www.forbes.com. In 2009 they announced the opening of a pre-school billed as one of the first in the US to be environmentally friendly. The YouTube clip shows her being taunted repeatedly before turning to douse the camera-wielding scold with her hose. A gifted marketer, Lynda dropped out of college at 19 to start her own ad agency. It wasnt the first time Resnick had pitched her products as health panaceas. Theyre quality supervisors. Months later they launched Californians for Water Security, a coalition of business and labor interests that promotes the tunnels as an earthquake safety measure. [6] Because of her father's occupation, Resnick, at the age of four, had a recurring role on The Horn & Hardart Children's Hour broadcast from WCAU-TV in Philadelphia. Theyre engineers. [7] Resnick founded an advertising agency, Lynda Limited, at the age of 19. If they truly cared about a sustainable California and farmworkers within their own community, then how things are structured and how they are done by the Wonderful Company would be much different., Lynda Resnicks friends, on the other hand, say she has found her calling. Millions lose access to drinking waterOur water doesnt have to be at risk! It guarantees graduates of the programs jobs at Wonderful that pay between $35,000 and $50,000 a year. Something would have to change, and fast. Assumed or forgotten is that some 8.7 trillion gallons of water will flow each day into the massive Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and that 20 percent of it will get sucked by huge pumps into two giant, concrete-lined canal systems and sent hundreds of miles to Southern Californias cities and farms. The $50 million pledge will support the school's longstanding commitment to address today's most pressing challenges in agriculture and environmental . It wasnt all that long ago that Chase Briscoe was couch surfing and looking for work in racing. We walked through the parks emerald lawn to see its huge water tower, painted with a mural depicting two hills. Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1940s, Lynda performed on a TV variety show sponsored by an automat. Lynda Rae Resnick (born 1943) is an American billionaire businesswoman. In 2009, Resnick, with Francis Wilkinson, co-authored a book, Rubies in the Orchard: How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business, which details her life by explaining marketing and business ideas she used to build successful brands. More than half of the towns residents are under the age of 23, a quarter live below the poverty line, and only 1 in 4 adults has a high school degree. Once built, the new 40,000-square-foot, LEED-certified, state-of-the-art hub will house classrooms, research and lab spaces, and student career and advising support near the current plant sciences building off Hutchison Drive in Davis. The Resnicks have amassed this empire by following a simple agricultural precept: Crops need water. Suddenly, a boom box started blaring merengue, and everyone stood up and danced. Pistachio sales more than doubled in just three months and steadily increased over the following year to reach $114 millionproving that, sometimes, money really does grow on trees. [51], In 2016 the US Chamber of Commerce recognized Resnick and The Wonderful Company with their Corporate Citizenship Award for their work in community improvement.[52]. Stewart & Lynda Resnick's House (Google Maps). The bureau happened to be my house in northwest Fresno. Londons Energy Week Is A Lesson In Cognitive Dissonance, FC Barcelona Coach Xavi Talks Real Madrid Up As Favourites Ahead Of Copa Del Rey El Clasico, Milwaukee Brewers Ace Corbin Burnes Will Be Motivated By Losing Salary Arbitration Hearing, Chelsea Transfer Spending Spree Derails Season For Potter And Boehly, TikTok Sets Default Daily Screen Time Limit For Under 18s, NASCAR Hall Of Famer Tony Stewart Set To Compete In Full NHRA Season. Lynda Resnick and her husband, Stewart, also own a few other things: Teleflora, the nations largest flower delivery service; Fiji Water, the best-selling brand of premium bottled water; Pom Wonderful, the iconic pomegranate juice brand; Halos, the insanely popular brand of mandarin oranges formerly known as Cuties; and Wonderful Pistachios, with its Get Crackin' ad campaign. "I am incredibly grateful to both Lynda and Stewart Resnick for their continued recognition of UCLA's Art Department," said Opie. According to her memoir, she acquired a pistachio orchard that also contained some Wonderful variety pomegranate trees in California's San Joaquin Valley. There will be be a rally and press conference at this "reception" with the Koch Brothers of California Water on Thursday, October 2 from 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. at the home of Stewart and Lynda Resnick 9481 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Phone:310-825-9111. Dubbed the Pentagon Papers, they detailed aspects of the war hidden from the public and damaged the credibility of the presidents involved. Around that time, Lynda started dating Anthony Russo, who worked at a think tank with military analyst Daniel Ellsberg. All Rights Reserved. Not so fast. I think it was unfair, Resnick told me. So like other farmers, the Resnicks have turned to the states dwindling reserve of groundwater, sinking wells hundreds of feet deep on their land. Philanthropists and entrepreneurs Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company, have announced an unprecedented $750 million pledge to Caltech to support cutting-edge research into the most pressing challenges in environmental sustainability. It was 2002, and she quickly saw how to position pomegranates prominently to meet the health and wellness trend taking hold in the United States. The clinics have a full-time, bilingual doctor, health coaches, and prescription medicationsall free of charge. NASCARs 2021 Rookie Of The Year Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing Sign Contract Extension, Dry January Does Make A Difference, Even With Martha Stewarts Tongue In-Cheek TV Spot, Attorney Stewart Feldman And Captive Manager Capstone Hit With Almost $90 Million Judgment By Their Clients, Eurythmics Dave Stewart On Sweet Dreams The Album And Song Turning 40, 2022 Billionaires: Cities With The Most Billionaires, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information. [31] Company executives credit Resnick with the choice to retain Roll Global's mandarin operations in 2013 despite strong competition from existing brands, and as the key architect of Halos branding. Discover exemplary care for brain and mind. Back when cotton was still king in Kern County, migrant workers whod picked spring oranges and summer grapes in other parts of the Valley would descend on Lost Hills for a few weeks to work alongside cotton combines during the fall harvest. Since 1979 Resnick has been the chairman and president of The Wonderful Company.He is married to Lynda Resnick, and through their holding company they . Along the way, Paramount acquired 100 acres of pomegranate orchards. Lynda Resnick rejects the idea that the couple wields any political power on matters of water policy. The attention to detail was noted with great admiration by the capacity-size group of Fellows that toured the gardens led by the Resnicks curator, the most gracious Bernard Jazzar. Our company has always believed that success means doing well by doing good, Stewart Resnick said in a press release announcing the name change. Originally printed in the April 2021 issue of Produce Business. Houston attorney Stewart Feldman, the Feldman Law Firm, Capstone Associated and related entities were the subject of an $88.7 million arbitration award which has been confirmed the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Now, in a throwback to the sort of massive public-works projects built during his fathers governorship, Brown envisions a bold, silver-bullet solution to the states water crisis. Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the noted L.A. arts patrons and owners of POM Wonderful and other brands, are denouncing a new book that they say paints an untruthful portrait of them and their Sunset . Oh no, you talk great, the woman replied with a warm smile, before she began handing out copies of her book, Rubies in the Orchard: How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business. Nor would we use it.. On a swelteringly hot day, three Wonderful executives took me on a six-hour tour of nearly everything that the company is doing to improve the lives of the hundreds of employees who reside there. [42] At Caltech's 2009 graduation ceremonies, the university announced that the Resnicks had donated $20 million towards a "sustainability center" to be named after themselves. The agencies spent some $750,000 studying the issue anewonly to have researchers again conclude the 2007 restrictions on Delta pumping were warranted. Water is what led me to Stewart Resnick in the winter of 2003. In 2012 a federal judge agreed that some of the ads were misleading. Los Angeles, CA 90064. But a legal cloud has long shadowed the Resnicks water deal. Boswell, who owned more land and controlled more water than any other person in the West for most . Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. Resnick founded an advertising agency, Lynda Limited, at the age of 19. . [43], In 2018, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles announced a $30 million gift from Lynda and Stewart Resnick to help pay for a renovation and expansion project. [30] By 2017 Halos was the #1 segment brand, forecast to have around 70-80% market share by 2018. Environmentalists fear that removing so much freshwater from the Delta will make it too salty. The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology announced today that American philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, co-owners of California-based The Wonderful Company, have pledged, through their foundation, a $50 million gift to transform the university's research and development of sustainability and catalysis. You pay the rent and dont eat, or you eat and dont pay the rent, says Gilberto Mesia, a Wonderful farmworker with three school-age children. [21][22][23] Resnick designed the POM Wonderful logo, and her design team developed an hourglass-shape bottle,[24] the company later expanding into other liquid products and pills. We are deeply committed to doing our part to build a better world and inspiring others to do the same., But skeptics note that the Resnicks donations to Lost Hills began a few months after Earth Island Journal documented the yawning wealth gap between the couple and their company town, a dusty assemblage of trailer homes, dirt roads, and crumbling infrastructure. Born in Highland Park, New Jersey, the son of a Yiddish-speaking Ukrainian bartender, Stewart paid his way through UCLA by working as a janitor and . March 2023 Tue 14 Reading. This year however, hes ready to take a whole bite. Compare Stewart and Lynda Resnick's Net Worth. YL & RW: Stewart and Lynda Resnick are donors and supporters of of some of the most powerful and influential neoconservative organizations in America, including the AIPAC spinoff WINEP (Washington . Over the last decade, Californias almond acreage has increased by 47 percent and its pistachio acreage has doubled, fueled in the latter case by the Resnicks advertising genius. [32] Known for its Get Crackin' campaign, Wonderful Pistachios was the United States' fastest-growing snack brand and the number-one tree nut brand in 2018. Fisher Center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Theater Studio Fisher Center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Theater Studio. Work on the 14,688 sqft mansion was finished the same year. Like Rafaela Tijerina did. Its interests span citrus, almond and pistachio farms and processing facilities . Their first big purchase as a couple, in 1979, was Teleflora, a flower delivery company that Lynda revitalized by pioneering the flowers in a gift conceptblooms wilt, but the cut-glass vase and teddy bear live on. Why did you choose that?, Look, theres poverty and sadness all over the planet, Resnick replied, but I felt that if I was really going to do work, I should start to do work in the place where our employees worked and live. [45], Resnick and The Wonderful Company have made significant improvements to the communities that dot California's Central Valley since 2010, especially in the city of Lost Hills, where half of the homes have at least one family member working at The Wonderful Company. Alternate parking is available on campus. In a U.S. News & World Report article, Resnick explained that her book promotes a concept she labels transparency: "Transparency is very newyou have to be a good citizen of the planet. Download the Resnick Fact Sheet. They were expecting a smaller-than-normal crowd. Sometimes, though, Resnicks Pom claims went too far. [16] According to the Encyclopedia of American Women in Business, the first run of a Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind)-inspired doll generated $35 million in sales. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Their land came with decades-old contracts with the state and federal government that allow them to purchase water piped south by state canals. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and A highly original documentary project reveals how a couple of Beverly Hills billionaires "are willing to risk war in Iran and the Middle East all in order to boost and protect their lucrative pistachio business." By Max Blumenthal Three years ago, journalist Yasha Levine and filmmaker Rowan Wernham first arrived at the vast pistachio plantation of Stewart and Lynda Resnick in . Lynda Resnick has been involved in many companies. "[62], In addition, their claims for the POM pomegranate drink have been contested. The couple were the subject of ridicule in the national press. Few farmers are more at risk from the cutbacks than the Resnicks, whose 140 square miles of orchards use about 117 billion gallons of water a year, despite employing cutting-edge conservation technologies. While a $20 million pricetag attached to a Beverly Hills property is a fairly common sighting, it's rare to find one affixed to a tastefully renovated midcentury modern located in the most prime neighborhood pocket of town, where some of the nearest neighbors include heavyweights like Ellen DeGeneres, Sam Gores, and Fiji Water/Pom Wonderful billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick. 1979 Stewart and Lynda Resnick purchase Teleflora. Come at the right time of year and you'll see the almond trees blossoming, covering the valley in a blanket of light pink petals. But the powerful San Joaquin Valley farming couple also makes sure they give thousands to Valley Republicans. 2023 Forbes Media LLC. In 1993, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the smelt as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, setting the stage for pumping limits.

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