Mitchell Rales Net Worth

What is Mitchell Rales' net worth?

Mitchell Rales is a billionaire businessman and art collector who has a net worth of $5 billion. Mitchell Rales is one of the richest people in Maryland. Rales co-founded Danaher Corporation and the contemporary art museum Glenstone. He also serves as the chairman of the industrial company ESAB, and is the top limited partner of the NFL team the Washington Commanders. Among his other ventures, Rales co-founded the Colfax Corporation, which was rebranded as Enovis in 2022.

Early Life and Education

Mitchell Rales was born in August 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as one of four sons of Jewish parents Ruth and Norman. His brothers are Joshua, Steven, and Stewart. Rales's father was a businessman and philanthropist. Raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Rales attended Walt Whitman High School, where he was the captain of the baseball and football teams. After graduating in 1974, he went to Miami University, from which he earned a degree in business administration in 1978.

Business Career

Rales began his career working for his father's real estate firm. In the late 1970s, he left the firm and co-founded Equity Group Holdings with his brother Steven, acquiring a diversified line of businesses. In 1984, the Rales brothers founded Danaher Corporation, a global conglomerate headquartered in Washington, DC. The company grew quickly, acquiring 12 companies within two years of its founding to become a leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. Danaher contains divisions in life sciences and diagnostics, with subsidiaries including Abcam, Leica Microsystems, Pall Corporation, Cepheid, and Radiometer. The company also spawned the spinoff companies Fortive Corporation and Veralto.

In other business ventures, Rales mounted a takeover bid of the company Interco in 1988. Also in the late 1980s, he purchased the AM side of the radio station WGMS, which he later converted to the sports-talk station WTEM. In 1995, Rales and his brother Steven founded the medical technology company the Colfax Corporation in Richmond, Virginia. Focusing on orthopedics, the company was later moved to Wilmington, Delaware and rebranded as Enovis in 2022. The following year, Rales was made the top limited partner in a group that acquired the NFL team the Washington Commanders. The transaction was completed for around $6 billion, the highest-ever for a sports team. Elsewhere, Rales serves as the chairman of the industrial company ESAB.

Art Collection and Museum

As an art collector, Rales has an extensive collection of post-World War II artworks, including paintings, sculptures, and installations. His collection is displayed at the art museum Glenstone, which he founded with his wife in 2006. Located in Potomac, Maryland, the museum houses about 1,300 works and is the largest private contemporary art museum in the United States. The original Glenstone building was designed by Charles Gwathmey; the museum has since expanded across its 230-acre campus to include both gallery space and the surrounding wooded land. Elsewhere in the art world, Rales served as president of Washington, DC's National Gallery of Art from 2019 to 2014.

Personal Life

With his first wife, Lyn Goldthorp, Rales had two children. The pair divorced in 1999. Rales went on to marry art curator and historian Emily Wei in 2008.