Steven M. Rales is an American businessman and film producer, and chairman of Danaher Corporation.
Background
His father was raised in an orphanage, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City and later became a businessman who sold his building supply company in Washington, District of Columbia to his employees in what was the first employee stock ownership plan (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) transaction in the United States. His father was also a philanthropist founding the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation and the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service.
Education
Rales graduated in 1969 from Walt Whitman High School, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Career
He is listed as the 118th richest person in America, with a value of $3.2 billion. Raised in a Jewish family, Rales is one of four sons of Norman and Ruth Rales. Steven Rales has three brothers: Joshua, Mitchell, and Stewart. in 1973 from DePauw University, where he was in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
In 1978, he was awarded a Juris Doctor from American University.
Using junk bonds, they bought a diversified line of businesses: first Mastershield, a vinyl siding manufacturer, then Mohawk Rubber Company, then Diversified Mortgage Group. They changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors, in 1978, and then Danaher, in 1984.
In 1985 they bought Easco, an aluminum siding manufacturer, and hand tool manufacturer. In 1988, they made a hostile takeover bid for Interco (including Converse, and Ethan Allen).
When the company responded with a poison pill, they sued, and prevailed in court.
They later ended the bid after five months with a profit of $60 million. In the 1980s, the Department of Administration and Management side of WGMS was sold off to Washington, District of Columbia, venture capitalists Steven and Mitchell Rales, who converted the music station into the first frequency for WTEM, a sports-talk station, in 1992. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Danaher since January, 1984.
In 1995 Steven and Mitchell Rales founded Colfax Corporation, a Richmond, Virginia industrial pumps manufacturer.
In May 2008, Steven engineered the initial public offering of the company. Rales owns a production company, which has funded The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and Fantastic Mr.
Fox (2009). The word "Indian" refers to Native American.
He has been a major supporter of the Washington Ballet. In 2002, he was a major donor in the dedication of the Peeler Art Center at DePauw University.
He was a donor to GolfRocks.