Henry Samueli

Henry Samueli (born September 20, 1954) is an American businessman, engineer, and philanthropist.

He is the co-founder of Broadcom Corporation, owner of the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks, and a prominent philanthropist in the Orange County, California community.

He serves as chairman of the Board of Broadcom Inc.

He is also a Professor (on leave of absence) in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA, and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Irvine.

He holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.

He is a named inventor in 75 U.S. patents.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to VLSI architectures and realizations for high-bit rate digital communication systems.

He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Samueli attended UCLA, where he received his bachelor's degree (1975), master's degree (1976), and Ph.D (1980), all in the field of electrical engineering.

His Ph.D. advisor was Alan N. Willson Jr. and his Ph.D. dissertation is titled "Nonperiodic forced overflow oscillations in digital filters."

In 1991, while still working as a professor at UCLA, Samueli co-founded Broadcom Corporation with one of his Ph.D. students, Henry Nicholas.

Each invested $5,000 and initially worked out of Nicholas' Redondo Beach home.

They rented their first office in 1992 in Westwood, Los Angeles near the UCLA campus and moved to Irvine, CA in 1995 at which time Samueli took a leave of absence from UCLA to be at Broadcom full-time.

Broadcom went public three years after that.

Samueli still remains on leave from UCLA and he continues to be listed on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department faculty roster.

After Broadcom went public in 1998 the Samueli Foundation was created.

The foundation focuses its giving in the areas of education, health, youth services, and Jewish culture and values.

In 1999 the Samuelis made major donations to the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science and the UC Irvine School of Engineering, both of which have since been named after him.

In 2001 the Samuelis established the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at UC Irvine.

He was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2003 for pioneering contributions to academic research and technology entrepreneurship in the broadband communications system-on-a-chip industry.

In 2003, the Samuelis purchased the management contract for the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim sports and entertainment venue, creating Anaheim Arena Management, LLC, to oversee all operations of the arena, and in 2005 they purchased the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim National Hockey League (NHL) club, the arena's largest tenant, from the Walt Disney Company for $75 million.

In 2006, the Samuelis announced the team's name change to the Anaheim Ducks and the arena's name change to Honda Center.

In 2007 the Anaheim Ducks became the first California team ever to win the Stanley Cup championship.

In 2009 Henry Samueli was a founding director of the Broadcom Foundation, a 501c(3) corporate nonprofit, and he is the chair of this philanthropy that advances science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Broadcom Foundation sponsors the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) and the Broadcom MASTERS International, programs of Society for Science and the Public that inspire middle school students to continue math and science courses into high school in order to create pathways to STEM careers.

Samueli was inspired by his own seventh grade experience of building a short wave radio from a Heathkit for innovation that he funded the Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation with his Marconi Award.

Henry and Susan Samueli also sponsor the top prize, the $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize in the Broadcom MASTERS.

A major passion of Susan Samueli is in the areas of complementary and alternative medicine and integrative health and wellness.

In 2012 Samueli won the Marconi Prize and Fellowship for "pioneering advances in the development and commercialization of analog and mixed signal circuits for modern communication systems, in particular the cable modem.

As of January 2024, Forbes estimates Samueli's net worth at $11.8 billion.

Samueli resides with his wife Susan in Newport Beach, California.

Samueli's parents, Sala and Aron, were Polish-Jewish immigrants who survived the German Nazi occupation of Europe and arrived in the United States with almost nothing.

Samueli stocked shelves in his family's Los Angeles liquor store and graduated from Bancroft Junior High School and Fairfax High School.

Samueli became interested in electronics while building an AM/FM radio during a shop class at Bancroft.

In 2012 the Samuelis joined the Giving Pledge, initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, whose members pledge the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

Given Henry Samueli's background in engineering and education, some of their earliest philanthropic gifts were in these areas.

In 2015 the Samuelis acquired ownership of the Ducks' American Hockey League affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals.

They subsequently moved the franchise to San Diego as part of the AHL's western expansion that year and the team was re-branded as the fourth incarnation of the San Diego Gulls.

As of December 2016, Samueli serves on the executive committee of the NHL Board of Governors.

In 2017 Forbes reported the Anaheim Ducks were worth $415 million.