Stewart Resnick

Stewart Allen Resnick (born December 24, 1936) is an American billionaire businessman.

Resnick was born in 1936, and raised in a middle-class Jewish family in New Jersey and later moved to California with his family in the 1950s.

His grandfather had immigrated from Ukraine when his father was 3.

In 1959, he graduated with a BS from the University of California, Los Angeles and then a JD from the UCLA School of Law.

While in law school, he founded his first business, a janitorial services company, which he sold in 1969.

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 own the POM Wonderful and Fiji Water brands, Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, JUSTIN Wines, Landmark Wines, JNSQ Wines and the Teleflora floral wire service company.

Since 1979 Resnick has served as President and chairman of The Wonderful Company, formerly known as Roll Global, which owns many businesses in Central California and beyond.

Through this holding company he and his wife own the POM Wonderful and Fiji Water brands, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds, JUSTIN Wines, Landmark Wines, JNSQ Wines, Suterra Pest Control and the Teleflora floral wire service company.

Resnick and his wife, Lynda Resnick, bought The Franklin Mint in 1986 and sold it in 2006.

With the money he made from his first company, Resnick bought The Franklin Mint, a subsidiary of Roll International Corporation, in 1986.

Franklin Mint is known for making model cars, souvenir plates, figurines, and Civil War-inspired chess sets.

The Resnicks purchased The Franklin Mint in 1986 and expanded the company's collectibles business through new licensing agreements.

These including the Louvre art museum in Paris, the Vatican, board games like Monopoly and Scrabble, classic cars, and famous people like John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe.

Resnick sat on the board of directors of LeapFrog Enterprises from 2002 to 2005.

In 2002, the Resnicks founded Pom Wonderful, a company that sells pomegranate juice in a "double-bulb" bottle.

To produce the juice, they planted over 6000 acres of pomegranates in San Joaquin County, California, which nearly quadrupled the country's production of pomegranates at the time.

The company also manufactures blended juice beverages, such as pomegranate juice mixed with juices of blueberry, cranberry, cherry, mango or tangerine, and bottled tea- and coffee-based beverages of various flavors distributed in more conventional containers.

In addition to drinks, the company sells pills and concentrated liquid products marketed as nutritional supplements.

The Resnicks acquired the Fiji Water business in 2004, increasing sales of Fiji Water by 300% in 4 years, making it the largest imported bottled water brand in the US.

It comes from the aquifer on the island of Viti Levu, and can be found in luxury hotels, leading restaurants and airports around the world.

Through the Fiji Water Foundation the company provides clean water access to rural communities, builds educational facilities and infrastructure that benefit communities and provides access to health care services.

In 2005 the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital was named for Resnick and his wife in honor of their involvement.

Resnick served as CEO and chairman of the Franklin Mint Company until its sale in 2006.

The Resnicks sold The Franklin Mint in 2006.

They made a $4 million donation to Children's Hospital Central California in 2006.

In September 2008, Resnick and his wife announced a $45 million gift to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the construction of a new exhibition pavilion, as well as $10 million in artworks.

At Caltech's 2009 graduation ceremonies, Caltech announced that the Resnicks had donated $20 million towards a "sustainability center" to be named after themselves.

In 2010 the Resnicks purchased Justin Vineyards and Winery, a 50,000 case-production winery in California's Central Coast region founded in 1981.

In 2013 the Resnicks launched Wonderful Halos mandarins, with a $220 million facility in the San Joaquin Valley capable of processing 19 million mandarins a day.

JUSTIN Wines specializes in Bordeaux style varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and was named the 2015 American Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

Resnick is a Trustee Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust and is on the Board of Visitors of the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

He sits on the board of trustees of Bard College and Conservation International.

He also serves on the Board of Advisers at UC Davis, the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law & Policy at UCLA, and is a Caltech Senior Trustee.

In 2017, POM Wonderful acquired the pomegranate distributor Ruby Fresh.

By 2017 Halos was the #1 segment brand, forecast to have around 70-80% market share by 2018.

In 2017, Halos accounted for around three-quarters of growth in the mandarin category, and 12% of total produce sales growth.

Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds is the world's largest vertically integrated pistachio and almond grower and processor, cultivating and harvesting more than 65,000 acres of pistachio and almond orchards and delivering more than 450 million pounds of nuts globally each year.

In 2018, Resnick was the wealthiest farmer in the United States.

Known for its Get Crackin' campaign, Wonderful Pistachios was the US's fastest-growing snack brand and the number 1 tree nut brand in 2018.