Anthony “Tony” Moiso

Moiso, who has had a 60-year career as a rancher and developer of large-scale master-planned communities, once had billionaire Donald Bren as a boss. Bren, George A. Fuller Company and the O’Neill family created Mission Viejo Company in 1963, with a mission to develop 11,000 acres of vacant land in South Orange County into a large, master-planned city. The result: the City of Mission Viejo.

Bren, who later went on to establish Irvine Company, was the firm’s first president. In 1965, after serving in the U.S. Army, Moiso — an O’Neill descendant — joined Mission Viejo Company. In 1972, when Mission Viejo Company was sold, Moiso became president of Rancho Mission Viejo, a privately held, family-owned and -operated company responsible for the ranching, farming, planning, development and financial management of the remaining 23,000 acres, situated in unincorporated South Orange County. He was in that role until 2022.

Today Moiso is the chairman and CEO of Rancho Mission Viejo. Development on the ranch is a partnership between Rancho Mission Viejo, the managing partner, and DMB Associates, an Arizona-based, diversified real estate company. Moiso’s connection to the property dates back further than the 1960s. The land has been in his family since 1882, when his great-grandfather Richard O’Neill, Sr., and business partner James Flood purchased more than 200,000 acres of adjoining ranchland encompassing parts of northern San Diego County and southern Orange County.
— Lauren Elkies Schram