Emile Haddad

Founder, Chairman Emeritus, FivePoint Holdings

The founder and former CEO of FivePoint, where he remains a major shareholder in the developer of master-planned communities, was shown the door in 2021 when the board of the publicly traded Lennar spinoff ran out of patience with his big-picture vision and put a premium on share price. 

The stock has yet to return to levels it saw under Haddad, and the worm turned a bit late last year when the company renewed an advisory contract that pays him $125,000 monthly with bonuses that could hit $1 million a year while retaining his role chairman emeritus standing. Hadddad will focus on the developer’s communities and plans in Orange County, LA County and San Francisco, tending to relationships at the state and local level, and focusing on new ventures. 

Haddad won’t count FivePoint as his only calling card – he recently launched a venture to build a Bulgari-branded luxury resort on a sandy island in the Caribbean. Plans for the 220-acre island in the Bahamas, include a 64-room luxury hotel, 48 waterfront mansions and a village for 600 workers. The estimated cost? “North of $1 billion,” he has previously said, citing private fortunes in the Middle East and South America as backers. The coming year should offer clarity on whether Haddad can balance his own development plans with his work for FivePoint, not to mention his sense of vision with Dan Hedigan, the CEO who replaced him at the developer (see related entry).