Eric Smidt — Harbor Freight Tools USA Inc.

Chief Executive and Chairman

THE LATEST: Harbor Freight has more than 1,000 stores and 23,000 employees. The company recently opened a distribution center in Joliet, Ill., and hired Meryl Chae as a senior vice president and general counsel. Smidt ranked No. 18 on the Business Journal’s 2020 list of Wealthiest Angelenos with a fortune of $4.5 billion.
BACKGROUND: Smidt co-founded Calabasas-based discount tool retailer Harbor Freight as a 17-year-old in 1977, when he began transforming his father Allan’s small phone-sales business into a mail-order tool business. In 1985, he became the company’s president. He took on the role of chief executive in 1999, when he bought out his father.
YEARS ON THE LA500: 4
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