Ernest Rady

San Diego Policy & Innovation Center Board Member Ernest Rady is the chairman and CEO of American Assets Trust (NYSE:AAT), a full-service real estate investment trust based in San Diego. He began his career in finance and now has over 40 years of experience in real estate management, development and investment. Rady founded AAT’s predecessor, American Assets, Inc. in 1967 and currently serves as its president and chairman of the board.

In 1971, Rady founded Westcorp, a financial services company, and Insurance Company of the West, a leading national insurance carrier for which he continues to serve as chairman of the board of directors.

In addition to his business accomplishments, Rady has been a dedicated philanthropist and community leader in San Diego. From 2005 to 2018, he served as a trustee of the UC San Diego Foundation. In 2004, Rady helped launch the Rady School of Management. He is the current chair of the Rady Advisory Council, a former chancellor’s associate at UC San Diego, and a former trustee of Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching potential treatments for a range of diseases. Additionally, Rady currently serves as a member of the board of directors, chairman of the loan committee, and a member of the asset-liability committee of CalPrivate Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Private Bancorp of America (OTCQX: PBAM), which serves clients in the coastal Southern California region.

In 2006, Ernest Rady, his wife Evelyn and American Assets, Inc. made a $60 million donation to Children’s Hospital of San Diego. The hospital has since been renamed “Rady Children’s Hospital - San Diego” in their honor. The Rady family also donated $15 million toward construction on San Diego Symphony’s new open-air music venue, which opened in August 2021 and was named “The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park.”

Rady received degrees in commerce and law from the University of Manitoba, where he was awarded the Law Society Award for Academic Achievement and the University Gold Medal in Commerce. He is also a member of the Manitoba Bar Association.

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