Mitchell Rales

Mitchell P. Rales (born August 1956) is an American businessman and art curator. He co-founded Danaher Corporation with his brother Steven Rales in 1984 and the art museum Glenstone with his wife Emily Wei in 2006. Rales is also the chairman of ESAB and the leading limited partner of the National Football League (NFL) team Washington Commanders, as well as the former president of the National Gallery of Art. Rales has an estimated net worth of $4 billion as of 2025.

Early life

Rales was born in August 1956 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. He graduated from Walt Whitman High School in 1974, where he was captain of their football and baseball teams.[1][2][3]

Career

Business

In 1979, Rales left his father's real estate firm to found Equity Group Holdings with his brother, Steven Rales. Using junk bonds, they bought a diversified line of businesses. In 1978, they changed the name to Diversified Mortgage Investors and then to Danaher in 1984.[6] In the 1980s, the AM side of radio station WGMS was sold off to Rales, who converted it WTEM, a sports-talk station, in 1992. In 1988, he made a takeover bid of Interco, which was the largest manufacturer of furniture and men's shoes in the U.S. at the time.[7][8] He later ended the bid after five months with a profit of $60 million.[9]

In 1995, Rales and his brother founded Colfax Corporation, an industrial pumps manufacturer later rebranded as Enovis in 2022.[10] He is a majority shareholder of Fortive, which split off from Danaher in 2016, and served on their board of directors until June 2021.[6][11] In 2017, Rales paid a fine of $720,000 to the Federal Trade Commission after erroneously reporting purchases of shares in Colfax and Danaher were not above the filing threshold, which violated the Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.[12] He had previously been fined $850,000 by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1991 for violating the same act after buying Interco.[13]

In July 2023, Rales became the top limited partner in a group headed by Josh Harris that acquired the National Football League (NFL) team Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion.[14][15] He considered the opportunity to be "humbling", as he grew up a fan of the team and frequently attended home games at RFK Stadium.[16]

Art

In 2006, Rales and his wife Emily Wei Rales established the art museum Glenstone in Potomac, Maryland.[17][18] Rales had owned the land since 1986 and had previously made it his residence.[19] Glenstone displays the Rales's collection of post-World War II art, including paintings, sculptures, and both indoor and outdoor installations, and also functions as his personal residence.[20][21] In 2018, Glenstone finished a $219 million expansion which increased both the gallery space and the wooded land surrounding the galleries.[22] Rales donated $1.9 billion to the Glenstone Foundation in 2021, increasing the museum's asset value to $4.6 billion, nearly the same as the Metropolitan Museum of Art

alt	Man in a suit giving a outdoors speech at a podium
birth date	August 1956 (age 70)
birth place	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
known for	Co-founding Danaher and Glenstone
education	Miami University (BBA)
occupation	Businessman · art curator
title	Chairman ESAB Limited partner Washington Commanders (NFL)
boards	Danaher · ESAB
spouse	Lyn Goldthorp (div. 1999) Emily Wei (m. 2008)
family	Steven Rales (brother)
children	2

Early life

Career

Business

Art

Personal life

External links

References