- Source of Wealth: Business (Banking – Golden West Financial Corporation and World Savings Bank)
- Birth Place: Biddeford, Maine, USA
- Marital Status: Married
- Full Name: Herbert Sandler and Marion Osher Sandler
- Nationality: American
- Date of Birth: November 16, 1931
- Occupation: Businesspeople (Former CEOs of Golden West Financial Corporation and World Savings Bank)
- Education: City College of New York, Columbia Law School, Wellesley College, and New York University
- Children: 2 (Susan and James)
The Sandlers created the savings and loan holding company called the Golden West Financial Corporation. They used it to acquire the Golden West Savings Loan Association which was the predecessor of the World Savings Bank. Since then, Golden West was able to grow as one of the United States’ largest thrift banks that have assets of around $125 billion, 12,000 employees, approximately $60 billion of deposits. Under the management of the Sandlers, Golden West was able to generate approximately 19% average annual compound growth in earnings for every share over a period of 39 years. People described the company as one of the world’s most productive and efficient money machines and became included in Fortune magazine’s annual list of the most admired companies in the United States for ten times. Because of this, the Sandlers were also named by Morningstar, Inc. as one of the CEOs of the Year in the year 2004.
In October 2006, Golden West was sold to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Since the Sandlers owned approximately 10% of the company, their share of the sale price amounted to $2.4 billion. After the sale, the Sandlers gave the Sandler Foundation $1.3 billion.
Philanthropic work
The Sandlers provided assistance and benefits to the Center for Responsible Lending which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that fights payday loans, predatory mortgage lending, and other products that look for consumers as their prey. Aside from this, the Sandlers and their foundation support organizations got involved in civil liberties, human rights, medical research, and the environment.