Rick Caruso Biography
Rick Caruso (Rick Joseph Caruso) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist, who is the founder and chief executive of Caruso, and American real estate company.
Rick has been president of the Los Angeles Police Commission and a member of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners.
He was born in Los Angeles to his parents; Henry Caruso and Gloria. His father, Henry was the founder of Dollar Rent-A-Car and owner of many car dealerships in the Los Angeles area while his mother was Gloria, was a billboard model in her youth, a homemaker and philanthropist.
Rick Caruso Age
Rick is 46 years old as of 2019. He was born on January 7, 1959.
Rick Caruso Family | Rick Caruso Father
Rick’s father, Henry Caruso is the founder of Dollar Rent-A-Car and owner of many car dealerships in the Los Angeles area. His mother on other side was a billboard model in her youth, a homemaker and philanthropist.
Rick Caruso Wife
Rick is married to Tina Caruso. Rick and Tina have four children together; Alex, Gregory, Justin, and Gianna. They all live in Brentwood, California.
Rick Caruso Daughter | Rick Caruso Son
Rick and his wife have four children; one daughter, Gianna, and four sons, Alex, Gregory, and Justin.
Rick Caruso USC
Rick is a trustee of the University of Southern California. One of the USC students involved in the accusations regarding USC admissions, Olivia Jade Giannulli, the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin, was aboard Caruso’s yacht at the time the scandal broke.
Rick Caruso Olivia Jade Giannulli
As Lori Loughlin, traveled from Vancouver to L.A. Tuesday night to surrender to federal authorities in the college bribery scandal which got her daughter, Olivia Jade, into the University of Southern California, Olivia was on the yacht of the Chairman of USC’s Board of Trustees, Rick Caruso.
Olivia was in the yacht with Rick’s daughter, Gianna and several other friends and they were spending spring break in the Bahamas. Olivia and Gianna have been friends for quite some time, occasionally posting photos of them together on social media.
According to TMZ, Rick talked to TMZ and said, “My daughter and a group of students left for spring break prior to the government’s announcement yesterday. Once we became aware of the investigation, the young woman decided it would be in her best interests to return home.” Olivia is off the yacht.
Rick was elected Chairman of USC’s Board of Trustees in 2018 and on Tuesday when the scandal broke, he came out strong in the wake of the indictments, saying, “The charges filed today against employees of USC are disturbing and the alleged activity is absolutely wrong. I am saddened that these people would abuse their positions of trust and, as the government has alleged, victimize USC in the process. There is no option other than zero tolerance for this type of behavior. As a result, USC has fired the alleged wrongdoers.”
Rick Caruso Net Worth
Rick has a net worth of 4 billion USD.
Rick Caruso Yacht
Rick Caruso Twitter
Tweets by RickCarusoLA
Rick Caruso Instagram
Rick Caruso Interview
Source: http://www.uscannenbergmedia.com
Where am I reaching you today?
I’m in my car, on the way to the office.
I have some easy process questions and then some that are a little bit deeper about problems facing USC. When will President Nikias formally be resigning?
We’ve already announced that there’s going to be a transition. So that’s in process. He is on an extended vacation for a couple months so the acting president by the way of protocol, whenever the president leaves or goes on vacation, the provost becomes the acting president. We’re starting the search and then there will be a formal transition to the new president once the search is completed.
Do you expect that will be before the fall semester?
I don’t think we’ll have the search done by the fall semester. I wish we could. It’s probably going to take four to six months to do a national search.
Do you know when President Nikias will return from his vacation?
I do not.
What does the transition process look like exactly from President Nikias to somebody else? Will he continue teaching or working at USC in any capacity?
I do not know. None of that has been discussed, decided what his plans are going to be.
Is anything known yet about the presidential search committee?
No, I have not selected a committee yet. I am interviewing search firms. That process is beginning on Monday. We are going to go from there. So once I select a search firm, then I’ll put together a search committee and then we’ll kick off the national search. The search committee will have a number of different representatives from our constituents. You know I would imagine it’s eight to 10 people, maybe 12 people total. But at the end of the day, it’s important to remember, it is the board’s job to pick the president. We want to be able to get a lot of input and hear people’s ideas and thoughts and concerns as we go through the search process. That’s a very important aspect of it, probably holding a lot of meetings and some town halls. Then based on all of that and based on the candidates who have applied and who we’ve interviewed and liked, that will help inform the decision and a recommendation will be made to the board.
Will a town hall include students or will that be internal for the committee and the board?
I think the town hall should include students. Absolutely. I think the students have an important voice in this process and we’re gonna want to hear that voice.
You said the board will take recommendations from the search firm. Will it be the entire board of trustees or a select committee within the board of trustees who picks the president?
Well, the actual hiring of the president will be a vote of the full board.
Have you spoken to Annenberg Dean Willow Bay about taking on the interim or permanent job as president? There has been some hearsay about that.
Well, I think Willow Bay is an amazing dean and she could certainly take on that position and do it with great dignity and grace and intellect. But I have not had that discussion with her.
Are there any other people right now that you’re considering for the full time or interim president?
No.
Will Michael Quick be serving as acting president until the permanent president is selected? Or will there be an interim president as well, after Michael Quick?
All of those options are on the table. I do not know. It just depends how things proceed.
You mentioned transparency in your letter to the community, pledging to bring accountability and such. I’m wondering how you plan to do this.
I don’t know, it seems pretty simple to me. You just be open, honest and transparent. It’s the way I run my business. It’s the way I ran LAPD, when I ran LAPD, a very large organization. It’s the way I ran the Department of Water and Power when I ran the Department of Water and Power. It’s a culture that you set and you put in procedures and policies. But more importantly, it’s how you conduct yourself, how leadership conducts themselves. So as you’ve seen with everything that I’ve done so far in the last couple of weeks, we’ve been very open and honest and forthright about what we’re doing.
Will the findings of the investigation reports be made available to the public, for both Tyndall and Puliafito?
The findings on the report for the healthcare issue are going to be made public, subject to patient rights. There’s a whole bunch of state and federal laws that govern privacy rights. So we have to be very sensitive and careful for the patients and the victims etc. But other than that, yes. The Puliafito matter, the answer is yes, too. The complication there is privilege and we’re working with the lawyers to make sure that we don’t violate some of the privilege restrictions. I wish it was an easier yes, with no question, but it’s legally a little bit more complicated than that. But the goal is to get as much or all the information out there that we can.
How do you change the culture of an institution where the board of trustees have other jobs and priorities and don’t wield much control over day-to-day activities? How do you revamp that to make them accountable to students and stakeholders?
So you’re making an assumption that they’re not accountable. What leads you to believe that the board isn’t accountable?
I guess in the beginning when everything was coming out about Tyndall when a lot of the board members said they fully stand behind President Nikias, it didn’t feel like they were accountable to the students, the patients of Dr. Tyndall. It felt like they were protecting the president or the school’s name.
I think that’s a misperception to be honest. I was in those meetings. The concern that the board had wasn’t with the president or any of the administration. The concern was, ‘What has happened here? Why wasn’t there more information released sooner? What are we doing to help the students?’ And we made all the changes to protect them. You got to remember the president has lost his job over this so that’s an enormous amount of accountability that was imposed by the board of trustees.