At 32, Andrew Wiederhorn serves as Chairman and CEO of a company with $3.5 billion in assets.

Photographed by Kent Derek

He's 32, and he pledged $1 million to the Marshall School of Business. Such a characterization describes a man with the skills to make a great deal of money and the values to donate a whole bunch of it to a worthy cause.

In his office in Portland, Oregon, Wiederhorn demonstrates some of his aforementioned skills. He speaks into his phone at about twice normal human speed. His eyes constantly pour over the three computer screens that load down his desk, which is constructed from jagged, icy slices of Plexiglas. Outside his office door is a bullpen abuzz with some seriously busy people--ties yanked down and phones pressed to their ears--constantly in pursuit of the next deal.

Wiederhorn serves as Chairman and CEO of Wilshire Financial Services Group, the company he founded in 1987 when he was 21 years old. Today, with about 700 employees and $3.5 billion in assets, Wilshire is a leader in a new generation of diversified financial services companies. The company specializes in loan portfolio acquisition and securitization. Because Wilshire owns a bank--First Bank of Beverly Hills--it also originates and services loans to residential and commercial customers. That's not all. As of March of this year, Wilshire also became the manager of a REIT.

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