Henry Thompson Nicholas III (born 1959) is an American businessman who is a co-founder of
Broadcom Corporation
Broadcom Corporation is an American fabless semiconductor company that makes products for the wireless and broadband communication industry. It was acquired by Avago Technologies in 2016 and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the merged ...
, and former co-chairman of its board, president, and
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
(CEO) of the company. , Nicholas was ranked number 520 on ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' billionaire's list with a net worth of $5.7 billion.
Early life and education
![Henry Nicholas Graduation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Henry_Nicholas_Graduation.jpg)
Henry Nicholas was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...
, to
Marcella
Marcella is a Roman cognomen and Italian given name, the feminine version of Marcello (Mark in English). Marcella means warlike, martial, and strong. It could also mean 'young warrior'. The origin of the name Marcella is Latin.
Marcella may refer ...
and Henry T. Nicholas Jr. When Nicholas was four, his parents divorced and he moved with his mother and sister to Los Angeles, California.
His mother later married
Robert Leach, a journalist and
Hollywood screenwriter. Nicholas attended elementary schools in Malibu, and progressed to
Santa Monica High School
Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...
.
Nicholas has
dyslexia.
After attending the
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and U ...
in
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
, Colorado, Nicholas graduated from
UCLA School of Engineering in 1982 with a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree in
electrical engineering. He earned a master's degree in 1985, and a PhD. in electrical engineering from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
in 1998.
["Alumnus Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, III was Named for the IEEE Frederik Philips Award for 2014"](_blank)
, UCLA Engineering News, 2014. His doctoral dissertation became the basis for the development of the
integrated circuit (IC) that Broadcom sold.
Early career
After graduating from UCLA in the 1980s, Nicholas worked at
TRW in
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach (Spanish for ''round'') is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Sa ...
, where he met
Henry Samueli
Henry Samueli (born September 20, 1954) is an American businessman, engineer, and philanthropist.
He is the co-founder of Broadcom Corporation, owner of the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks, and a prominent philanthropist in the Orange Co ...
, his future business partner, who was a professor of engineering at UCLA. Nicholas later moved to PairGain Technologies in
Cerritos, where he was director of microelectronics. He left PairGain in 1991 to start Broadcom Corporation with Samueli.
Broadcom
Nicholas and Samueli founded Broadcom in the spare bedroom of Nicholas' Redondo Beach condominium in 1991. Each partner invested $5,000 own money, and they
floated the company in 1998.
Nicholas retired from Broadcom in 2003, ostensibly to work on his marriage.
Philanthropy
![The Henry T](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/The_Henry_T.gif)
In 2003, Nicholas and his wife founded the Henry T. and Stacey Nicholas Foundation, a private
non-profit foundation
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
whose goals were to invest in education, youth sports, technology, medical research, victims' rights and national defense. Following their separation in 2006, it was renamed The Henry T. Nicholas III Foundation.
In 2008, the Nicholas Academic Center was opened in downtown
Santa Ana, California, in partnership with retired
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
judge Jack Mandel, on whose program the schools are based. The second center opened in 2009 on the campus of
Valley High School in Santa Ana.
In 2004, Nicholas donated $10million to
St. Margaret's Episcopal School in Orange County and for the formation of a partnership with the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...
's
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering (HSSoE) is the academic unit of the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) that oversees academic research and teaching in disciplines of the field of engineering. Established when the campus opened i ...
to explore the application of technology to enhance learning. In addition, Nicholas provided St. Margaret scholarships to students from Santa Ana. Nicholas also supports
Oakland Military Institute
Oakland Military Institute, formally the ''Oakland Military Institute College Preparatory Academy'', is a charter school run by the California Military Department's Youth and Community Programs Task Force in partnership with the Oakland Unified Sc ...
.
Nicholas has financially supported
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.
Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Direc ...
, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and
Orange County Performing Arts Center
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
* Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...
.
Personal life
In 1987, Nicholas married Stacey, a former electrical engineer, with whom he had three children. Nicholas is now divorced and separated from his later girlfriends Melissa Montero
and Ashley Christine Fargo. He lives in Newport Coast, California.
In April 2008, he admitted himself to an
alcohol rehabilitation program of the
Betty Ford Center and completed his treatment at
Cliffside Malibu.
Criminal charges
In June 2008, Nicholas and other Broadcom executives were indicted for stock fraud and options backdating.
At the same time, Nicholas was also indicted on drug charges.
The charges caused considerable scandal, and were the subject of much speculation in the press.
Judge
Cormac J. Carney threw out the stock fraud and options backdating charges in December 2009.
The drug charges were dropped in January 2010. The judge, in dismissing the charges, accused the prosecution of a "shameful" campaign of witness intimidation aimed at securing unjustified convictions.
In August 2018, Nicholas was arrested in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
on suspicion of drug trafficking after a variety of drugs, including
marijuana,
heroin,
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
,
methamphetamine and
ecstasy were found in his hotel suite. In August 2019, he entered an
Alford plea
In United States law, an Alford plea, also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia, an Alford guilty plea, and the Alford doctrine, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and ...
to two felony drug-possession charges; he agreed to donate $1 million to a drug treatment-and-rehabilitation program, to perform 250 hours of community service, and to go to drug counseling. In exchange, the prosecution dismissed five more-serious drug trafficking charges and did not seek a prison sentence. The case was later dismissed.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Henry
American billionaires
American male criminals
University of California, Irvine faculty
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
Businesspeople from Cincinnati
1959 births
Living people
21st-century American criminals
American businesspeople convicted of crimes
American people convicted of drug offenses
People from Glendale, Ohio
People with dyslexia
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesspeople
Victims' rights