Riley Peart Bechtel CBE (born March 25, 1952) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

heir and businessman. He was the chairman of the Bechtel Corporation until April 2017.Bechtel biography
As of July 2021, his estimated net worth is US$2.7 billion.

Early life

He is the great-grandson of Warren A. Bechtel, the company's founder. His parents were Elizabeth Hogan and

Stephen Bechtel Jr. Stephen Davison Bechtel Jr. (May 10, 1925 – March 15, 2021) was an American billionaire, businessman, civil engineer, and co-owner of the Bechtel Corporation. He was the son of Stephen Davison Bechtel Sr. and grandson of Warren A. Bechtel, w ...

, who was the former chairman and CEO of the company. He attended The Thacher School, a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

. He received a bachelor's degree in political science and psychology from the University of California, Davis, and a JD/MBA from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1977. He was admitted to the

State Bar of California The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

in November 1979 and joined the American Bar Association.

Career

He worked for the law firm of Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges. He joined Bechtel full-time in 1981 and was elected president and chief operating officer in March 1989. He became CEO in June 1990. In January 1996, he also became chairman of Bechtel. He sits on the board of directors of the international council of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (since 1995), the Fremont Group (owned by Bechtel Corporation), the Fremont Group (which in turn runs Trinity Ventures, LP), Fremont Investors, Inc. (owned by Bechtel Corporation), and Sequoia Ventures, Inc. (limited partner of Bechtel Corporation). He was a board member of Theranos. He is a former member of the Trilateral Commission, the American Society of Corporate Executives,

The Business Council The Business Council is an organization of business leaders headquartered in Washington, D.C.Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major United States companies. Unlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, BRT ...

, and the National Petroleum Council. He sits on the corporate council of the

Conservation Fund The Conservation Fund is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a dual charter to pursue environmental preservation and economic development. From 2008–2018, it has placed more than 500,000 acres under conservation management through a program wh ...

and the Board of Trustees of the Ocean Exploration Trust. He also sits on the governing board of the Indian School of Business,

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

advisory council, Stanford Law School Dean's advisory council, and UC Davis' board of visitors. He was appointed to the President's Export Council by

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

. In 1998, he and his father were presented with the

Honor Award The National Building Museum promotes excellence in architecture, engineering, construction, planning, and design. In furtherance of that mission, the Museum instituted an annual Honor Award in 1986 to recognize individuals and organizations that h ...

from the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private Non-profit org ...

for their company's contributions to America's built environment. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and an Honorary Lifetime member of the

American Society of Safety Engineers American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), formerly known as American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) until June 2018, is a global organization of more than 37,000 occupational safety and health (OSH) professional members who manage, ...

Wealth

According to '' Forbes'', his estimated net worth is US$3 billion, as of October 2021.

Personal life

He resides in California with his wife, Susan. He is a member of the Augusta National Golf Club as well as the all-male

Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of journal ...

in San Francisco and attends its annual encampment, the Bohemian Grove. He is consistently ranked in the top 200 richest people in the US and the top 500 richest people in the world by '' Forbes'' magazine. In February 2014, Bechtel announced that, after 25 years, he was stepping down as CEO of Bechtel Corporation because of health reasons associated with Parkinson's disease.Engineering News-Record
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bechtel, Riley P. 1952 births American chief executives American construction businesspeople American billionaires Bechtel Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Living people Businesspeople from San Francisco People from Alameda County, California Stanford Law School alumni University of California, Davis alumni American chief operating officers People from Menlo Park, California Theranos people