Paul Orfalea was born on the 28th November 1947. in Los Angeles, California USA, of American and Lebanese descent and is the founder of the American copy chain Kinko’s, which was named after him as his curly, red hair inspired his nickname Kinko. Today, he is a guest professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
How much is the net worth of Paul Orfelea? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the total size of his wealth is as much as $250 million, as of the data presented in early 2017. Copy chain is the main source of Orfalea’s net worth.
Paul Orfalea Net Worth $250 Million
To begin with, Paul Orfalea experienced learning difficulties while studying at high school, however, he worked out his own way to deal with dyslexia and hyperactivity. Later, he studied at the University of Southern California.
Paul Orfalea founded the company Kinko’s in 1970, partly because he had difficulty working for others. The original copy shop was founded in the college community Isla Vista next to the University of California, Santa Barbara. Currently, the company offers professional document management services such as printing, copying and binding, and their customers are mostly small shops and home offices. The company has more than 1,200 business units located in various continents – Asia, Australia, Europe as well as North America. In the beginning of 2004, Kinko’s was bought for $2.4 billion by FedEx and renamed FedEx Office in the middle of 2008 – consequently, this became the main source of Paul Orfalea’s net worth. Prior to the acquisition, many stores were open 24 hours, after the takeover, this offer is limited only to a few stores. Until the spring of 2010, some stores have the inscription FedEx Office. Even now, to make the transition easier for some customers, many stores are still marked Kinko’s Inside.
In 2005, Orfalea wrote the book “Copy This! Lessons from a hyperactive dyslexic who turned a bright idea into one of America’s best companies”. The English title points to his problems with hyperactivity and dyslexia, which he calls learning opportunities, since he was forced to work out his own authentic way to struggle out of these problems. In 2008, his second book entitled “Two Billion Dollars in Nickels: Reflections on the Entrepreneurial Life” was published. This book as well as the following one was written from the entrepreneur point of view. The same year, his third book “The Entrepreneurial Investor: the Art, Science, and Business of Value Investing” (2008) was released.
Finally, in the personal life of Paul Orfalea, he was married to Natalie and they have two sons.
Moreover, Paul Orfalea is known for his philanthropic efforts. In 2000, the Orfalea Family Foundation was launched, which helps children and families based in Santa Barbara County, California to deal with various children’s problems, difficulties in learning, care in different life stages, care giving programs, teaching multiple generations and many others. After Paul’s present of $15 million to The California Polytechnic State University of Business, the university changed its name into the Orfalea College of Business.
