Who is Houston billionaire and CEO Dan Friedkin?

You might not recognize Dan Friedkin if you passed him here in Houston or saw him zooming across the big screen in a single-seat Spitfire plane. The local billionaire maintains a relatively low public profile, at least compared to his wealthy peers such as Tilman Fertitta or Jim Crane.

But Friedkin, born in Houston in 1965, has touched the lives of many Houstonians through his various business and civic ventures, most of which run under the banner of the Friedkin Group, which he has led as CEO since 1995. He is also one of Houston’s richest people, according to Forbes, which ranked him 434th on its 2024 list of the world’s billionaires with an estimated net worth of $6.4 billion.

Cars are the root of the Friedkin family’s business empire, and its foundation to this day. In 1969, Dan Friedkin’s father, Thomas Friedkin, founded Gulf States Toyota Distributors. At the time, it was one of the first private distributors of the Japanese manufacturer’s vehicles and parts in the United States. Dan Friedkin, who holds a master’s degree in finance from Rice University as well as a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown, became CEO of the Friedkin Group in 1995, when his father handed over the reins and became president of the company, position which he held until his death, at the age of 81, in 2017.

Gulf States Toyota is today one of the largest privately owned automobile distributors in the world, delivering Toyota and Lexus vehicles and parts to approximately 150 dealerships in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, including including Northside and Westside Lexus of Houston.

And the Friedkin Group, the parent company of Gulf States Co., has diversified and grown over the decades. It is now a consortium of more than a dozen companies operating in the sports, travel and entertainment, and automotive industries. Some of its notable acquisitions include: In 2012, the Friedkin Group acquired Diamond Creek Golf Course in North Carolina; in 2013, it acquired the Auberge Resorts Collection; in 2020, the group acquired AS Roma, the Italian football club.

Along the way, Dan Friedkin has built a burgeoning portfolio in Hollywood. In 2014, he co-founded Imperative Entertainment, the studio that produced Martin Scorcese’s 2023 epic “Killers of the Flower Moon.” He is also, like his father, a stuntman and founded the nonprofit Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation, and flies a Spitfire plane in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film “Dunkirk.”

Along with his wife Debra, Friedkin has also supported a number of conservation, ecological and archaeological initiatives over the years, including in Tanzania, where the family has worked to protect wildlife since the 1980s, and in Texas, where Dan served as the chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.