Gustavson is the largest individual shareholder of Public Storage, a self-storage operator with more than 170 million square feet of rentable real estate. She owns 11% of the Glendale, California-based business, which operates in the U.S. and Europe, and was co-founded by her father B. Wayne Hughes in 1972.
Tamara Hughes Gustavson's net worth of $6.21B can buy ...
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Gustavson controls 11 percent of Glendale, California-based Public Storage, a publicly traded self-storage company that has more than 170 million net rentable square feet of real estate, according to its website. She owns her stake directly and through vehicles controlled by her and her husband for the benefit of their children, according to a November 2019 stock exchange filing.
She owns a 6% stake in American Homes 4 Rent directly, according to a May 2019 stock exchange filing.
The value of her cash investments is based on an analysis of share sales, dividends, taxes and market performance.
Media representatives for Public Storage didn't respond to requests for comment on Gustavson's net worth.
Tamara Hughes Gustavson is the daughter of B. Wayne Hughes, who cofounded self-storage operator Public Storage with one location in 1972. She graduated in public affairs from the University of Southern California -- where she was a member of sorority Pi Beta Phi -- in 1983. She worked at Public Storage from 1978 until 2003, and returned to sit on the company's board in November 2008.
Her father pioneered warehouses for Americans in need of storage space in 1972 after discovering underserviced demand at a roadside facility he came across on a trip to Texas. With a partner, he built his first facility in El Cajon, California believing that the state's demographics offered even greater opportunity. Looking to expand -- and to avoid debt -- he used equity partnerships to finance the purchase and construction of new sites, switching to real estate investment trusts in the 1990s. He'd created 17 REITs by 1995, and later merged the closely held business with publicly traded Storage Equities, creating what has become the largest real estate investment trust in the U.S., according to its 2013 annual report.
Hughes took over Columbia, Missouri-based competitor Storage Trust Realty in 1998, and Seattle-based Shurgard Storage Centers two years later. Hughes stepped down as chairman of the firm in 2011 and retired from the board to become chairman emeritus in 2012. He transferred the majority of his Public Storage shares to his two children, Bradley and Tamara, making Tamara its biggest shareholder.
The billionaire is also a voting member on the USC board of trustees and serves as director at the USC - CHLA Institute for Pediatric Clinical Research. With her husband, actor-producer Eric Gustavson, she supports NFL quarterback Rodney Peete's HollyRod Foundation and schools in the Los Angeles area, and advises the William Lawrence and Blanche Hughes Foundation that funds children's cancer research, according to a USC press release.
Gustavson lives in Malibu, California with her husband. They have two children.