The New Owner Of The San Diego Soccer Team Is The World’s First Woman Private Equity Billionaire

Forbes

Lauren Leichtman spent four decades building a super successful private equity firm with her husband. Now the couple is bringing their experience to the San Diego Wave pro soccer team.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2025/06/11/how-this-buyout-pioneer-built-a-fortune-from-private-equity-to-womens-soccer/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, the new owner of the San Diego Wave soccer team is the world's first

00:06woman private equity billionaire.

00:09Lauren Leichmann wasn't always into soccer.

00:12That changed after she watched the 1999 Women's World Cup final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,

00:18where Brandi Chastain scored the winning penalty kick for the U.S. women's national team.

00:23And her celebration, which included falling to her knees and ripping off her shirt, made

00:27front pages across the country.

00:30Over the following years, Leichmann and her husband, Arthur Levine, who lived in Los Angeles,

00:35would often drive past the UCLA soccer field while picking up their daughter from school.

00:40They soon started donating to the university, including helping rebuild the soccer team's

00:45locker room, and struck up a friendship with the team's coach, Jill Ellis, who would go

00:50on to coach and win two World Cups with the U.S. women's team, and then served as president

00:55of the National Women's Soccer League's San Diego Wave from 2021 until last December.

01:01Leichmann's growing passion for soccer culminated in the couple's purchase of the Wave for an

01:07estimated $113 million last October.

01:10In a video interview from her home in Miami, with framed photos of her family displayed on

01:15a bookshelf behind her, she says, quote,

01:18Two of her three kids are involved in supporting the team's management, and Leichmann and her

01:32family attend as many games as possible.

01:34In May, Alex Morgan, who won two World Cups with the U.S. women's national team and also

01:40captained the Wave until her retirement in 2024, joined the Wave as a minority investor.

01:47Leichmann knows a thing or two about good investments.

01:50In 1984, she co-founded Beverly Hills, California-based private equity firm Levine Leichmann Capital Partners,

01:57also known as LLCP, alongside her husband, investing in small businesses that needed money and targeting

02:04successful founders who had built companies with $30 million to $40 million in revenues.

02:09Over the next 40 years, the couple built their small wife and husband shop into an $11 billion

02:15in assets buyout firm, with blue-chip investors ranging from the California Public Employees'

02:20Retirement System, known as CalPERS, to publicly traded asset manager Hamilton Lane.

02:26While they step back from day-to-day management in 2020, Leichmann and Levine still own the firm,

02:32which makes up the bulk of their fortunes. Add in their private investments, real estate,

02:37and the San Diego Wave, the team is now worth an estimated $165 million,

02:42and Forbes estimates that Leichmann and Levine are each worth $1.3 billion,

02:47ranking Leichmann 26th on Forbes' 2025 list of America's richest self-made women.

02:54Leichmann is the first woman in the world to make a billion-dollar fortune in private equity.

02:59Throughout the years, Leichmann and Levine have stuck to what they know best.

03:03They invest in businesses with positive cash flow.

03:06They look for experienced entrepreneurs and management teams

03:09who want to stay on to run the company and keep an ownership stake after the deal is closed.

03:14Since they started raising money with outside investors in 1994,

03:19LLCP's funds have invested in more than 100 companies and sold investments in 80 of them

03:25for a total of $11.5 billion, compared with an aggregate investment cost in those sold businesses of $4.8 billion.

03:33That nearly 2.4 multiple of invested capital rivals those of private equity heavyweights from Blackstone to KKR.

03:42LLCP now has eight offices in five countries, including four in the U.S.,

03:47and invests across three broad categories.

03:50Middle market U.S. companies with revenues from $50 million to $250 million.

03:55Smaller U.S. firms with less than $50 million in revenues.

03:59And foreign, mostly European, companies with revenues around $30 million or higher.

04:04Some of its best-known investments include restaurant franchises,

04:08Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Wetzel's Pretzels.

04:11But the firm has also scored big exits in industries ranging from pipe fittings to air quality control.

04:18Harley Kaplan, CEO of aerospace and defense component firm The Thermal Group,

04:23who previously led two LLCP portfolio companies as CEO, says,

04:28They've got a great eye for finding these specific niche businesses that have a ton of potential

04:33and then matching up appropriate management to go do it.

04:37For full coverage, check out Giacomo Taganini's piece on Forbes.com.

04:42This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:45Thanks for tuning in.

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