--- title: This Billionaire CEO Surprised Two Warehouse Workers With $1 Million Bonuses description: To "thank" the roughly 1,400 employees who had been with the company more than a year, Friese gave out bonuses—using more than $86 million of the proceeds from the sale. authors: - name: Rob Wile url: https://money.com/author/rob-wile/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 191 covers: - Business - Career Advice - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/rjwile former_staff: true published: '2017-06-05T18:02:01.000Z' modified: '2017-06-05T18:02:01.000Z' section: Business tags: - Billionaire - Billionaires - donald friese - la times word_count: 199 canonical: https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Donald Friese, CEO of CR Laurence Co. Inc., Los Angeles, September 1, 2015.](https://img.money.com/2017/06/170605-donald-friese-cr-lawrence.jpg) *Donald Friese, CEO of CR Laurence Co. Inc., Los Angeles, September 1, 2015.* Billionaire Donald Friese doesn't believe in saying "thank you." “I always hated people saying, ‘Well, you did a good job, so thank you,’" [he tells the *L.A. Times* in a new profile](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-himi-donald-friese-20170604-htmlstory.html). "Thank you doesn’t help my children get a house or schooling.” Friese himself grew up in an orphanage, joined the army, and worked his way up at an industrial glazing company in California to become its owner, the *Times* reports. In 2015, he sold the company to an Irish conglomerate for $1.3 billion. To thank the roughly 1,400 employees who had been with the company more than a year, he gave out bonuses—using more than $86 million of the proceeds from the sale. Two in particular got special treatment. He called the pair—both of them longtime workers who helped run his warehouses, the *Times* notes— into his office to let them know the company had been acquired. “And I said, ‘I don’t think thank you is good enough,’ and gave each of them $1 million," he said. "We were all crying. There are some people who you know do more for you than is required. These guys are those kinds of guys.” [Read the full profile here.](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-himi-donald-friese-20170604-htmlstory.html) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Employee Benefits", "item": "https://money.com/employee-benefits/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This Billionaire CEO Surprised Two Warehouse Workers With $1 Million Bonuses" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/", "name": "This Billionaire CEO Surprised Two Warehouse Workers With $1 Million Bonuses", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-06-05T18:02:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2017-06-05T18:02:01.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This Billionaire CEO Surprised Two Warehouse Workers With $1 Million Bonuses", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/06/170605-donald-friese-cr-lawrence.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "170605-donald-friese-cr-lawrence" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rob Wile", "url": "https://money.com/author/rob-wile/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/rob-wile/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/rjwile" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-06-05T18:02:01.000Z", "description": "To \"thank\" the roughly 1,400 employees who had been with the company more than a year, Friese gave out bonuses—using more than $86 million of the proceeds from the sale.", "abstract": "To \"thank\" the roughly 1,400 employees who had been with the company more than a year, Friese gave out bonuses—using more than $86 million of the proceeds from the sale.", "@id": "https://money.com/billionaire-gave-million-dollar-bonus-employees/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2017-06-05T18:02:01.000Z", "wordCount": 199, "keywords": [ "Billionaire", "Billionaires", "donald friese", "la times" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Employee benefits", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_benefits" ] } ] } ] } ```