Unflagging CEO Makes Time for Many Causes

It's 4 a.m. as Paul Folino begins his weekday routine of slamming two days' work into one.

He reads the Wall Street Journal, the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times, then hops online to catch the East Coast news.

By then, it's nearly 7 a.m. and time to leave for work. Often, he isn't back at his Coto de Caza home for 16 hours.

In addition to running Emulex, a $1.4-billion data storage company in Costa Mesa, Folino makes time to head fundraising campaigns for the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Chapman University's School of Film and Television, and Cal State Fullerton's business school.

On top of that, he's gone from someone who couldn't care less about politics to chairing the state's largest Republican fundraising group and becoming a confidant of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner revolve around his outside interests, and "in between, it's all Emulex."

Six years ago, Folino, a gracious man, quick with a smile, was a low-profile philanthropist on his way to becoming the largest single donor to South Coast Repertory.

Now 61, he has become a go-to guy for GOP politics in California and a face of Orange County entrepreneurial success.

Not bad for a public-housing kid from Seattle whose parents didn't graduate from high school. His mother worked two jobs while raising Paul, his older brother Phil and younger brother Pat. It was from his "go-getter" mother, Pat Folino said, that his brother got his indefatigable nature.

"Paul was a leader from the beginning," said Pat Folino, a retired salesman who lives in Seattle near his mother and eldest brother. "He was the point guard on the basketball team, the quarterback on the football team and the shortstop on the baseball team. He's so motivated."

The brothers remain close, although Pat Folino is a Democrat, so they steer clear of politics.

From his mother, Paul Folino learned charity and the rewards of sharing what they had, though it wasn't much. That spirit kicked in when, in 2001, Folino's secretary announced -- somewhat incredulously -- that a guy claiming to be actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the phone.

Folino took the call. After half an hour, he had convinced himself it really was Schwarzenegger and committed himself to raise $10 million for an initiative to fund after-school programs.

The governor said he and Folino bonded over their desire to help children.