He is former Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of Golden State Bancorp, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco.[2] It was a holding company for the nation's second largest thrift institution and California's fourth largest bank. In 2002, he sold it to Citigroup for $6 billion. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Hilltop Holdings, a bank and insurance holding company.[2] He is also the non-executive chairman of the Boards of Directors of Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), the world's largest publicly traded extractor of copper and gold.[2]
He has also invested in First Acceptance Corporation, Pacific Capital Bancorp (Annual Sales $13 billion), Golden State Bancorp, FSB (federal savings bank that merged with Citigroup in 2002) Rio Hondo Land & Cattle Company (annual sales $1.6 million), Diamond Ford, Dallas (sales: $200 million), Scientific Games Corp., SWS Group (annual sales: $422 million); American Residential Cmnts LLC.[2] His other investments include the auto-finance company AmeriCredit, Pacific Capital Bancorp and 120,000 acres (486 km2) of rangeland in New Mexico.[2]