Name: Ann Siner Age: 49 Occupation: CEO and founder of My Sister’s Closet, My Sister’s Attic, Well Suited, and Small Change Previous life: Director of Marketing at PetSmart (at $40k per year) Net worth: “Over 10 digits.” Year she made her first million: “Not sure what year I made my first million. It just sort of accumulated!” First big purchase: “A Porsche. My first bigger big purchase: my second home in Colorado.” Secret to success: “A little luck, good timing, willingness to take a calculated risk on an idea driven by what people want and then constantly fine-tuning that idea/business concept.”

Millionaires also like the Valley, home to seven top Fortune 1000 companies, for its acceptance of entrepreneurial pioneers.
India-born Dr. John Kapoor arrived in this country in 1964 with $5 in his pocket and a financial support grant from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy. He later persuaded investors to help him buy out the division of the generic drug company he worked for and grew the company from a $4 million to $172 million enterprise in eight years. He then sold it to Japanese investors in 1990 to start his present company, E.J. Financial Enterprises, a healthcare consulting and investing firm.
But the 64-year-old Kapoor, who owns a home in the Valley as well as in Chicago, recently dove into a whole new career as a Scotts-
dale restaurateur, opening a pair of eateries, Bombay Spice and Roka Akor, that already have become critical faves.
“The Indian community is very entrepreneurial,” Kapoor says. “And I think my entrepreneurial spirit comes from wanting to make my own decisions.
“What got my entrepreneurial spirit going was, in my first job, I was part of a bigger corporation,” Kapoor adds. “And every time I would make a decision, it would go through the corporation and would get buried somewhere. Very frustrating. I thought, ‘There is a better way of making a living’ – and that is by being your own boss. And this is a great place to do that.”
Perhaps part of the reason Engel had trouble finding recruits for his Millionaires Club is that many of Maricopa’s millionaires enjoy the lack of pretense that comes from living in a city that still can’t believe it’s the nation’s fifth largest.
Indeed, it was difficult to persuade each of our millionaires to speak of their wealth, but we did our best. What follows is a snapshot of three Valley high rollers.