What Is Lynsi Snyder's Net Worth?
Lynsi Snyder, also known as Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, is an American fast food executive and heiress who has a net worth of $8 billion. Lynsi Snyder is the sole owner of the wildly successful West Coast hamburger franchise In-N-Out. Lynsi's grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, founded In-N-Out in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California.
Harry and Esther had two sons, Rich (Lynsi's uncle) and her father, Harry Jr, (who went by, "Guy"). Rich died in a 1993 plane crash. Guy died in 1999 of an accidental drug overdose. At that point, Lynsi became the company's sole heir. She was 17 years old. She officially inherited the company on her 35th birthday, but she was first officially declared a billionaire when she turned 30. At that point, she was the youngest female billionaire in the world. Today, the company has more than 350 locations and has annual revenues estimated at $2 billion.
Lynsi is one of the 30 richest women in the world and roughly the 400th richest person in the world.
Early Life
Lynsi Snyder was born Lynsi Lavelle Snyder on May 5, 1982, in Glendora, California. She is the daughter of Lynda Lou and Harry Guy Snyder.
When she was 12, her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Shingletown, California. Snyder lived on a ranch and attended Redding Christian School, a private high school in Palo Cedro, California. Through her mother, she has two older half-sisters, Traci and Teri. Traci is married to former In-N-Out president and COO Mark Taylor.
(Photo by Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Inheriting In-N-Out
Lynsi's grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, founded In-N-Out Burger in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California. Throughout the 50s and 60s, In-N-Out was a small local burger chain with only 18 locations.
In 1976, founder Harry Snyder died at the age of 67. Upon his death, he left control of the company with his then 24-year-old son Rich. Rich spent the next twenty years expanding the chain throughout the West Coast. Rich increased the number of locations from 18 to 90 before he tragically died in a plane crash in 1993.
After Rich's death, the company passed to Rich's older brother Harry Guy Snyder (Lynsi's father), commonly known as Guy. Guy Snyder continued to expand the company aggressively into Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Texas. Guy would eventually grow the company from 90 locations to 140 before he died in 1999 of an accidental prescription drug overdose when Lynsi was just 17 years old.
After Guy's death, Esther Snyder, the matriarch of the family, re-took the reigns of In-N-Out. She continued to manage the company until her death in 2006. At that point 24-year-old Lynsi was the sole heir. Lynsi was not yet ready to be the president of a major fast-food corporation, so her brother-in-law, Mark Taylor, took control of the day-to-day operations through 2010.
On May 5, 2012, Lynsi turned 30 and officially inherited half of all the private ownership shares of In-N-Out Burger. She received the second half on her 35th birthday, on May 5, 2017.
Lynsi was first officially declared a billionaire at the age of 30 when she took ownership of her father's share of the company (50%) and inherited the balance of the company that was not already in her trust. At that point, she was the youngest female billionaire in the world.
Today, In-N-Out Burger has more than 400 locations and has annual revenues estimated at $2 billion. Snyder is well-liked and very popular among her 26,000 employees, boasting a 99% approval rating on Glassdoor.com, and is ranked #4 on a 2018 Glassdoor list of top bosses at large companies, ahead of CEOs like LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner, Marc Benioff, and Satya Nadella.
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Personal Life & Philanthropy
Snyder funds the non-profit corporation Healing Hearts & Nations, an organization that builds training centers in Africa and India and trains local community leaders to provide counseling to underprivileged locals. She is also actively involved with the In-N-Out Burger Foundation, which aims to provide support to abused and neglected children.
Lynsi has been married four times and has four children. She was first married to her high school sweetheart, Jeremiah Seawell, from 2000 to 2003. She then married a former In-N-Out employee, Richard Martinez. The couple had two fraternal twins together. Snyder and Martinez divorced in 2011. While still legally married to Martinez, she began dating race car driver Val Torres. They were married from 2011 to 2013. In May 2014, she got engaged to another former In-N-Out employee, Sean Ellingson. They married on June 5, 2014 in Malibu, California. They have a son together.
Lynsi is an Evangelical Christian and has spoken many times publicly about her faith. In 2015, her testimonial was featured on "I Am Second," in which she spoke about the multiple tragic deaths in her family, her previous failed marriages, and how her faith helped her deal with these unfortunate events.
Snyder is a fan of drag racing and regularly competes in drag racing events. She was featured in 2015 on an episode of Jay Leno's Garage, where she showed off a modified 1941 Willys that was owned by her late father.
Lynsi claimed in a January 2014 interview with Orange Coast that she has been the target of at least two kidnapping attempts. The first occurred when she was in high school in Shingletown, and the second took place several years later in Baldwin Park near the local In-N-Out distribution center. As a result of these attempts, she has become media-shy and reclusive, declining nearly all interview requests and rarely making appearances at public events. She has said that she deliberately keeps herself out of the public eye for the safety of her family.
Real Estate
In 2012, Lynsi Snyder paid $17.4 million for a 7-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion covering 16,000 square feet on 4 acres in the town of Bradbury, California. She purchased the mansion from professional baseball player Adrian Beltre. The massive structure sits on 4+ acres and features a gated, circular driveway, a marble foyer with matching staircases, an opulent chandelier, and a frescoed ceiling. The house has multiple wings, and the many bedrooms are spread throughout the home. Lynsi Martinez's house also has a massive family room, a wet bar, a breakfast room, as well as a separate eat-in kitchen, a butler's pantry, and huge spa-like bathrooms. There is also a private movie theater, a game room, a fitness room, a wine cellar, a jungle gym, a swimming pool, a spa, a tennis court, a basketball court, and a batting cage.
Lynsi sold this home in December 2021 for $16.3 million, a $1.3 million loss. Below is a video tour of her former home:
