Bechtel is a former chairman of Bechtel Corporation, an engineering and construction company. The Reston, Virginia-based business has worked on more than 25,000 large-scale projects in 160 countries, including the England-to-France tunnel and the Hoover Dam. The closely held group had revenue of $23 billion in 2025.
The Bechtel family fortune is derived from a 40% stake in Bechtel Corporation, a global engineering and construction company. They also own all of Fremont Group, a family office that includes the FPR Partners hedge fund. Bechtel Corporation has worked on more than 25,000 large-scale projects in 160 countries, according to its website.
The valuation of Bechtel, which had revenue of $23 billion in 2025, according to Forbes, is based on the average enterprise value-to-sales multiples of five publicly traded peer companies: Fluor Corp., Aecon Group Inc., KBR Inc., Mastec Inc. and Tutor Perini Corp. The business has no external debt, according to a September 2024 Construction Wave article.
Fremont is the family office of the Bechtel family, according to the Fremont website. Based on disclosures on its website, Fremont invests its assets partly through its fund FPR Partners. The Bechtels' stake in the fund is valued at about $950 million after deducting for assets belonging to the hedge fund managers and non-U.S. persons, according to a February 2025 ADV filing.
The family office also invests through Fremont Realty Capital and Fremont Private Holdings. Neither of these divisions are valued because not enough information is disclosed to verify ownership.
Luke Miller, a spokeswoman for Bechtel Group, didn't respond to a request for comment on the net worth calculation in April 2025.
Riley Bechtel was born in San Francisco in 1952. He received bachelor's degrees in political science and psychology from the University of California, Davis, followed by an MBA and law degree from Stanford University in 1979. He was hired as an associate attorney at the law firm Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges upon graduation, and joined Bechtel in 1981.
Bechtel's great-great-grandfather, Warren Bechtel, started the business in 1898. He died in 1933 while traveling abroad. His death came at a critical time for the company: concrete was being poured for the Hoover Dam, then Bechtel's biggest project. The construction of the dam, in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River on the border of Arizona and Nevada, was completed in 1936.
Bechtel worked on projects in Michigan, Indonesia, New Zealand and the UK before succeeding his father as chief executive of the company in 1990. He presided over projects such as expanding Hong Kong International Airport, the modernizing the Athens subway system and building the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State. He stepped down as chief executive in February 2014, after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and his son, Brendan, was appointed president shortly after. In 2016, Brendan became the company's chief executive and was appointed chairman in 2017.