Steve Borowski ’79 retired this June, after 45 years in investment management, during which he built two companies from the ground up and collected 8.5 million frequent flyer miles. Much of that success he credits to his training as a scholar-athlete at UC Irvine, where he learned teamwork, time management, communication, multitasking and – perhaps most critically – a willingness to fail.

“I think one of the great things about being a student athlete is that you learn rejection, you learn how to lose. It's part of life,” he says. “Even the most successful hitters in baseball fail 70 percent of the time.”

With his career in investment management behind him, Borowski is homing in on new opportunities to make his mark and create positive change. He’s been actively engaged with his alma mater – particularly athletics and the School of Social Sciences where he’s a current founding member and past chair of the Board of Councilors, and member of the Dean’s Leadership Society. In 2021, he joined the board of trustees of the UCI Foundation where he and other community leaders advise university leadership on matters related to investments and philanthropy while mobilizing current and new supporters to help grow UCI’s endowment.

Joining the team

Borowski came to UC Irvine to play baseball in 1975, becoming the first in his family to go to college. While earning his bachelor’s in economics from the School of Social Sciences and pitching for the Anteaters, he drew the attention of major league scouts. It was a dream come true when he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers.

On April Fools’ Day 1980 – a date he still despises – the Brewers released Borowski. He was one of 56 right-handed pitchers in the Brewers’ minor league training camp that year and had already realized, “Oh, wow. I’m a commodity. You start thinking about a plan B really quickly.”

Plan B was getting an office job back in Orange County, stocking coffee, copy paper and pencils at a small subsidiary of the insurance giant Pacific Mutual. That entry-level role would change his life in two ways: introducing him to his future career and his future wife. An executive at Pacific Mutual’s fledgling investment company PIMCO introduced Borowski to the investment industry. Then, at a New Year’s Eve party in 1982, a work friend introduced him to Linda. They were engaged four months later and celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 2024, with three grown daughters and four grandchildren in the mix.

Back to home base

Ultimately, it was his love of baseball that pulled Borowski back to UC Irvine after years focused on growing his family and building his businesses. When the Anteater baseball program returned in 2002, after a 10-year hiatus, Borowski was right there to support the effort. Since then, he and Linda have expanded their involvement beyond athletics to include the School of Social Sciences, the Merage Business School and the UCI Foundation. In 2003, he was recognized as the School of Social Sciences’ Distinguished Alumnus through the UC Irvine Alumni Association’s Lauds & Laurels. And in 2018, he was feted with the alumni association’s top honor, the Extraordinarius award, for his philanthropy and extensive volunteer work across the university.

“I'm proud of this place and the notoriety that it gets, not just domestically, but internationally,” he says. “And I believe UC Irvine is doing a good job of trying to apply research to real world problems and not just the theoretical.”

Looking toward the future, Borowski is interested in finding ways to sustain UC Irvine amid decreasing state funding, and ensuring that students graduate with more than just a degree, but also with the essential skills to fuel a lifetime of success.

“If I could instill in any student some level of the willingness to incur intelligent risk, that would be important to me,” he says. “You're going to fall flat on your face, so just embrace it. You learn something in the process, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, get back in there and keep doing it over and over and over.”

Building businesses

From the beginning, Borowski and his wife Linda were committed to taking risks.

“We actually had this conversation saying I don't know what we're going to do, or how we’re going to do it, but we're going to start something. We're going to start some kind of business,” Borowski recalls. “I didn't want to wake up someday at 50 years old and realize I never tried.”

In 1997, Borowski and two colleagues did just that. They left secure jobs at Orange County’s largest independent investment firm to start their own rival company. Despite sleepless nights worrying, “What have I done?” the risk paid off. Within a decade, they sold the business to what was then one of the world’s largest financial services companies, Wachovia. Throughout his career, Borowski’s strength was business development. He racked up airline miles traveling around the globe to meet clients and prospective customers and, like even baseball’s best hitters, striking out more often than not. But he made enough homeruns for his business to thrive.

In 2010, Borowski took another swing at entrepreneurship when he and a colleague co-founded what is today Aristotle Capital Management. They grew the firm from a handful of employees to 250, with a portfolio valued at over $100 billion.

“I’m very proud of what we've been able to build,” Borowski says. “But I’m most proud of the quality of the caliber of the people we brought on board over the years. Because of them, the company will continue to thrive for years and years to come.”

Despite deleting his work apps from his smartphone when he retired, Borowski is busier than ever. Now, he has more time to pursue long-standing philanthropic interests, which fall into four key areas he describes as “kids, animals, military families and economic empowerment.” He plans to help establish several local charter schools following the model of the Orange County Classical Academy, fund rescued seals and sea lions at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in his hometown of Laguna Beach, support military families at Camp Pendleton and elsewhere, and provide entrepreneurship programs to underserved communities throughout Southern California.

“I just have this overwhelming desire to do everything I can possibly do to help people succeed,” Borowski says. “I want to see people thrive.”

-Christine Byrd for UCI Social Sciences
-Borowski family photo courtesy of Jen Grace Photography