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The Larry H. Miller Company
Gail Miller turned a Utah auto empire into a holding group with the Utah Jazz, master-planned real estate, and a venture arm. Based in Sandy, Utah.
The Larry H. Miller Company
Gail Miller and her late husband Larry founded the company in 1979 with the purchase of a single Toyota franchise in Murray, Utah. Over four decades they built one of the largest privately held automotive dealership groups in the United States. The wealth originates in automotive retail, but the family's ownership of the Utah Jazz NBA franchise since 1985 and subsequent ventures in movie theaters, broadcasting, and real estate created a multi-asset enterprise anchored in the Intermountain West. After Larry's passing in 2009, Gail assumed sole ownership and formalized a long-term holding structure designed to preserve the group's assets and culture for future generations. The company sold its automotive dealership portfolio to Asbury Automotive Group in 2021 for $3.2 billion in a landmark transaction (per the firm, December 2021). It retained the real estate underlying those dealerships and reinvested a significant portion of the proceeds into a more concentrated private-equity strategy. The current deployment spans direct real estate — including the master-planned Daybreak community in South Jordan, Utah — majority ownership of the Utah Jazz and its home arena, the Delta Center, and operating businesses in finance, healthcare, and technology. The firm also operates Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres and a portfolio of motor-sports properties, making it one of the country's most diversified family-backed holding companies by income stream. Steve Starks was named CEO in 2019, succeeding Greg Miller, Larry and Gail's son, who remains active as a board member. The senior management team includes veteran operators drawn from the company's auto-retail roots and external hires from professional sports and institutional real estate. In September 2022 the company launched LHM Ventures, a venture capital arm targeting early-stage and growth-stage companies in sports tech, media, and healthcare (per public record, 2022). The vehicle signaled a formal extension beyond the legacy operating businesses into startup investing alongside external managers. The company's structural differentiator is the integration of a trophy professional sports asset — the Utah Jazz — with a fully operational real estate and private-equity platform. The Jazz are not a passive family investment; the team, arena, and adjacent development projects form a laboratory for testing consumer and technology investments that LHM Ventures can later scale. The Miller family consolidated control into a singular holding company while implementing a governance model with a professional CEO and independent board, avoiding the generational fragmentation that destabilizes many family offices built on founder-led operating businesses.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
1979
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Sandy
Corporate office
Sandy, UT, United States
Principals
Gail Miller
Owner and Chair
Steve Starks
CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who controls The Larry H. Miller Company and how is governance structured?
Gail Miller is the sole owner and chair of the company. Day-to-day operations are run by CEO Steve Starks, who succeeded Gail and Larry Miller's son Greg Miller in 2019. The board includes family members and independent directors, creating a professionalized governance layer between ownership and operations.
How did the 2021 sale of the auto dealerships reshape the company's investment strategy?
The sale of 54 dealership locations to Asbury Automotive Group generated $3.2 billion. The company retained the underlying real estate and redeployed capital into professional sports, direct real estate development, and the formation of LHM Ventures to pursue venture-stage technology investments.
What does LHM Ventures invest in, and how does it relate to the Utah Jazz?
LHM Ventures targets early-stage and growth-stage companies in sports technology, media, and healthcare. The Utah Jazz and the Delta Center serve as live testing grounds for portfolio technologies, differentiating the venture arm from standard family-office direct investing.
Is the Utah Jazz held inside the company or as a separate family asset?
The Utah Jazz NBA franchise and the Delta Center arena are held inside The Larry H. Miller Company, not in a separate family trust. This makes the team an operating division of the broader holding group rather than a trophy asset managed at arm's length.
Does the firm take outside capital or co-investment partners?
The company operates primarily with family capital. There is no public record of a fund open to outside limited partners, though LHM Ventures may co-invest alongside institutional venture firms on a deal-by-deal basis.
What real estate holdings does the company retain post-dealership sale?
The company owns the real estate under the former dealership sites and is the master developer of Daybreak, a 4,100-acre planned community in South Jordan, Utah. It also controls development parcels around the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
How does the Miller family philanthropy connect to the company?
The Larry H. Miller Family Foundation is a separate entity focused on education, health, and community development projects in Utah. Gail Miller chairs both the company and the foundation, but the two maintain distinct governance and grantmaking processes.
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