Billy Orgel Net Worth 2026: Tower Ventures CEO and Memphis Developer

No reputable outlet has published an estimate of Billy Orgel's net worth. Earlier versions of this page gave $44 million and a yearly income of $800,000 with no source, and we have removed both. What is on record is the business behind his wealth: William E. "Billy" Orgel is president and CEO of Tower Ventures, a family-owned Memphis company that says it owns more than 400 cell towers and has built and sold about 700 more. He is also a Memphis real estate developer, a member of the Memphis Grizzlies ownership group since 2013 and, since June 2026, chair of the state-appointed board overseeing Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

What is Billy Orgel's net worth?

There is no published net worth figure from Forbes, Bloomberg, Celebrity Net Worth or any business outlet. Tower Ventures is private, so its revenue, profits and ownership split are not disclosed. The $44 million figure that circulated online, including on this page, cannot be traced to any source, so we no longer use it.

What can be said is where the money comes from. Orgel's wealth rests on three things that sources document: a cell tower portfolio he has built since the mid-1990s and sells in blocks to larger tower companies, partnerships in apartment and mixed-use developments, and minority stakes such as his share of the Memphis Grizzlies ownership group. None of those holdings has a published value.

Billy Orgel yearly earnings, monthly income and salary

His salary and yearly income have never been published. The income table that appeared here before (about $800,000 a year, $67,000 a month and $2,200 a day) had no source and has been removed.

As owner and CEO of a private company, most of his earnings would come from tower lease revenue and from the sale of tower portfolios rather than a salary. In a December 2025 interview with Inside Towers, Orgel described the model: the family keeps control and avoids private equity, but it has partners who want periodic payouts, so the company builds towers and then sells seasoned portfolios. He named two sales to Phoenix Tower, one just before the COVID shutdown in 2020 and one at the end of 2021, and a 2025 transaction with Everest Infrastructure. Prices were not disclosed.

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Tower Ventures: how the business was built

The company grew out of a family radio business. According to Inside Towers, his father, Dick Orgel, sold and serviced two-way radios in Memphis from the late 1960s and owned some UHF towers. Billy joined in the mid-1980s after college.

• 1985: graduates from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA and returns to Memphis to work at the family firm, Majestic Communications.
• Late 1980s to 1995: helps grow Majestic into the area's largest dealer of Motorola two-way radios, according to Tower Ventures.
• 1995: the two-way radio business is sold. Orgel sells the company's Specialized Mobile Radio licenses to a new carrier and turns to building cell towers for the growing wireless industry.
• 2020 and 2021: sells two tower portfolios to Phoenix Tower.
• 2025: completes a deal with Everest Infrastructure. Tower Ventures still owns more than 400 towers, and his son Benjamin works there as managing director of real estate.

Real estate and other investments

Orgel's company bio lists a long run of Memphis development work, much of it restoring old downtown buildings as apartments: Radio Center Flats, Cornerstone Flats, Main Street Flats and Van Vleet Flats. He is also a partner in Barbaro Flats, South Junction and South Line.

He led the preservation of the historic Tennessee Brewery, which Tower Ventures describes as a $43 million project with 273 apartments, 17,000 square feet of commercial space and a 339-space garage. With partners he is working on the Snuff District, a 60-acre mixed-use project in Uptown Memphis whose first two phases are planned to include a 65,000-square-foot corporate headquarters, 430 apartments and an event space.

Outside Memphis, the same bio lists apartment projects in Texas: Hays Junction (307 units) near Austin, the Crossings at Wells Branch (264 units) in Austin and Leander Junction (250 units) in Leander, plus projects in Austin and Colorado Springs.

Other holdings reported by the Greater Memphis Chamber and Tower Ventures:

• A minority stake in the Memphis Grizzlies ownership group, which he joined in 2013.
• A founding role and board seat at First Capital Bank, a community bank in Germantown, Tennessee.

Early life and family

Orgel is a Memphis native from a family that has worked in communications technology for three generations. His exact birth date is not public, so the age of 44 and the height and weight figures that earlier appeared on this page have been removed; he graduated from college in 1985.

Billy Orgel wife

He is married to Robin Salky Orgel, a former elementary school teacher and Memphis community volunteer. Her West Cancer Foundation board profile says the couple have three children: Benjamin, Megan and Hannah. Robin has chaired the board of the Memphis Jewish Community Center and served on several other nonprofit boards.

Education

Orgel earned a bachelor of business administration from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985, according to his company bio and Ballotpedia.

Professional and public life

Orgel has spent much of his career in unpaid public and board roles alongside the business.

• Temple Israel: past president of the synagogue's board of trustees. Tower Ventures says that over 25 years on the board he oversaw a $25 million capital campaign and a $16 million endowment campaign.
• School board: served on the Shelby County Schools board (later Memphis-Shelby County Schools) from 2011 to 2022, including two years as chair. Ballotpedia records that he ran unopposed in 2014 and won re-election in 2018 with 56.4% of the vote.
• FedExForum: past board member of the public building authority that oversaw construction of the arena used by the Grizzlies and the University of Memphis.
• Other boards: chair of Tennessee's Sports Gaming Council, and board roles at the National Civil Rights Museum and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.
• Recognition: Memphis Business Journal "Top 40 Under 40" in 1999, Society of Entrepreneurs member from 2010, and a 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts' Chickasaw Council.

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Recent news (2026)

In May 2026 Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally appointed Orgel to Tennessee's new oversight board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, WREG reported. The board was created by a state law that lets appointees override the elected school board on budgets, contracts and the superintendent. Terms run to 2030.

At its first meeting in Nashville on June 18, 2026, the board elected Orgel as chair, Chalkbeat reported. He said the board might consider moving faster on school closures than the district's current plan to close 15 schools by 2028. The board took over on July 1, 2026.

Quick info

Why there is no reliable figure

Orgel's main assets are private: a family-controlled tower company, partnership shares in real estate projects and a small slice of an NBA team. None of them reports values publicly, and the prices of his tower sales were not disclosed. Any single dollar figure for his net worth would be a guess, so this page does not give one. We will add a figure if a reputable business outlet publishes one.

Contact details

This page does not publish personal phone numbers or addresses. Business inquiries go through Tower Ventures in Memphis.