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Forbes
05-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
In Memoriam: The 31 Billionaires Who Died Over The Past Year
The founder of HBO, a Macau casino magnate and one of the greatest hedge fund managers of all-time are among the three dozen billionaires who have died over the past year. In all, 31 members of Forbes' 2024 World's Billionaires have passed away since last year's ranking. As a group, they were worth $207 billion in aggregate on last year's list. They amassed their immense wealth all over the world, but mainly in the United States, which accounts for ten of the deceased, followed by 3 from the Netherlands and 2 each from Hong Kong, Spain, Canada and China. Nearly all of them made it into their 80s, on average living 85 years, though the deceased include two in their early 60s and 11 who made it into their 90s. The founder and chairman of international fashion retail empire Mango was born in Istanbul but moved to Barcelona with his family in the 1960s. He opened his first clothing store in Barcelona in 1984, naming it after the national fruit of the Philippines, which he'd recently discovered on a trip to the country. Andic's son and presumptive heir Jonathan (b.1981) sits on the board of Mango, which generated $3.6 billion of revenue in 2024. Andic reportedly died from a fall while hiking that is being investigated by authorities. The private equity pioneer founded Texas Pacific Group in 1992 with Jim Coulter, who he met while working for billionaire Robert Bass. Their first big deal in 1993 was a $66 million investment in faltering Continental Airlines, which ultimately made them a $640 million profit. Over the next three decades, the pair built TPG into a publicly traded investment giant with nearly $250 billion of assets under management. Bonderman also helped bring an NHL team, the Kraken, to Seattle in 2021. Lui Che Woo founded and chaired Hong Kong-listed casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group, which opened its first casino in Macau in 2006, the year Macau overtook Las Vegas as the biggest gambling market in the world. His eldest son, Francis, took the reins of Galaxy from Lui in 2012, and the company now has a market capitalization of more than $17 billion. In 2015, Lui donated $1.2 billion to endow his charitable foundation and the Lui Che Woo Prize, which is awarded to individuals and organisations 'striving for harmony and the benefit of humankind.' A television titan, Dolan grew up in Cleveland, served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, then got his start stitching together sports highlight reels for local stations. He founded the predecessor to HBO in 1965, smartly betting that viewers would pay extra for premium content without ads—then traded it for a Long Island TV company he built into giant Cablevision and sold to Altice in 2016 in a $17.7 billion deal. His wife of 73 years, Helen, died in 2023; his heirs still own big stakes in the public companies that control AMC Networks, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks, which his son James runs. Escarrer acquired his first hotel in Spain in 1956 at the age of 21 and went on to build Melia Hotels International into one of the world's largest hotel chains, with more than 350 properties in 35 countries. He was succeeded as chairman in 2023 by his son Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, who now oversees the family's more than 50% stake in the publicly traded company. Xu Gang founded titanium dioxide pigment maker LB Group in 1955 and took it public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2011. At the time of his death, he was serving as honorary chairman of the company, which now boasts a market capitalization of nearly $6 billion Goldschmeding founded staffing company Randstad Holding, which now has branches in 38 countries. In 2016, the firm paid more than $400 million to acquire the U.S.-based job hunting site Goldschmeding started Randstad in 1960 as Uitzendbureau Amstelveen; he took the company public in 1990 before retiring in 1998. Donald R. Horton founded homebuilder D.R. Horton in 1978. He studied to be a pharmacist at Oklahoma University, then joined his father's real estate brokerage before striking out on his own. He built his first house in Fort Worth, Texas, then expanded regionally and, eventually, across the U.S. He took D.R. Horton public in 1992 and built it into America's largest homebuilder by volume by 2002. Horton was chairman of the business at the time of his death and, with his family, owned more than 10% of its shares. Oil magnate W. Herbert Hunt was one of legendary wildcatter H.L. Hunt's 15 children. H.L.'s eighth child, he studied geology at Washington and Lee University before joining the family business. He owned a refinery in Louisiana and oil company Petro-Hunt, and developed real estate in Texas, Arizona and California. With brother Nelson Bunker Hunt (d. 2014), he tried to corner the world silver market in 1980, but failed when the price of the metal collapsed 80%. Arthur Irving was an oil and gas magnate behind the filling station and refinery company Irving Oil. A third-generation member of a Canadian dynasty, his grandfather, James Dergavel Irving, started the family business in the late 1800s. His dad Kenneth Colin (K.C.) Irving added oil operations in the 1920s. Arthur and his two brothers divided up the empire after K.C.'s death in 1992. Arthur joined Irving Oil in 1953 and took over as president in 1972, growing the company's Saint John refinery into Canada's largest and expanding the business internationally. He was chancellor of Acadia University, his alma mater, from 1996 to 2010, and was a donor to education and healthcare causes. Arthur's brother, James Irving owned J.D. Irving, a conglomerate with more than two dozen companies in frozen foods, retail, shipbuilding, transportation and more. James' timber and forestry operation, based in New Brunswick, has planted more than a billion trees since 1957. Knapp cofounded what would become one of Europe's largest fashion companies, New Yorker GmbH, with a single store in the German town of Flensburg in 1971. He served as managing partner until his death, overseeing the nearly $2 billion (revenue) business' expansion to 1,200 stores in 47 countries. His daughter Sophie Knapp serves as the company's deputy chairwoman. A Harvard Business School grad and former oil trader, Krishnan built a multibillion-dollar empire from scratch, acquiring stakes in the likes of telecom outfit Maxis, media firm Astro Malaysia Holdings and oilfield services-provider Bumi Armada. He would have been even richer if it hadn't been for his estimated $7 billion investment in Indian telecom firm Aircel, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018. Krishnan was also known for his philanthropy, which led Newsweek to call him 'Live Aid's Shy Tycoon' after he helped raise funding for the famous benefit concert in 1985. Wu Li-gann was the founder of WUS Printed Circuit, a printed-circuit board manufacturer he started in Taipei in 1972 before moving the business to China twenty years later. WUS went public in 2010, and its customers now include artificial intelligence, automobile and telecommunications companies. Judy Love cofounded Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores in 1964, launching the truck stop and convenience store chain with her husband Tom (d. 2023). The couple leased their first gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma using a $5,000 loan from Tom's parents. Judy kept the books and ran the company until 1975, when she returned to college. Her four children now own the company, which employs nearly 40,000 people across more than 650 locations in 42 states. She was inadvertently included on Forbes' 2025 ranking. Lozick inherited an estimated 65% stake in Swagelok, a valve-making business her father, Fred Lennon, cofounded in 1947. Lennon (d. 1998) left his son, John Lennon, a much smaller inheritance ($25 million) than his daughter, prompting John's son William to sue Lozick and her trustees in 2002, exposing the details of the family's finances. Lozick settled the suit, agreeing to pay each of Lennon's grandchildren an additional $1.25 million. Born to Russian immigrant parents, Marcus cofounded Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, with fellow billionaire Arthur Blank after they were both fired from their jobs at a regional hardware chain. Marcus and his wife Billie have given away nearly $2 billion to date to charitable organizations focused on medical care, veterans and Jewish causes. They were part of the first group of 40 people to sign The Giving Pledge in 2010 and have committed to donating about 90% of their wealth to charity within 20 years of Marcus' death. A chemical engineer from MIT, Mariwala was one of the largest shareholders of his family's publicly traded Indian consumer goods outfit Marico, which his billionaire nephew, Harsh Mariwala, built and chairs. Kishore Mariwala sat on the board of Marico's non-profit arm, the Marico Innovation Foundation. McMurtry cofounded the engineering and scientific technology company Renishaw—which supplies high-tech laser components used by drones and self-driving cars, and metal 3D printers used to make medical implants and teeth—in 1973. Two decades later, Queen Elizabeth made him a Commander of the Order to the British Empire for his contributions to British science and technology in 1994. McMurtry retired as Renishaw's CEO in 2018 and left its board in 2024. Tadako Nakatani was the widow of Taro Nakatani, who founded medical testing equipment maker Sysmex as a subsidiary of electrical equipment maker Toa Electric in 1968. Taro, who died in 1984, led Toa's efforts to research, develop and manufacture medical equipment in the early 1960s. The company is run by the Nakatanis' son-in-law Hisashi Ietsugu, who joined the firm in 1986 and became president a decade later. Sysmex, which went public on the Osaka Stock Exchange in 1995 and the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1996, generated $3 billion of revenue in fiscal 2024. Paul "Tony" Novelly was an oil & gas mogul who owned St. Louis, Missouri-based Apex Oil, a petroleum products distribution, storage and transportation firm. He joined the company in 1969 and rose to become CEO. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1987 and Novelly became the sole owner after it emerged from bankruptcy in the early 1990s. He stepped down as CEO of Apex Oil in 2022, handing over the reins to his son, Paul Novelly II. As a teenager, Paulmann moved from his native Germany to Chile after World War II and founded what would become supermarket giant Cencosud in 1976. He served as president until 2021 and built an $8 billion (market capitalization) business with operations in five Latin American countries, the U.S., China and Uruguay. His daughter Heike Paulmann succeeded him as president of Cencosud. He built the Argentinian energy conglomerate Perez Companc and sold it to Brazilian energy giant Petrobas for $1 billion in 2002. Seven years later, he retired from active involvement in business and gave his 75% stake in Argentinian food giant Molinos Rio de la Plata to his children. Also known for his philanthropy, he founded his family's Perez Companc Foundation after the eldest of his eight kids died in a car accident in the 1980s. The founder of Hong Kong property giant Henderson Land Development was ranked by Forbes as Asia's richest person (and the world's fourth wealthiest individual) in 1996, after growing up in a poor family that could afford to eat fish or meat only twice a month. Lee founded Henderson Land in 1976, when Hong Kong was facing a shortage of affordable housing, and stepped down as chairman in 2019, appointing his sons, Martin and Peter, as co-chairmen. Shen Wenrong was chairman of Shagang Group, China's largest non-state-owned steel company. He led the development of Shagang from a collective steel workshop founded in 1975 before stepping down as chairman in 2016 and handing over the reins to his son, Shen Bin. A mathematics Ph.D., Simons worked as a codebreaker during the Vietnam War and chaired the math department at Stony Brook University in the 1960s and 1970s. He founded hedge fund Renaissance Technologies in 1982 and pioneered the quantitative trading revolution with its flagship Medallion Fund. Simons retired from Renaissance in 2010, but remained an investor in its funds. He gave some $6 billion to philanthropic causes during his lifetime, alongside his wife Marilyn, with a focus on mathematical and scientific research. Snow was the executive chairman of Capital Airport Group, which operates Canberra Airport in his hometown of Canberra, Australia. He invested more than $2 billion developing the airport and building office and industrial parks on the 1,062 acres of surrounding land. He paid just $40 million for a 99-year lease on the airport in 1998. The oil and gas tycoon founded what became Endeavor Energy Resources in 1979 after growing up on a farm in Texas and studying petroleum energy at the University of Texas at Austin. The privately held oil exploration and production giant spanned some 410,000 net acres, mainly in Texas, at the time of Stephens' death. He agreed to sell Endeavor to rival Diamondback Energy in February 2024 for approximately $26 billion in cash and stock. Sutardja cofounded semiconductor company Marvell Technology with his wife, Weili Dai, in 1995. He was CEO of the company until he and Dai were forced out in 2016 amid an internal accounting investigation, though no evidence of fraud was ultimately found. The couple moved to Las Vegas in 2017 and invested in real estate and technology. At the time of his death, Sutardja was an executive director of Alphawave IP Group–known as Alphawave Semi, a U.K.-listed AI semiconductor firm. Considered one of Greece's most influential business leaders, Vardinoyannis cofounded petroleum company Motor Oil Hellas in 1970 and took it public on the Athens Stock Exchange in 2001. His oldest son, Yannis, is vice chairman of the $2.6 billion (market capitalization) company, while his nephew, Nikos, is also a major shareholder. A friend of the Kennedys, Vardinoyannis survived an assassination attempt involving car bombs and rocket launchers by the Greek far-left militant group 'November 17' in 1990. An Israeli industrial titan who focused on creating peace between Israel and Palestine, Wertheimer built industrial parks, or "capitalist kibbutzes," in disadvantaged and predominantly Arab regions of Israel in order to promote job creation. He sold his metal-cutting company ISCAR to Berkshire Hathaway for more than $6 billion in 2006 and 2013, and founded, and later sold his majority stake in, jet-engine blade maker Blades Technology. He died in March 2025, after Forbes finalized its World's Billionaires list, and thus appears on the ranks.
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Trump's Tariffs Will Impact Women. Plus: Meet The Women In The $100 Billion Club
This is this week's ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world's top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list! We begin this week with news that will not shock longtime readers of this newsletter: Women remain woefully underrepresented on Forbes' World's Billionaires list. But, according to the 2025 edition of the list—which we released this week—their numbers are increasing. Slowly. This year, 406 of the planet's 3,028 billionaires are women, good for 13.4% of the list. That's up a hair from 369 in 2024, or 13.3%. The world's richest woman is Walmart heir Alice Walton. With an estimated fortune of $101 billion, she reclaims the title from French L'Oréal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who now ranks as the world's second richest woman with a net worth of $81.6 billion. Walton also happens to be one of 15 members of the $100 Billion Club—those with fortunes spanning 12 digits—this year. She's the second woman to ever reach centibillionaire status, following Bettencourt Meyers, who accomplished the feat in June 2024. To read more about the world's richest individuals, check out a roundup of newbies to the three comma club here, an accounting of the world's richest celebrities here, the full package here. Cheers! Maggie P.S.: Speaking of Forbes lists: nominations for the 2025 U.S. 50 Over 50 list are now open! Head to this link here to tell us about a woman you think should be on this year's list. Full nominations criteria are on that page but the two most important bits to remember: We're looking for people who were born in 1974 or earlier, and we're looking for women who have never been on the list before, because we don't allow repeats! Imagine hearing this feedback from a boss: 'This sucks, and so do you.' Well, Promise Phelon doesn't have to imagine—it happened to her, and in the years since, she's used it as fuel to build Growth Warrior Capital, the venture capital firm she started to invest in what she calls 'dangerous founders,' seasoned operators with decades of experience in jobs that are not glamorous. 'They're great at doing more with less,' Phelon tells Forbes. 'You don't expect them to be dangerous. They learn a lot, and they learn it quickly.' Phelon recently closed a new $26 million fund for the firm and sat down with Forbes to talk about what she plans to do with the dry powder and where she sees under-invested areas of the public and private markets. President Donald Trump delivered the most sweeping tariff package the U.S. has implemented in decades, and economists are predicting that women will bear a disproportionate brunt of these tariffs. 'Single-parent families, which are 90% women-headed, spend about 40% of their income buying goods,' one economist told ForbesWomen senior contributor Erin Spencer Sairam. 'If you're doing a tariff increase at all, and especially if you're coupling it with income taxes, you're shifting tax burden away from the top end and toward the bottom end of earners, and it will fall most heavily on single moms.' As part of the mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week, the CDC is saying that the entire team overseeing Assisted Reproductive Technologies has been let go. What does this mean for the future of infertility and IVF research in the U.S.? Barbara Collura, President and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, spoke with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath about these questions and others that exist in the wake of the layoffs. A new survey of business growth reveals that women are starting businesses at unprecedented rates. According to a new report from Gusto, women started almost half of all new businesses last year, a 69% increase from 2019 and a five-year high. Phoebe Gates, the 22-year-old daughter of billionaires Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, launched a new podcast aimed at Gen Z female entrepreneurs under The Unwell Network, the media company owned by 'Call Her Daddy' host Alex Cooper. Nike has agreed to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit brought by four ex-employees, ending a protracted legal battle, reports the Oregonian. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but in the original complaint, Nike was accused of violating the Federal Equal Pay Act, the Oregon Equal Pay Act and the Oregon Equality Act. At the time, the plaintiffs didn't ask for specific monetary damages. Instead, they sought the court to order Nike to pay its employees 'fairly' without regard to gender. Last week, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck a fault in Myanmar, killing more than 2,000 people and shaking buildings as far as Bangkok, in neighboring Thailand. Dr. Lucy Jones, a renowned seismologist and also member of the Forbes 50 Over 50 list, spoke with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath about what caused the quake and what we need to do to predict and protect ourselves from something similar in the U.S. 1. Ditch your five-year plan. Five-year plans can become pressure cookers disguised as roadmaps. They focus so intently on a future destination that they downplay the value of the present—and this tunnel vision can cause people to miss out on unexpected opportunities. 2. Retire rich, even if you're starting late. The first step to retiring rich at any age is getting honest about where you stand today. Calculate your current net worth by listing your assets and subtracting your liabilities. Clarity creates confidence and action. 3. Be blunt. If you feel that clarity is getting lost amid a lot of noise at work, it might be time to get straight to the point. Here are four things you should consider before you drop all extraneous niceties. Out of the 406 billionaires who are women on Forbes' 2025 ranking, 113 of them are considered self-made—meaning they did not come into their fortunes either through marriage or other familial inheritance. Which of the following self-made billionaires is estimated to be worth the most?
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trust Fund Fortunes: The World's Richest Heirs 2025
For the average parent, the most extravagant gift they could imagine making to their children would be a car or college tuition. The world's richest people, however, often pass on something much bigger: billion-dollar empires. Fast-tracked to extreme wealth, about one-third of the record 3,028 billionaires on Forbes' annual World's Billionaires list inherited at least a significant part of their fortune. Many have chosen to take the helm of their inherited companies, at times even expanding them well beyond their founders' imaginations. Others have used their riches to forge their own path in business, to become major philanthropists–or simply to enjoy a private life of luxury. Altogether, these 990 billionaire heirs are worth $5.3 trillion. There are 56 more of them than last year, although they now make up a slightly smaller percentage of the overall list (33% vs. 34%) as more self-made billionaires are minted every day. The three richest heirs on our list all share a last name, as well as a family business: superstore chain Walmart. Rob Walton ($110 billion), Jim Walton ($109 billion) and Alice Walton ($101 billion), the surviving children of Walmart founder Sam Walton (d. 1992), are richer than ever. They're now all members of The $100 Billion Club, the elite group of people worth a dozen digits. The three Waltons, plus their two cousins and their sister-in-law Christy Walton and nephew Lukas Walton, collectively control an approximately 45% stake in the retailing giant. Though born into the same staggering fortune, the siblings have chosen different life paths. While Rob and Jim both served long tenures on Walmart's board, Alice has mostly focused her energy on pursuits such as art curation, horse breeding and philanthropy. About 60% of the billionaire heirs who made our list this year have actively worked to grow their riches as executives at their inherited companies or as entrepreneurs running new ventures. India's richest person, Mukesh Ambani ($92.5 billion), expanded the Reliance Industries conglomerate founded by his father into a $200 billion (market cap) business, which has investments in areas including petrochemicals, telecom and retail. Less than a year after the death of Ambani's father in 2002, Forbes estimated the value of the 34% joint stake in Reliance Industries inherited by Ambani and his brother at just $2.8 billion. The richest citizen of Australia, Gina Rinehart, turned her father's struggling mining company into a gold rush after his death in 1992. Now worth $29.3 billion, Rinehart remains executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, which has expanded into the agricultural sector. The richest new heir this year is Marilyn Simons, the widow of hedge fund mogul Jim Simons. She is now credited with an estimated $31 billion fortune, following the May 2024 death of the founder of quant fund Renaissance Technologies. The 14 youngest billionaires in the world all inherited their wealth. That includes the youngest billionaire of all, 19-year-old Johannes von Baumbach, who is worth an estimated $5.4 billion after inheriting a stake in German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. Simons is the widow of Jim Simons (d. May 2024), who made his billions as the founder of quantitative hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, famous for its flagship Medallion Fund. She chairs the $4.6 billion (assets) Simons Foundation, which focuses on mathematical and scientific research. Getty Images Adelson and her family became the majority owners of casino and resort operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. in 2021 after the death of her husband Sheldon Adelson, who had founded and chaired the publicly traded company. Born in Israel and a physician by training, Adelson has followed in her late husband's footsteps as one of the GOP's biggest donors. In 2024, she gave more than $100 million to a super PAC supporting Donald Trump. Johnson is chairman and CEO of asset management giant Fidelity Investments, which her grandfather Edward Johnson II (d. 1984) founded in 1946. Johnson owns an estimated 28.5% of the private company, which manages nearly $6 trillion of discretionary assets. Her father Edward 'Ned' Johnson III (d. 2022) preceded her as chairman and CEO. Jindal and her children control the Indian industrial conglomerate Jindal Group, which they inherited in 2005 after Jindal's husband, Jindal Group founder Om Prakash Jindal, died in a helicopter crash. Jindal has served as chairwoman of the group for two decades, while her four sons each run different divisions of the company, which has interests in steel, energy, cement and infrastructure. Brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer own luxury fashion house Chanel, which was cofounded by their grandfather Pierre Wertheimer (who partnered with Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel herself) in the 1920s. Alain chairs the company, while Gerard heads up its watch division. The brothers own vineyards in France and Napa Valley, as well as a thoroughbred horse racing and breeding business. A grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton (d. 1992), Lukas Walton inherited his stake in the superstore empire as a teenager after his father John Walton died in a 2005 plane crash. Walton owns an estimated 4% of Walmart but has kept the family business at arm's length. He is not involved with the company, and his focus is on running Builders Vision, the impact-investing outfit that he established in 2021. Ferrero's grandfather Pietro Ferrero (d. 1949) developed the famous hazelnut spread now known as Nutella in a small pastry shop in Alba, Italy. The third-generation leader of his family's namesake confections business, Ferrero is executive chairman of The Ferrero Group, which generated nearly $20 billion of revenue in fiscal 2024 from the sale of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Kinder Surprise eggs, Tic Tac mints and more. Ferrero inherited an estimated 75% stake in the company after the death of his father, Michele Ferrero, in 2015. Kuehne owns a majority stake in logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel International AG, which was cofounded by his grandfather August Kuehne (d. 1932). He began working at the company in 1958 and is now honorary chairman. Kuehne is an only child and has no children. His charitable foundation will manage his wealth after he passes away. Mateschitz inherited a 49% stake in energy drink giant Red Bull in 2022 after the death of his father Dietrich Mateschitz, who cofounded the company. That same year, he left his position as the company's head of organics, saying he wanted to focus on his role as a shareholder. Schwarz is the effective owner and former CEO of the Schwarz Group, which controls the Lidl and Kaufland discount supermarket brands. While working under his father Josef Schwarz (d. 1977), who built the company out of a fruit wholesaler, Dieter Schwarz opened the first Lidl store in 1973. Today, the Schwarz Group generates more than $160 billion of revenue annually. Siblings John, Jacqueline and Forrest Jr. (d. 2016) Mars each inherited an estimated one-third stake in the candy company Mars, Incorporated, which was founded by their grandfather Frank Mars (d. 1934) in 1911. John and Forrest Jr. served as co-presidents of Mars starting in 1975, overseeing its expansion into a diversified global empire spanning sweets, pet food and chewing gum. Jacqueline, who is prominent in the equestrian world, also worked at Mars for nearly 20 years until 2001 and then served on the board until 2016. A 1992 Washington Post article described how the three Mars siblings all worked in the same room and shared a secretary. Guerin Blask for Forbes Koch has been chairman and CEO of the Wichita, Kansas-based conglomerate Koch, Inc. (formerly Koch Industries) since his father Fred Koch died in 1967. (He brought on a co-CEO for the first time in 2023.) Fred Koch left behind a small oil refining, engineering and ranching business, and Charles Koch built it into America's second largest private company, with $125 billion of annual revenue and interests ranging from cloud software to fertilizer. The free market crusader transferred $5.3 billion of Koch, Inc.'s nonvoting stock to a pair of nonprofits with fewer restrictions on lobbying and politics than traditional charities from 2020 to 2022. Forbes estimates those shares accounted for nearly a tenth of the 42% stake he previously held in Koch, Inc. The widow of Charles Koch's brother, she and her three children inherited a 42% stake in Koch, Inc. after the death of David Koch in 2019. Based in New York, Koch and her kids paid nearly $700 million for 15% of BSE Global, which owns the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and WNBA's New York Liberty, in 2024. Through her Julia Koch Family Foundation, she also gifted $75 million to fund the Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center at NYU Langone's West Palm Beach location last year. Koch serves on the boards of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and is also a director of Koch, Inc. Bettencourt Meyers—who briefly became the first woman worth $100 billion in June— and her family own more than a third of French cosmetics giant L'Oréal, which was founded by her grandfather Eugène Schueller (d. 1957). Bettencourt Meyers, who announced her retirement from L'Oréal's board in February, was the richest woman in the world for about two and a half years before Walmart heiress Alice Walton surpassed her in September. Getty Images Ambani and his brother Anil inherited India's biggest fortune from their father Dhirubhai (d. 2002), but the sibling relationship soon fractured, leading them to split up the family empire. While Anil dropped from the billionaire rankings after many of his companies fell into bankruptcy, Mukesh, whose Reliance Industries empire spans petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail, is now the richest person in Asia. The three living children of Walmart founder Sam Walton (d. 1992) split an estimated 34% of the retail giant. Rob retired from Walmart's board in June after more than 40 years as a director, including more than 20 years as chairman. Jim left the board in 2016, but still chairs the family's Arvest Bank Group. Alice has dedicated much of her life to philanthropy, doling out an estimated $1.7 billion to nonprofits focused on art, education, the environment and her family's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.
Zawya
04-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Saudi billionaires back on Forbes' list with combined assets of $55.8bln
RIYADH — Fifteen Saudi business leaders found a place on the annual World's Billionaires list, released by Forbes magazine. The number of Saudi billionaires listed on Forbes rose from 10 in 2017 to 15 in 2025 when this year marked Saudi Arabia's return to the Forbes list after a hiatus of eight years. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Arab billionaires, with 15 billionaires with a combined total assets of $55.8 billion, followed by the UAE and Egypt with five billionaires each, worth $24.3 billion and $20.6 billion, respectively. Out of 15 Saudi billionaires in the list, 14 are new billionaires thanks to their stakes in companies listed on the Saudi stock market, which has seen a surge in initial public offerings following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. The only returnee to the list is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the richest Saudi and the richest Arab in the world, with a fortune estimated at $16.5 billion. About 40 percent of that lies in his ownership stake in Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding, which has investments in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the George V hotel in Paris and had an estimated low-single-digit stake in X (formerly Twitter) alongside Elon Musk. Prince Alwaleed last appeared on Forbes' billionaires list in 2017, worth an estimated $18.7 billion. The Saudi billionaires range from the founder of a hospital group, to an operator of grocery stores and malls, to the scion of a prominent banking family, in addition to those who made leadership role in media and energy sectors. Fourteen Saudi billionaires on this year's list are all newcomers. Six are founders or cofounders who listed their company's shares on the Saudi stock exchange in recent years. That includes the second wealthiest Saudi, Sulaiman Al Habib, with a fortune of $10.9 billion. He is the founder and chairman of Riyadh-based hospital group Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Services Group, known as HMG. Al Habib, a trained pediatrician, launched the group in 1995 and took it public on the Saudi stock exchange in 2020 and he owns a 40 percent stake. Other billionaires have inherited and built on their family fortunes. They included businessmen from the Al Muhaidib Group, with Emad Al Muhaidib coming in third with $3.8 billion, followed by Essam Al Muhaidib and Sulaiman Al Muhaidib with fortunes of $3.6 billion each. Brothers Emad, Essam and Sulaiman Al Muhaidib took over Dammam-based conglomerate Al Muhaidib Group, founded by their late father Abdulkadir, after his death in 1996 and expanded it into consumer products, infrastructure, construction, real estate and finance. Mohammad Abunayyan, one of the most prominent investors in the energy and utilities sector, with a fortune estimated at $3.2 billion, came in the sixth place. In the banking and retail sectors, Abdullah Al Rajhi and Abdullah Al Othaim, with equal fortunes estimated at $2.5 billion each, shared the seventh rank. Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi, founder and vice chairman of Al Nahdi Medical Group, the largest pharmacy chain in the Kingdom, came in the 8th position with a fortune of $2.3 billion while Waleed Al-Ibrahim, founder and chairman of MBC Group, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion ranked 9th. Khaled Abdul Rahman Al-Rajhi, chairman of Abdulrahman Saleh Al-Rajhi & Partners, and Yousuf Mohammad Jamjoom, founding member of Jamjoom Pharmaceutical Industries, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion each came in the 10th position. Hamad Ali Al-Sagri, vice chairman of Leejam Sports Company and owner of the Fitness Time gym chain, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion; and brothers Ammar Soliman Fakeeh, chairman of Fakeeh Care, and Mazen Soliman Fakeeh, chairman of Fakeeh Care, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion each, are other billionaires in the list. © Copyright 2022 The Saudi Gazette. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Gulf Insider
03-04-2025
- Business
- Gulf Insider
Saudi Billionaires Back On Forbes' List With Combined Assets Of $55.8 Billion
Fifteen Saudi business leaders found a place on the annual World's Billionaires list, released by Forbes magazine. The number of Saudi billionaires listed on Forbes rose from 10 in 2017 to 15 in 2025 when this year marked Saudi Arabia's return to the Forbes list after a hiatus of eight years. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Arab billionaires, with 15 billionaires with a combined total assets of $55.8 billion, followed by the UAE and Egypt with five billionaires each, worth $24.3 billion and $20.6 billion, respectively. Out of 15 Saudi billionaires in the list, 14 are new billionaires thanks to their stakes in companies listed on the Saudi stock market, which has seen a surge in initial public offerings following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. The only returnee to the list is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the richest Saudi and the richest Arab in the world, with a fortune estimated at $16.5 billion. About 40 percent of that lies in his ownership stake in Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding, which has investments in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the George V hotel in Paris and had an estimated low-single-digit stake in X (formerly Twitter) alongside Elon Musk. Prince Alwaleed last appeared on Forbes' billionaires list in 2017, worth an estimated $18.7 billion. The Saudi billionaires range from the founder of a hospital group, to an operator of grocery stores and malls, to the scion of a prominent banking family, in addition to those who made leadership role in media and energy sectors. Fourteen Saudi billionaires on this year's list are all newcomers. Six are founders or cofounders who listed their company's shares on the Saudi stock exchange in recent years. That includes the second wealthiest Saudi, Sulaiman Al Habib, with a fortune of $10.9 billion. He is the founder and chairman of Riyadh-based hospital group Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Services Group, known as HMG. Al Habib, a trained pediatrician, launched the group in 1995 and took it public on the Saudi stock exchange in 2020 and he owns a 40 percent stake. Other billionaires have inherited and built on their family fortunes. They included businessmen from the Al Muhaidib Group, with Emad Al Muhaidib coming in third with $3.8 billion, followed by Essam Al Muhaidib and Sulaiman Al Muhaidib with fortunes of $3.6 billion each. Brothers Emad, Essam and Sulaiman Al Muhaidib took over Dammam-based conglomerate Al Muhaidib Group, founded by their late father Abdulkadir, after his death in 1996 and expanded it into consumer products, infrastructure, construction, real estate and finance. Mohammad Abunayyan, one of the most prominent investors in the energy and utilities sector, with a fortune estimated at $3.2 billion, came in the sixth place. In the banking and retail sectors, Abdullah Al Rajhi and Abdullah Al Othaim, with equal fortunes estimated at $2.5 billion each, shared the seventh rank. Abdullah Amer Al Nahdi, founder and vice chairman of Al Nahdi Medical Group, the largest pharmacy chain in the Kingdom, came in the 8th position with a fortune of $2.3 billion while Waleed Al-Ibrahim, founder and chairman of MBC Group, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion ranked 9th. Khaled Abdul Rahman Al-Rajhi, chairman of Abdulrahman Saleh Al-Rajhi & Partners, and Yousuf Mohammad Jamjoom, founding member of Jamjoom Pharmaceutical Industries, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion each came in the 10th position. Hamad Ali Al-Sagri, vice chairman of Leejam Sports Company and owner of the Fitness Time gym chain, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion; and brothers Ammar Soliman Fakeeh, chairman of Fakeeh Care, and Mazen Soliman Fakeeh, chairman of Fakeeh Care, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion each, are other billionaires in the list.
