FX.co ★ How Forbes newbies made their fortune
How Forbes newbies made their fortune
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers
Fortune: $42.2 billion
Age: 65 years
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the richest newcomer in the ranking, inherited the L'Oréal cosmetic empire after her mother died at the age of 94. By this moment Françoise already managed the holding company. Now she is considered the most wealthy woman in Europe. The shares of L'Oréal are also owned by her husband and two sons. In addition, she wrote three books, including one about the Greek gods.
Lindsay Snyder
Fortune: $1.2 billion
Age: 36 years
Snyder is the heiress of the In-N-Out Burger. She received the last part of her inheritance as soon as she turned 35. In-N-Out was founded by Lindsay's grandmother and grandfather in 1948. Her uncle and father, who were previously the company's presidents, died early. So at 18, Snyder became the only heiress of the family company. In 2010, she took over the post of president and since then has increased the number of In-N-Out points by almost a third, to 330 cafes.
Anton Rabie and Ronnen Harary
Fortune: $1.3 billion (each of them)
Age: 46 years
More than half of the newcomers to the Forbes rating earned their fortunes as independent entrepreneurs. Among them are also childhood friends Anton Rabie and Ronnen Harary, who have been engaged in innovative toys for more than 20 years. The joint company of Anton and Ronnen, Spin Master, was founded in 1994 with a starting capital of $10,000. Their first toy "Earth Buddy" looked like a nylon head-stocking, from which the grass grew after watering. Today in the collection of Spin Master, there are flying balls with remote control, Air Hogs, and Hatchimals robots. Also, on the Nickelodeon channel, there is the PAW Patrol TV show that was launched with the participation of the company.
The fortune of each of the co-owners of Spin Master amounts to $1.3 billion.
Tobi Lutke
Fortune: $1.2 billion
Age: 37 years
Tobi Lutke, a newbie of the rating from Canada, founded the platform of electronic commerce in 2006. Today there are about 600,000 online stores on Shopify. Lutke was born in Germany, where at the age of 12 he learned to program, and at 16 he dropped out of school to continue doing computer engineering. In 2003, he emigrated to Canada right after he had met his wife during snowboarding. Shopify entered the stock exchange in 2015. Since that time, the company's shares have increased by 320%, and, as a result, the fortune of Lutke rose to $1.2 billion. At the same time, Lutke still goes to work by bicycle.
Alberto Palatchi
Fortune: $1.1 billion
Age: 69 years
Among the newcomers are Spaniard Alberto Palatchi ($1.1 billion). Last year, he sold the Pronovias company, occupies in sewing of wedding dresses, which was founded by his father in 1922. Palatchi raised about $655 million from this deal.
Thomas Flohr
Fortune: $2.3 billion
Age: 48 years
The Swiss entrepreneur, Thomas Flohr, is the founder and chairman of the Vistajet private aviation company. Prior to the aviation industry, Flohr worked for Comdisco. In 1999, he was appointed president of the company, which under his leadership became the leading provider of financial services for IT companies. He left this post in order to found VistaJet Holding SA in 2004.
Niraj Shah and Steve Konin
Fortune: $1.6 billion and $14 billion respectively
Age: 44 and 62 years respectively
In 2002 Niraj Shah and Steve Konin jointly launched an Wayfair online store of goods for the home. The company's annual revenue is $3 billion. Wayfair sells 8 million unique products.
Strive Masiyiwa
Fortune: $1.4 billion
Age: 57 years
Telecommunication magnate Strive Masiyiwa this year joins the list as the first billionaire from Zimbabwe.
In general, Forbes has discovered new billionaires in 35 countries around the world. China leads with 89 newcomers, followed by the United States (45), India (18) and Germany (13).
Sándor Csányi
Fortune: $1.1 billion
Age: 65 years
The first in the history representative of Hungary in the Forbes list. He owns one of the largest financial companies in Central and Eastern Europe, OTP Group.
Edward Johnson IV and Elizabeth Johnson
Fortune: $3.6 billion (each of them)
Age: 53 and 55 years respectively
These new billionaires are the grandchildren of the founder of Fidelity Investments, Edward Johnson II. Their sister, Abigail Johnson, owns 24.5% of the company's shares. Edward and Elizabeth own 5.56%.
Chris Larsen
Fortune $4.6 billion
Age: 58 years
New tycoons, who earned billions in the cryptocurrency, also got into the list. Chris Larsen is one of them. In 2012 he became one of the co-founders of the Ripple cryptocurrency which simplifies international transactions thanks to the blockchain technology.