Inspirations: 25 Billionaires ON 2016
Watch out these billionaire in around world to take inspiration from them..
25. Phil Knight
Net worth: $25.7 billion
Age: 77
Country: US
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Self-made; Nike
After a stint in the US Army, and with a Stanford MBA under his belt, Phil Knight convinced Tiger-brand shoemaker Onitsuka in the early 1960s to allow him to distribute Tiger shoes under the name Blue Ribbon Sports — the name Knight picked that predated his swoosh-logo-clad company Nike. Knight worked full-time as an accountant as he launched his new brand, and by 1968 he had built up enough of a rapport with customers that he was able to leave the CPA life behind.
Nike has built its success on celebrity and athlete endorsement deals, starting with running prodigy Steve Prefontaine in 1973 and continuing with one of the most successful shoe marketers of all time in Michael Jordan, whom Nike signed to a five-year endorsement deal in 1984 worth roughly $500,000 per year. The biggest NBA star today is still under the Nike roof, with LeBron James signing a lifetime contract with the brand in December for an undisclosed sum.
Though Knight announced plans in June to step down as chairman of Nike, he's leaving the $30.6 billion (in sales) company in better shape than ever, with the stock and revenues at all-time highs.
24. Steve Ballmer
Net worth: $26.3 billion
Age: 59
Country: US
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Microsoft
Steve Ballmer dropped out of business school at Stanford in 1980 to join Harvard friend Bill Gates at Microsoft as the company's first business manager, earning a $50,000 salary and a stake in the company. During his tenure, Ballmer held positions as vice president of marketing, vice president of systems software, and executive vice president of sales and support, and was often referred to as "the numbers guy."
He became CEO of the company in 2000 after Gates stepped down, and he remained in charge of the software giant until Satya Nadella replaced him in 2014. While running Microsoft, the company's revenue grew by 294% and profits by 181% — although its market share was surpassed by Google and Apple during the same period. Still, the early stake Ballmer acquired in the company made him immensely wealthy. He's only the second person, not including founders and their family, to ever become a billionaire from employee stock options, according to Wealth-X.
After stepping down as CEO, Ballmer fulfilled his dream of owning an NBA franchise, paying $2 billion in a deal to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, now his main venture. And last fall Ballmer revealed that he purchased a 4% stake in Twitter.
23. Jack Ma
Net worth: $26.5 billion
Age: 51
Country: China
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Alibaba
The second-richest person in China, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma reportedly started China's first internet company in 1988: China Yellowpages. He lost control of that company to a state-owned telecom in 1996 and started Alibaba three years later with just $60,000. Fifteen years after its inception, the e-commerce company broke records with a $25 billion initial public offering — the world's largest ever.
Post-IPO, however, Alibaba's good fortune began to slip. The company's shares dropped 22% in 2015, most likely because of China's slowing economy and concerns over counterfeiters using the company's platform. Ma isn't worried, though. He acknowledges that the next year will be atrying time for the Chinese economy, but he remains confident in Alibaba's long-term success. The company is dominant in one of the world's biggest markets, and he says the West's concern over China's economic slowdown is an "overreaction."
Additionally, Ma plans to push Alibaba outside of China and significantlyexpand its ventures abroad. He got in US President Barack Obama's good graces after being interviewed about climate change and entrepreneurship by the president at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November.
22. Stefan Persson
Net worth: $26.7 billion
Age: 68
Country: Sweden
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Self-made; H&M
Stefan Persson was born in 1947, the same year his father founded a women's clothing store called Hennes. The Swedish entrepreneur expanded his business in 1968 when he acquired men's clothing store Mauritz Widforss, forming Hennes & Mauritz — H&M. Six years later the company went public, and in 1976, after earning degrees from the University of Stockholm and Lund University, Stefan joined his father at the helm. He served as head of UK operations and shortly after succeeded his father as CEO.
Over the past three decades, H&M has expanded its operations globally, now boasting nearly 4,000 stores in places like Hong Kong, China, Tokyo, Japan, Russia, and the US. In 2009, Stefan stepped down as CEO and the third generation — his son, Karl-Johan — took over the company, which had sales of $22.4 billion in 2014.
19. to 21. Forrest, Jacqueline, and John Mars
John Mars owns the Mars candy empire along with siblings Forrest and Jacqueline.
Net worth: $28.6 billion each
Age: 84, 76, and 80
Country: US
Industry: Candy
Source of wealth: Inheritance; Mars Inc.
Siblings Forrest, Jacqueline, and John Mars inherited a stake in the iconic candymaker Mars Inc. when their father, Forrest Sr., died in 1999. The notoriously private trio co-own but don't actively manage the maker of M&M's and Milky Way bars, which their grandfather started in 1931 as a confectionary business in his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington.
In 2008, Mars Inc. branched out from chocolate to gum, when it acquired the Wrigley Jr. Co. for $23 billion. Since then, it's delved into pet food, buying Iams and two other brands in 2014 from Procter & Gamble for close to $2.9 billion.
Together the three siblings run the Mars Foundation, which gives primarily to educational, environmental, cultural, and health-related causes. In March 2015, John Mars was made an honorary knight by Queen Elizabeth II.
18. Bernard Arnault
Net worth: $28.9 billion
Age: 66
Country: France
Industry: Luxury goods
Source of wealth: Inheritance/self-made; LVMH
Bernard Arnault's LVMH houses 70 luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Hennessy to Dom Perignon, all controlled by family parent company Groupe Arnault. By the 1980s and '90s, Arnault, who started out as a civil engineer, had assumed control of the family business and proceeded to buy high-end fashion house Christian Dior, reviving it from the brink of bankruptcy. Like most LVMH brands today, Dior once again thrives as an industry standard bearer, helping the firm haul in a record $33 billion in revenue in 2014.
This year, the French chairman and CEO is joining US-based private-equity firm Catterton to form an investment firm with a consumer focus. The new firm, to be named L Catterton, is targeting $12 billion in assets under management and will be 40% owned by LVMH and Groupe Arnault.
17. Liliane Bettencourt
Net worth: $29 billion
Age: 93
Country: France
Industry: Cosmetics
Source of wealth: Inheritance/self-made; L'Oreal Group
The heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune and the company's largest shareholder, Liliane Bettencourt is the richest woman in Europe and the second-richest woman in the world, with a net worth of $29 billion. She no longer has a hand in business operations, but L'Oreal and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation she cofounded with her late husband continue to prosper. She's an avid art collector, owning pieces by Picasso, Matisse, and Munch.
In recent years, Bettencourt became a household name in France as the central figure in an infamous trial in which judges examined whether the billionaire was taken advantage of by those close to her. The trial closed in May 2015 when eight people, including trusted friends and financial advisers, were convicted of exploiting the heiress.
Bettencourt was back in the news again late last year after accusations were made against her former butler and five journalists for recording meetings with the billionaire and thus violating her right to privacy. The butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, claimed that he made the recordings to show Bettencourt's fragile state — all six were acquitted in early January.
16. Wang Jianlin
Net worth: $29.2 billion
Age: 61
Country: China
Industry: Real estate
Source of wealth: Self-made; Dalian Wanda Group
Wang Jianlin is the richest man in Asia, the largest and most populous continent on earth. The real-estate mogul, who served in the Chinese military from 1970 to 1986 before going into business, has his hands in dozens of sectors and his name on hundreds of companies through his conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, including British yacht maker Sunseeker and US-based AMC Entertainment. Some of Wang's largest investments are overseas, including upscale real-estate development projects in Sydney and Madrid.
From 2014 to 2015, Wang saw his fortune more than double from $13.2 billion to $30 billion after Wanda Commercial Properties and Wanda Cinema Line, China's largest property developer and Asia's largest movie-theater operator, completed initial public offerings. During that time he also purchased a 20% stake in the Spanish soccer club Atlético Madrid for $52 million and bought the World Triathlon Corp., parent company of the iconic Ironman triathlon, for $650 million.
Wang has said that his future investments lie in the culture industry, a sector he claims has no brand or profit ceilings. The Chinese businessman already purchased Legendary Entertainment this year, the producer of "Jurassic World" and "The Dark Knight," for $3.5 billion in cash. The acquisition gives him immeasurable power in Hollywood and is the first step in his plan to control the world's biggest film company by revenue.
15. Alice Walton
Net worth: $33.2 billion
Age: 66
Country: US
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Inheritance; Walmart
The daughter of late Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton holds a major piece of the company fortune, making her the richest woman on earth. Though she never took an active role in running the superstore like her brothers, she's become the target of pushback from minimum-wage Walmart employees who view her highfalutin lifestyle as insensitive and ignorant to the plights of many workers.
Instead of spending time at Walmart, Walton has become a patron of the arts. Her immense personal collection includes pieces from Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, and Georgia O'Keefe. In 2011, she opened the $50 million Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, where a number of her famous paintings are on display.
Walton also recently donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares to the family's nonprofit and put her Texas ranches — one a working horse ranch, the other a luxurious vacation spot — on the market for a combined $48 million.
14. Rob Walton
Net worth: $33.5 billion
Age: 71
Country: US
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Inheritance; Walmart
Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the oldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He started working at the iconic retail behemoth in 1969, holding positions from senior vice president to general counsel to chairman, a role he stepped down from in June after 23 years on the job. His son-in-law was named as his successor.
Despite Walmart's reputation as a greedy corporation that underpays its employees, the Walton family — the richest in America — has a philanthropic streak. Regulatory filings on New Year's Eve revealed that he and his brother each gave away 1.5 million Walmart shares to the family charity, Walton Family Holdings Trust, while sister Alice gave away 3.7 million shares, for a total family donation of $407 million. It's an incredible amount, but it's also ultimately a drop in the bucket for the Waltons, whose stake in the company — about 50% — is worth nearly $100 billion.
13. Jim Walton
Net worth: $34.8 billion
Age: 67
Country: US
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Inheritance; Walmart
James "Jim" Walton's parents, Helen and Sam Walton, purchased a controlling stake in Arkansas' Bank of Bentonville the year before opening the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962 — when Jim was just 14. Within five years, the family owned 24 of the retail stores and in 1972 listed Walmart on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1975, after working in Walmart's real-estate department for a few years, Jim joined his parents' bank, later renamed Arvest Bank Group. He's now chairman and CEO of the regional community bank, which has $15 billion in assets.
The businessman is also director of Walton Enterprises, the holding company for the Walton family assets, and chairman of Community Publishers, an Arkansas-based newspaper firm. After the death of his brother John in 2005, Jim joined the board of Walmart, where he serves as a director today.
While America's richest family remains incredibly private, the Walton Family Foundation, of which Jim is secretary and treasurer, has donated millions to charitable causes. In December 2015, Jim and his siblingsdonated $407 million worth of Walmart shares to a newly formed trust that funds the Walton's philanthropy, which focuses on educational, cultural, community development, and social causes.
12. Sergey Brin
Net worth: $37 billion
Age: 42
Country: US
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Google
Along with cofounder Larry Page, Sergey Brin helped facilitate Google's massive restructuring, which the company announced in August. The move put Google under the auspices of a new holding company called Alphabet, run by Brin as president and Page as CEO. Google's other ventures, such as Nest and Google X, are now separate companies also under the Alphabet umbrella. The tech giant generated $66 billion in sales in 2014, up more than $10 billion from the year before.
The restructuring allows Brin to focus on exploring inventive new "moonshot" projects and ideas. With top talent and an abundance of resources at its disposal, Alphabet has already made automated homes and self-driving cars a reality.
Brin, who emigrated from Moscow to the US as a child, connected with Page in 1995 at Stanford, where they were each pursuing a PhD. Three years later they founded Google, now one of the most powerful companieson the planet.
11. Larry Page
Net worth: $38.5 billion
Age: 42
Country: US
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Google
As a Stanford PhD student in 1998, Larry Page teamed up with classmate Sergey Brin to create BackRub, an early search engine. The project eventually morphed into Google — now called Alphabet — one of the largest and farthest-reaching companies in the world, worth more than $500 billion.
Page oversaw major changes to Google's business structure last year, starting with the creation of Alphabet, the new holding company that now manages Google and all of its related ventures, including Nest, Calico, and Google X. Previously the chief executive of Google, Page moved up to helm Alphabet, which has its hands in everything from home automation to self-driving cars to prolonging human life. In 2016, analysts expect to see a slew of acquisitions, a greater focus on mobile and the cloud, and the genesis of even more long-term "moonshot" projects.
Page doesn't make a lot of splashy purchases, but the alternative-energy advocate does own an eco-friendly mansion in Palo Alto that uses geothermal energy and rainwater capture. He's also an avid kiteboarder.
10. Ingvar Kamprad
Net worth: $39.3 billion
Age: 89
Country: Sweden
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Self-made; IKEA
At 17, Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA, now the world's largest furniture retailer with sales exceeding $33 billion. Kamprad's plan from the beginning was to set up "eternal life" for IKEA, which meant keeping it off the stock market and securing it within a complex corporate structurethat includes a charitable arm and a retail and franchise arm, collectively known as Stichting INGKA Foundation. While the Swedish business magnate is no longer directly involved in day-to-day decision-making operations, he still sits in on meetings as senior adviser to the supervisory board.
Among his peers, the 89-year-old founder is incredibly frugal despite his massive net worth. He reportedly flies economy, stays in cheap hotels, and has driven the same Volvo for more than two decades. He also infamously moved IKEA and his family out of Sweden in the 1970s to avoid its onerous tax rates. He returned to live in his home country in 2013 after a long spell in Switzerland.
But Kamprad has also been generous with his wealth, donating to child rights, immunization, environment and wildlife, education, and medical research, with personal lifetime giving of $300 million.
9. Michael Bloomberg
Net worth: $42.1 billion
Age: 73
Country: US
Industry: Financial services
Source of wealth: Self-made; Bloomberg LP
Michael Bloomberg founded his financial-data firm in 1981 following a lucrative career at investment bank Salomon Brothers, which he joined in 1966 after earning his MBA from Harvard Business School. He added a news and media subsidiary to his company in 1990, but even today the bulk of Bloomberg LP's $9 billion in revenues still comes from the sale of terminals that Wall Street traders rely on for the most up-to-date financial and market information.
He left the company to run New York City as mayor in 2002 and served three terms. But rather than spend his time after leaving office in 2013 by giving away his immense wealth, as expected, he instead returned to Bloomberg LP to overhaul the newsroom and take the company in a new direction.
Now, Bloomberg may be looking to return to public office. He isreportedly exploring the possibility of an independent presidential bid. Though he faces an uphill battle — he's a pro-business fiscal conservative who also supports gun control, abortion rights, and efforts to curb climate change — his personal war chest will come in handy. The former mayor, who spent $261 million on his campaigns for New York City office, says he'd spend as much as $1 billion of his own money on a presidential run.
8. Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: $42.8 billion
Age: 31
Country: US
Industry: Technology
Source of wealth: Self-made; Facebook
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, then a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard,launched TheFacebook.com, a rudimentary version of the now ubiquitous social network known as Facebook. Zuckerberg dropped out of college to work full-time as Facebook's CEO, and the site quickly exploded in popularity. Today, it attracts more than a billion users daily and is worth more than $275 billion, hitting all-time stock highs in November after beating earnings expectations. At 31, Zuckerberg is by far the youngest of the 50 richest people in the world.
Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, welcomed a daughter, Max, into the world in November, and Zuck took two months off from work to spend time with her, setting an example of Facebook's strong paternity-leave policy.
The pair also pledged in December to give away 99% of their wealth in their lifetimes through a new organization called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, though some critics noted this new organization wasn't a nonprofit charity itself and found the announcement misleading. But this isn't the couple's first foray into philanthropy. They donated $25 million in the fight against Ebola last year, and they gave $100 million worth of Facebook shares toward improving a New Jersey public-school system.
7. Larry Ellison
Net worth: $45.3 billion
Age: 71
Country: US
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Oracle
In 1977, Larry Ellison teamed up with two colleagues from an electronics company to start their own programming firm, which landed a contract not long after to build a relational database-management system for the CIA under the project code Oracle. The project grew into what is known today as Oracle Corp., the second-largest software maker behind Microsoft. In 2010, Ellison reduced his annual salary from $1 million to $1, but he still takes in more than $60 million in total compensation thanks to generous stock awards. Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014 after 38 years on the job and took on the role of chief technology officer.
Included in Ellison's $45 billion fortune is an expansive global real-estate portfolio that features an entire Hawaiian resort island and an accompanying airline that he's rumored to be selling. He's a tennis fan — his current passion project is to revive the sport through investments in a "fifth grand slam" site in Indian Wells, California, and as lead sponsor for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
The tech tycoon is also a generous philanthropist through partnerships with wildlife conservation groups and the Lawrence Ellison Foundation, which supports organizations that research aging and global infectious diseases. He's also a member of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge, committing to give away at least half of his fortune.
6. Charles Koch
Net worth: $46.8 billion
Age: 80
Country: US
Industry: Diversified investments
Source of wealth: Inheritance/self-made; Koch Industries
Charles Koch is chairman and CEO of multifaceted conglomerate Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in America. His younger brother David is the executive vice president. The company employs 100,000 people and generates $115 billion in sales from its diverse company, which makes everything from petrochemicals and Dixie Cups to raw clothing materials.
Outspoken in the world of conservative politics, the Koch brothers, who have a combined net worth of $94.2 billion, wield a heavy influence over the upcoming 2016 US presidential race. The two at one point favored Republican candidate and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, buthave since said that they won't support any of the current candidates in the primary. But they, along with their vast donor network, plan on pitching in some $750 million during the 2016 election cycle.
Recently surfaced documents revealed that Charles Koch's plans to reshape American politics date back 40 years, when he began strategizing and developing a libertarian movement.
5. David Koch
Net worth: $47.4 billion
Age: 75
Country: US
Industry: Diversified investments
Source of wealth: Inheritance/self-made; Koch Industries
Along with his brother Charles, David Koch runs Koch Industries as executive vice president. The second-largest private company, $115 billion (in sales) Koch Industries manufactures everything from fertilizer and Dixie Cups to asphalt and biodiesel.
Famously conservative, the brothers also maintain immense political influence and pledged to spend, along with their vast donor network, some $750 million on 2016 campaigns and causes. David tends to stay out of the spotlight more than his brother Charles, who announced in November that the brothers would not be backing any of the current GOP candidates in the primaries, a sign that they aren't confident in the state of the party.
David has had two brushes with death. He survived a plane crash in 1991 in which everyone else in first class died, and he also won a battle with prostate cancer. He's become one of the world's most generous givers since, pledging to contribute more than $1.2 billion to cancer research, hospitals, education, and cultural institutions over his lifetime through his David H. Koch Charitable Foundation.
4. Jeff Bezos
Net worth: $56.6 billion
Age: 51
Country: US
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Amazon.com
Jeff Bezos earned his massive fortune by introducing e-commerce to the world. After spending time in finance on Wall Street, Bezos founded Amazon.com in the garage of his Seattle home in 1994 and operated it exclusively as an online book retailer. The company went public three years later and has since grown to include everything from furniture to food to Amazon's own consumer-electronics products, generating $89 billion in sales in 2014.
While Bezos, chairman and CEO, faced a barrage of negative media attention last year for reports that Amazon's warehouses are high-pressure, toxic work environments — claims he disputed — the internet retailer continues to thrive with the growth of Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud-computing branch, and a bold plan to conquer India's "trillion dollar" online-retail market.
Bezos also has interests outside of Amazon, including investments in his privately owned space company Blue Origin, which successfully launchedits first spacecraft in 2015, and The Washington Post, the newspaper he bought in 2013. And early this month he invested millions in a company that's creating a simple blood test to detect every form of cancer.
3. Warren Buffett
Net worth: $60.7 billion
Age: 85
Country: US
Industry: Diversified investments
Source of wealth: Self-made; Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett started his prodigious investing career at a young age. As a child he delivered newspapers on his bike, and by 11 the precocious Nebraska native had purchased his first shares in the stock market — Cities Service Preferred at $38 apiece — and sold them for a $5 profit. He was rejected from Harvard Business School, so Buffett went to Columbia Business School instead and learned under iconic value investor Benjamin Graham, who would become a mentor to the budding financier. Buffett worked as a securities analyst in the early-1950s before starting his own investment firm. He bought textile company Berkshire Hathaway in 1969, transforming it into a holding company that would house the many lucrative investments that helped build his massive fortune and earn the nickname "The Oracle of Omaha."
The array of portfolio companies and investments that made him rich may appear random — he's bet on companies including Coca-Cola, American Express, Geico, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, and General Motors — but they're all cash-generating machines that offer long-term value. In August he announced his largest acquisition ever: a $37.2 billion buyout of nuts and bolts maker Precision Castparts.
A frugal man with a fondness for junk food, perhaps the most impressive part of Buffett's $60 billion fortune is that it doesn't include the $21.5 billion he's already given away. He's good friends with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, whom he collaborated with to create the Giving Pledge, a promise for billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth to charity.
2. Amancio Ortega
Net worth: $66.8 billion
Age: 79
Country: Spain
Industry: Retail
Source of wealth: Self-made; Inditex
With a net worth in excess of $66 billion, Amancio Ortega is the second-richest man in the world thanks to his control of the Spanish fashion behemoth Inditex, which Ortega — who started out as a delivery boy for a local clothing store at 14 — turned from a small-town dress shop into one of the largest fashion empires on the planet.
His rising wealth is tied to the spike in the growth of Inditex, which saw its stock rise 34% last year. Sales were up 16% and profits increased 20% for the first nine months of 2015, and the company opened 230 new stores across 48 markets. Much of this success can be attributed to fast-fashion giant Zara, the company's biggest brand. The chain is changing the landscape of retail as its chic yet affordable designs continue to appeal to demanding customers who constantly crave new styles at low prices.
Yet despite Ortega's immense wealth, he lives humbly. The billionaire still eats lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria, and though he's the richest person in the fashion industry, he sticks to a simple uniform of a white shirt and blue blazer.
1. Bill Gates
Net worth: $87.4 billion
Age: 60
Country: US
Industry: Tech
Source of wealth: Self-made; Microsoft
At just 20, Bill Gates cofounded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Months before his 31st birthday, the company went public, making Gates a billionaire. He served as CEO of the software titan until 2000 and was its chairman and largest shareholder until 2014. Though he still sits on the company's board, Gates — whose net worth sits a league above the rest at $87.4 billion — is no longer actively involved in Microsoft.
Gates is not only the richest man in the world, but he's also the most generous. Since 1999, Gates and his wife have helmed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most powerful charities in the world. The foundation — which controls an endowment of more than $40 billion — aims to lift millions of people out of poverty, with a heavy focus on eliminating HIV, malaria, and other infectious diseases. The couple is also working on a plan to bring mobile banking to the 2 billion adults who don't have a bank account. Plus, Gates recently invested alongside Jeff Bezos in Grail, the company that's creating a blood test to detect every form of cancer.
yes, you think wright one day you will also rich at that point that they are already there ..belive in you seriously..
THANKyou..
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