Fazle Rabby, Research Assistance
The whole world today is directly or indirectly associated with the capitalist economy. In fact capitalism is an aggressive economic system. For only the second year in a decade, both the number of billionaires and their total wealth contracted, proving that even the wealthiest are not free from responsibility to economic forces and weak stock markets. By the Forbes magazine’s latest count there are 2,153 billionaires, 55 fewer than a year ago. Here Textile Focus compiled the top ten richest people in the world for our readers.
- Jeff Bezos- Net worth in 2019 $131B:
- Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce colossus Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He remains CEO and owns a 16% stake.
- In 2018, Amazon pulled in $230 billion in revenues and a record $10 billion in net profit, up from $3 billion the prior year.
- Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company that is developing a rocket for commercial use.
Personal profile:
Age: 55
Source of wealth: Amazon, Self-Made
Self-Made Score: 8
Philanthropy Score: 2
Citizenship: United States
Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, Princeton University
- Bill Gates- Net worth in 2019 $96.5B:
- With his wife Melinda, Bill Gates chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable foundation.
- The foundation works to save lives and improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to eliminate polio.
- Gates has sold or given away much of his stake in Microsoft — he owns just over 1% of shares –and invested in a mix of stocks and other assets.
- To date, Gates has donated $35.8 billion worth of Microsoft stock to the Gates Foundation.
Personal profile:
Age: 63
Source of wealth: Microsoft, Self-Made
Self-Made Score: 8
Philanthropy Score: 5
Citizenship: United States
Education: Drop out, Harvard University
- Warren Buffett- Net worth in 2019 $82.5B:
- Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time.
- The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
- He’s promised to give away over 99% of his fortune. In 2018 he donated $3.4 billion, much of it to the foundation of friends Bill and Melinda Gates.
Personal profile:
Age: 88
Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway, Self-Made
Self-Made Score: 8
Philanthropy Score: 5
Citizenship: United States
Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Nebraska Lincoln; Master of Science, Columbia University.
- Bernard Arnault & Family – Net worth in 2019 $76B:
- One of the world’s ultimate taste-makers, Bernard Arnault oversees an empire of 70 brands including Louis Vuitton and Sephora.
- His luxury goods group, LVMH, posted record sales and profits in 2018, thanks in part to increased spending by Chinese customers.
- His daughter Delphine is executive vice president of Louis Vuitton, and a member of LVMH’s executive committee.
Personal profile:
- Age: 70
- Source of wealth: LVMH
- Citizenship: France
- Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, Ecole Polytechnique de Paris
- Carlos Slim Helu & Family – Net worth in 2019 $64B:
- Mexico’s richest man, Carlos Slim Helu and his family control America Movil, Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom firm.
- He also owns stakes in Mexican construction, consumer goods, mining and real estate companies and 17% of The New York Times.
- His son-in-law Fernando Romero designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, home to Slim’s extensive, eclectic art collection.
Personal profile:
- Age: 79
- Source of wealth: Telecom, Self-Made
- Citizenship: Mexico
- Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
- Amancio Ortega – Net worth in 2019 $62.7B:
- Amancio Ortega is one of the richest men in Europe and the wealthiest retailer in the world.
- A pioneer in fast fashion, he cofounded Inditex, known for its Zara fashion chain, with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera (d. 2013) in 1975.
- Ortega typically earns more than $400 million in dividends a year.
- He has invested his dividends primarily into real estate in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York.
Personal profile:
- Age: 82
- Source of wealth: Zara, Self-Made
- Citizenship: Spain
- Larry Ellison – Net worth in 2019 $62.5B:
- Larry Ellison cofounded software firm Oracle in 1977 to tap into the growing need for customer relationship management databases.
- He gave up the Oracle CEO role in 2014 but still serves as chairman of the board and chief technology officer.
- In May 2016, Ellison pledged $200 million to the University of Southern California for a cancer treatment center.
- In March 2018, Ellison launched a wellness startup called Sensei, whose first project is hydroponic farming on the Hawaiian island Lanai.
- Ellison joined Tesla’s board in December 2018, after purchasing 3 million Tesla shares earlier that year.
Personal profile:
- Age: 74
- Source of wealth: Software, Self-Made
- Citizenship: United States
- Education: Drop Out, University of Chicago; Drop Out, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
- Mark Zuckerberg – Net worth in 2019 $62.3B:
- Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with faces in class.
- He took Facebook public in May 2012 and still owns about 15% of the stock.
- In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes.
- After facing another year of criticism for fake news and abuse on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his priority in 2019 is tackling social issues.
Personal profile:
- Age: 34
- Source of wealth: Facebook, Self-made
- Self-Made Score: 8
- Philanthropy Score: 5
- Citizenship: United States
- Education: Drop Out, Harvard University
- Michael Bloomberg – Net worth in 2019 $55.5B:
- Michael Bloomberg cofounded financial information and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981.
- Bloomberg got his start on Wall Street in 1966 with an entry level job at investment bank Salomon Brothers. He was fired 15 years later.
- An active philanthropist, he has donated more than $5 billion to gun control, climate change and other causes.
- He plans to spend at least $500 million to defeat Donald Trump in 2020.
Personal profile:
- Age: 77
- Source of wealth: Bloomberg LP, Self-Made
- Self-Made Score: 8
- Philanthropy Score: 5
- Citizenship: United States
- Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, Johns Hopkins University; Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
- Larry Page – Net worth in 2019 $50.8B:
- Larry Page sits at the helm of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, healthcare division Calico, smart home appliance division Nest and more.
- He cofounded Google in 1998 with fellow Stanford Ph.D. student Sergey Brin.
- With Brin, Page invented Google’s PageRank algorithm, which powers the search engine.
- Page was Google’s first CEO until 2001. After serving as president of products, he took the CEO job again in 2011.
Personal profile:
- Age: 45
- Source of wealth: Google, Self-Made
- Self-Made Score: 8
- Philanthropy Score: 4
- Citizenship: United States
- Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Michigan; Master of Science, Stanford University
