Page 150 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)

• B E G I N N I N G S •
131. JEFF SKOLL 131. DIRK ZIFF 140. CHARLES B. JOHNSON

$5 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: ^ $5 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: $ $4.9 BILLION T SELF-MADE SCORE: %
SOURCE: EBAY SOURCE: INVESTMENTS SOURCE: MONEY MANAGEMENT
AGE: 54 RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CA AGE: 55 RESIDENCE: NORTH PALM AGE: 86 RESIDENCE: PALM BEACH, FL
BEACH, FL
PHILANTHROPY SCORE: PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
His Participant Media backed PHILANTHROPY SCORE: Johnson became CEO of Frank-
several notable productions re- lin Resources, the investment
leased this year, including docu- 131. ROBERT ZIFF management firm founded
mentary American Factory, about by his father, at age 24. Re-
$5 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: $
a glass factory opened by a Chi- tired since 2013, he is its larg-
146 SOURCE: INVESTMENTS
nese billionaire in Ohio (which AGE: 53 RESIDENCE: NEW YORK CITY est shareholder, with just over
Netflix and Barack and Michelle 20%. According to the Yale
PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
Obama acquired at Sundance), Daily News, he waited tables
T In March the media-shy brothers
S and Ava Duvernay’s Netflix se- and played football while at-
I were mentioned in special counsel
L ries When They See Us, about the tending the college on a schol-
Robert Mueller’s report detailing
E wrongly convicted teenagers in arship.
H the Central Park jogger case. Skoll Russian interference in the 2016
T election. According to the report, a
grew up in Montreal; at age 11 he 140. TERRENCE PEGULA
had a paper route and shoveled Russian lawyer met with some of-
snow. At 12, he sold door-to-door ficials from the Trump campaign $4.9 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: (
131. ROCCO COMMISSO for Amway. He made his fortune in June 2016 and alleged that the SOURCE: NATURAL GAS
Ziffs engaged in tax evasion and
as the first president of online AGE: 68 RESIDENCE: BOCA RATON, FL
$5 BILLION S money laundering in Russia. The
SELF-MADE SCORE: ) auction firm eBay. PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
SOURCE: TELECOM profits, the lawyer claimed, helped Pegula’s decision to switch col-
AGE: 69 RESIDENCE: SADDLE 131. ROBERT F. SMITH fund either the Democratic Na- lege majors from math to petro-
RIVER, NJ tional Committee or the Clinton
campaign. The report did not offer leum engineering paid off, land-
PHILANTHROPY SCORE: $5 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: * ing him a Getty Oil job after
evidence of the claims; the Ziffs
After failing to acquire AC SOURCE: PRIVATE EQUITY graduation. A decade later, he
AGE: 56 RESIDENCE: AUSTIN, TX declined to comment. Their for-
Milan last summer, Commis- tune stems from their late father’s founded oil producer East Re-
so scooped up Italian football PHILANTHROPY SCORE: publishing empire and was ex- sources, selling most of it to
club Fiorentina for a price re- Smith gave one of the most mem- Royal Dutch Shell in 2010 for
tended through hedge funds.
portedly between $150 mil- orable commencement speeches $4.7 billion. The Buffalo Bills,
lion and $200 million. Com- of all time in May at the all-male, which he bought in 2014, are re-
misso immigrated to the U.S. historically black Morehouse Col- 140. ROBERT BASS portedly exploring plans to build
from Italy at age 12; his first lege. He vowed to wipe out all the a new stadium.
$4.9 BILLION T SELF-MADE SCORE: $
job in his new country was student debt of the class of 2019, SOURCE: OIL, INVESTMENTS
playing the accordion dur- an estimated $30 million. The na- AGE: 71 RESIDENCE: FORT WORTH, TX 144. LEONARD STERN
ing movie theater intermis- tion’s wealthiest African Amer-
PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
sions in the Bronx. He later ican, Smith is founder of Vista $4.8 BILLION WX
Bass has invested millions in su-
got a scholarship to Columbia Equity Partners, a private equi- SELF-MADE SCORE: %
University, where he played ty firm that exclusively invests personic-private-jet startup SOURCE: REAL ESTATE
Aerion, which in February attract- AGE: 81 RESIDENCE: NEW YORK CITY
soccer. After working in the in enterprise software deals and
ed a “significant” investment from
cable industry for years, he manages $50 billion. In high PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
founded cable firm Media- school, Smith got an internship at Boeing. The jet, which will be sold Stern’s Hartz Mountain owns
com, the main source of his the Denver branch of Bell Labora- for $120 million, promises to zip over 260 properties, many in
people from New York to London
fortune. tories after persistent cold calling. northern New Jersey. Plans for an
in four hours, but the first flight apartment development in Wee-
is not expected to happen before
131. HARRY STINE 2025. Bass has been an investor hawken have reportedly stalled in
the township’s planning commit-
131. KAREN PRITZKER $5 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: ) ever since he and his three broth- tee. Stern worked for his father’s
SOURCE: AGRICULTURE ers inherited a small fortune from pet-supply business, which Stern
$5 BILLION T SELF-MADE SCORE: # AGE: 77 RESIDENCE: ADEL, IA their oil tycoon great-uncle more pivoted into real estate after get-
than four decades ago.
SOURCE: HOTELS, INVESTMENTS PHILANTHROPY SCORE: ting an M.B.A.
AGE: 61 RESIDENCE: BRANFORD, CT
Stine says he started farming at
PHILANTHROPY SCORE: 5 years old in Iowa and drove a 140. TILMAN FERTITTA 145. JOHN BROWN
Her father, Robert, ran fami- tractor to pick up straw bales.
ly manufacturing firm Marmon Always scrappy, the young Stine $4.9 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: ( $4.7 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: ^
SOURCE: HOUSTON ROCKETS,
Group. Karen always had a cre- gathered, hulled, dried and sold ENTERTAINMENT SOURCE: MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
ative bent. In the fourth grade, black walnuts to the local grocery AGE: 62 RESIDENCE: HOUSTON AGE: 85 RESIDENCE: ATLANTA
she started a magazine, selling store for five cents a pound. Today PHILANTHROPY SCORE: PHILANTHROPY SCORE:
it to friends on the school bus, his Stine Seed is the nation’s larg- Brown, who ran medical-de-
and she went on to write for est independent seed company. The founder of restaurant and vice manufacturer Stryker Corp.
various publications including entertainment group Landry’s for 32 years, retired a decade ago
Seventeen and Newsday as well 131. DANIEL ZIFF lost a bid for Caesars Entertain- but still owns about 5% of Stryk-
as serve as an editor for Work- ment in June. After a stint as a er stock. He donated $57 million
lifeguard in Galveston, he made
ing Mother from 1980 to 1986. $5 BILLION S SELF-MADE SCORE: $ to his alma mater Auburn in 2015,
Since 2012, she has produced SOURCE: INVESTMENTS his first million at 29 by starting the largest gift in the university’s
three documentary films, two of AGE: 47 RESIDENCE: NEW YORK CITY Landry’s, which now owns Bubba history, but otherwise keeps a low
Gump Shrimp Co., the Rainforest
which were featured at the Sun- profile.
PHILANTHROPY SCORE: Cafe and Golden Nugget casinos.
dance Film Festival.

O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 9
F O R B E S . C O M
WEALTH INHERITED VS. SELF-MADE CHANGE IN WEALTH KEY: S UP T DOWN SIGNATORY OF THE PHILANTHROPY SCORE
! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) WX UNCHANGED Ì NEW TO LIST 3 RETURNEE GIVING PLEDGE