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Forbes Billionaires Hall Of Fame
These 24 people from seven countries have staying power: They have been on Forbes lists as billionaires for each of the past 26 years
US, Microsoft
1987 NET WORTH: $1.25 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $61 BLN
Gates wrote his first computer program at age 13. Microsoft’s market capitalisation in 1987: $3.12 billion. Today it’s $254 billion.
Li Ka-shing
HONG KONG, Diversified
1987 NET WORTH: $1.6 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $25.5 BLN
Asia’s richest person had to flee mainland China in 1940 and drop out of school at age 12 to help support his family. He started as a watch-strap apprentice in a factory and made his first fortune manufacturing plastic flowers.
Anne Cox Chambers
US, Media
1987 NET WORTH: $1.8 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $12.5 BLN
Her father bought the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News for $26,000 in 1898. The family’s media empire, Cox Enterprises, now has revenues of $15 billion.
FRANCE, L’Oreal
1987 NET WORTH: $1 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $24 BLN
Her father, Eugene Schueller, founded L’Oréal in 1907. Schueller was said to have wartime ties to the Nazi regime. Bettencourt inherited a controlling stake in the cosmetics giant when he died in 1957.
Forrest Mars
US, Candy
1987 NET WORTH: $1.15 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $13.8 BLN
Jacqueline Mars
US, Candy
1987 NET WORTH: $1.15 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $13.8 BLN
John Mars
US, Candy
1987 NET WORTH: $1.15 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $13.8 BLN
Three siblings own secretive Mars Co., founded by grandfather Frank C. Mars, who began making candy in his kitchen and selling it in 1911.
Donald Bren
US, Real Estate
1987 NET WORTH: $1.25 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $12 BLN
The country’s wealthiest real estate developer. Back in 1987 Forbes called him “tanned, athletic, polished: ‘He is the classic playboy from the old mold.’”
August von Finck Jr.
GERMANY, Investments
1987 NET WORTH: $2.5 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $7.8 BLN
Founded insurance company Allianz and private bank Merck, Finck & Co. Sold both to Barclays Bank in 1990, now resides in tax-free Switzerland.
Warren Buffett
US, Berkshire Hathaway
1987 NET WORTH: $2.1 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $44 BLN
Before he was known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett bought into struggling cotton miller and textile firm Berkshire Hathaway in 1962 for just over $7 a share. The company suffered losses in the late 1960s. Buffett looked to invest elsewhere. Began buying shares of Coca-Cola in 1988; Berkshire now owns more than $1 billion of Coke stock.
GERMANY, Retail
1987 NET WORTH: $1.3BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $4BLN
Took over retailer Tengelmann Group in 1969. Bought 52% of US grocery chain A&P in 1980; it declared bankruptcy in 2010. He’s fully written off his stake.
Henry Ross Perot Sr.
US, Technology
1987 NET WORTH: $2.9BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $3.5BLN
In 1987 invested $20 million in Steve Jobs’s new computer firm, Next. Ran for president in 1992 and 1996.
Henry Hillman
US, Investments
1987 NET WORTH: $1.5BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $2.2BLN
Founding investor in influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and LBO titans Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. “My greatest weakness has been in not being the tough guy,” he said in 1987.
David Sainsbury
UK, Retail
1987 NET WORTH: $1.6BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $1.1BLN
Chairman of great grandfather’s eponymous supermarket giant until 1997, currently sits in the House of Lords.
Leslie Wexner
US, Retail
1987 NET WORTH: $2.1 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $4.3 BLN
Borrowed $5,000 from an aunt to start retailer the Limited in 1963. Took the brand public in 1969.
Robert Bass
US, Energy
1987 NET WORTH: $1.2BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $3.6BLN
Lee Bass
US, Energy
1987 NET WORTH: $1BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $2.1BLN
In 1987 Lee Bass was the youngest US billionaire. He and brother Robert (and 2 other brothers) inherited an oil fortune created by their great-uncle.
David Rockefeller Sr.
US, Real Estate
1987 NET WORTH: $1BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $2.5BLN
The only surviving grandson of John D. Rockefeller was the longtime CEO of Chase Manhattan bank. In the mid-1980s was a big player in New York City real estate projects.
Masatoshi Ito
JAPAN, Retail
1987 NET WORTH: $2BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $2.5BLN
Visited the US in 1960; opened the first Japanese 7-Eleven convenience store in 1974. Today his company operates 42,000 stores in Japan, mostly 7-Elevens.
Ray Lee Hunt
US, Energy
1987 NET WORTH: $1.3 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $5 BLN
In 1974 inherited then struggling Hunt Oil from wildcatter stepfather, HL Hunt, said to be the inspiration for the JR Ewing character in hit 1980s TV show Dallas.
Eitaro Itoyama
JAPAN, Real Estate
1987 NET WORTH: $3BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $2.9BLN
Son of his father’s mistress, struck out on his own but later inherited golf courses.
Stephan Schmidheiny
SWITZERLAND, Investments
1987 NET WORTH: $1.5BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $2.7BLN
Industrialist quietly gave $1 billion to the environmental and educational interests of his Viva Trust in 2003.
Samuel (SI) Newhouse
US, Media
1987 NET WORTH: $2.35 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $7.1 BLN
Donald Newhouse
US, Media
1987 NET WORTH: $2.35 BLN
2012 NET WORTH: $6.4 BLN
Brothers run Advanced Publications. In 1987 “Si,” who oversees Condé Nast, promoted Anna Wintour to editorship of House & Garden.
Illustrations by Thomas Kuhlenbeck For Forbes
(This story appears in the 30 March, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
