The Oldest Billionaire In The World
John Simplot: The Potato Supplier For McDonald’s
Most of the billionaires in the age-90-plus generation got rich the old-fashioned way: coming up through blue-collar backgrounds and picking up street smarts along the way. When Forbes Magazine put together their annual list of billionaires in March, they found sources of wealth for the old crowd are mostly 180 degrees from those of the young turks on the list.
The old guard comes largely from blue-collar family backgrounds during an era when college was truly for the sons of privilege. They made their money incrementally, in old-line industries such as oil and banking, after young lives spent toiling at odd jobs brought savvy and street smarts. Most of the young’uns are graduate-school-educated and made their piles through financial engineering or mastering the art of Internet commerce.
One thing the oldest and youngest do have in common: Most were self-made. Thirteen of the 16 billionaires who have hit age 90 built their fortunes themselves — the three exceptions being U.S. oil-family scion David Rockefeller, Danish shipping-company executive Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller and Saudi banker Al Rajhi. The count among the youngest billionaires: 10 of 16 did it on their own. John Simplot’s biography.
