The 19 Richest Billionaires with Master's Degrees
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Everyone rich is a college dropout, right? After all, the only wealthy people you hear about are lucky to have finished high school.
It’s the side-effect of a good story. No one wants to hear about the guy/gal who managed to earn a graduate and wound up making a sizable fortune in finances…
No, that’s too predictable.
This is the story people want:
Taylor grew up in southern Mississippi to a poor family in 1967. The family business was alligator farming (raising alligators for meat to sell to local shops and restaurants). Taylor never finished high school and dropped out before senior year. When Taylor was 17, the idea to expand the family business to deliver to Alabama spurred an interesting business venture. For the first year, Taylor made all deliveries into Alabama via personal truck and trailer. After a year, the local newspaper did a story about Taylor and the family alligator company. The spot got the attention of media mogul Pat, who happened to live in Buloxi during the winter months. Pat contacted Taylor to make an order. When Taylor arrived at Pat’s house, there was a business proposition to make the alligator company nationwide. Five years and 500,000 dollars in revenue later, Taylor and Pat sold their company to Omaha Steaks for 5 million dollars, making both of them millionaires.
Not this:
Taylor’s father was the Vice President of Financial Operations at ExxonMobile. Taylor was the smartest student all through high school. After attending Yale for four years and earning a Bachelor’s in Economics, Taylor got an internship at ExxonMobile during the summer after graduation. That fall, UPenn’s Wharton School of Business was next. After earning an M.B.A., ExxonMobile hired the business prodigy as their Assistant Director of Marketing. In four years, Taylor became the head of the marketing department. In four more years, after Taylor’s father retired, Taylor took over as Vice President of Financial Operations. After four years there, Taylor became a Senior Vice President. On Taylor’s 50th birthday, Taylor took over the CEO role.
We like to hear about some nobody who built a multi-billion dollar portfolio despite a lack of higher education. A story that perhaps convinces us that even though we’re not the smartest guy/gal, look at this person and the success they’ve had with even less education than me.
I will now list off some of those “predictable” people: the billionaires with a Master’s or a Doctorate from an American university.
Please note that not all of these 20 earned their fortune directly because of their degree…when you inherit a billion-dollar-a-year company, however, you may have some leftover change to perhaps go get yourself some expensive education.
The numbers information are provided by Forbes.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Worth: $58.5 billion
Title, Company: CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
Degree, School: Master of Science, Columbia University
2. Charles Koch
Worth: $36 billion
Title, Company: CEO, Koch Industries
Degree, School: Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. David Koch
Worth: $36 billion
Title, Company: Executive Vice President, Koch Industries
Degree, School: Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Worth: $31 billion
Title, Company: Mayor of New York City; Founder and Owner of Bloomberg LP
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Worth: $33.3 billion
Title, Company: Chairman, Wal-Mart Stores
Degree, School: Doctor of Jurisprudence, Columbia University
6. Larry Page
Worth: $24.9 billion
Title, Company: Cofounder/CEO, Google
Degree, School: Master of Science, Stanford University
7. Sergey Brin
Worth: $24.4 billion
Title, Company: Cofounder/Director of Special Projects, Google
Degree, School: Master of Science, Stanford University
8. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud
Worth: $20 billion
Title, Company: Founder/CEO/95%-owner, Kingdom Holding Company
Degree, School: Master of Science, Syracuse University
Worth: $20.5 billion
Title, Company: Co-inheritor, Mars, Inc.
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, New York University
10. Len Blavatnik
Worth: $17.8 billion
Title, Company: Founder, Access Inustries
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Harvard University/Master of Science, Columbia University
11. Phil Knight
Worth: $16.3 billion
Title, Company: Chairman, Nike
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Stanford University
12. Abigail Johnson
Worth: $17.2 billion
Title, Company: President, Financial Services, Fidelity Investments
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Harvard University
13. Ray Dalio
Worth: $12.9 billion
Title, Company: Founder & Co-Chief Investment Officer, Bridgewater Associates
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Harvard University
14. Ronald Perelman
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Worth: $14 billion
Title, Company: Chairman/CEO, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, University of Pennsylvania
15. Ananda Krishnan
Worth: $11.7 billion
Title, Company: Owner/Sole Proprietor, Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Harvard University
16. James Simons
Worth: $12 billion
Title, Company: Founder, Renaissance Technologies Corp.
Degree, School: Doctorate, University of California Berkeley
17. John Paulson
Worth: $11.4 billion
Title, Company: Founder/President of Paulson & Co.
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Harvard University
Worth: $11.7 billion
Title, Company: Founder/Chair, Emerson Collective; Inheritor, Apple
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Stanford University
19. Charles Ergen
Worth: $12.5 billion
Title, Company: Founder/Chairman, DISH Network
Degree, School: Master of Business Administration, Wake Forest University
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