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8 billionaires made fortunes in finance and 8 in retail.
Nick DeSantis, www.forbes.com
Richest In State list, Frank VanderSloot of Idaho. VanderSloot built his $1.9 billion fortune from his retailer Melaleuca, which sells vitamins, supplements, and eco-friendly cleaning products. VanderSloot is one of 8 retail billionaires on the list this year.
Other state-topping retail billionaires include Wal-Mart heirs Alice Walton (Texas) and Jim Walton (Arkansas) whose fortunes have continued to grow in the last year. Alice’s net worth is up $4.9 billion to $33.3 billion, and Jim is up $4 billion to $34.5 billion. Wisconsin’s richest, Menards founder John Menard Jr., is up $300 million to $10.6 billion. And even though Nike founder Phil Knight’s net worth stayed flat at $25.1 billion over the last year, he still managed to hold onto his title of richest person in Oregon.
The four billionaires from California, Hawaii, North Carolina and Washington who hail from the tech sector have a combined net worth of $170.3 billion. This includes Washington’s (and the world’s) richest person Bill Gates, who has a $88.9 billion net worth, and California’s richest, Mark Zuckerberg, who’s worth $62.4 billion.
Wealth built by list members in finance comes in second. Including the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett, with a net worth of $76.2 billion, those 8 billionaires have a combined net worth of $139.1 billion.
A smaller number of people have made their fortunes in real estate. Maryland’s richest, real estate developer Ted Lerner, has a net worth of $5.8 billion.
