9Stephan Schmidheiny – $3.3 Billion
Stephan Schmidheiny was born into the most important industrial dynasty in Switzerland.
He inherited his father company, Swiss Eternit Group and has been its CEO since 1976, when he was just 29 years old.
He also has a brother, Thomas and their father decided to divide the company in halves for the two of them. So, Stephan got asbestos and Thomas got cement.
That is how Stephan became CEO of the Swiss Eternit Group.
He is also a dedicated philanthropist and has donated shares of his forestry firm Grupo Nueva to his irrevocable Viva Trust, so that the profits are used to promote causes related to sustainability and education.
Unfortunately, in 2012 he was convicted by a court in Turin for negligence by Eternit’s Italian affiliate that led to the asbestos-related deaths of 2,000 people.
At this moment, his net worth is estimated to be $3.3 Billion.
