8 MBA Billionaires

The true value of an MBA degree may be priceless, but for some graduates, the value can be measured in ten figures.

With benefits beyond a simple, textbook education- from expansive networking opportunities to opportunities for risk-free but real-world practice- there’s good reason to make your first investment in an education, even if it means putting aside dreams of luxury for a couple more years.

Earning an MBA has meant success for these eight billionaires and with millions of those dollars invested back into education and community, it has meant even more.

Jorge Paulo Lemmann

An MBA graduate of the Harvard Business School, Jorge Paulo Lemann is currently #19 on Forbes’ 2016 list of world billionaires, and the number one richest man in Brazil. Even at age 76, Lemann still witnesses a constant growth in capital, moving up seven places on the list since his ranking of #26 last year.

Lemann made his fortune due to a stake in the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, which he owns alongside fellow billionaires Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles as part of 3G Capital. Lemann, Sicupira and Telles are long time partners, originally founding the Brazillian investment banking firm Banco Garantia in 1971. Despite a devastating market crash that year, Lemann was nonetheless able to build Garantia into one of the country’s top firms. In 1998, Banco Garantia was sold to the Credit Suisse First Boston for $675 million.

After solidifying his role as a “king” of beer through the mergers of the Brazilian AmBev with Belgium’s Interbrew, and later purchase of the American Anheuser-Busch, 3G Capital began to make several acquisitions which pair perfectly with beer: Burger King, H.J. Heinz, and Kraft Foods.

Susanne Klatten

Susanne Klatten may rank at #38 on Forbes 2016 list of billionaires, but she also holds the title of richest woman in Germany with a net worth of $19.8 billion. Her fortune is largely thanks to an inherited interest in automaker BMW, in which she now owns an almost 50% stake together with her brother, Stefan Quandt. Her mother, Johanna Quandt, who ranked ninth on Forbes’ 2015 list of richest women in the world, passed away in 2015.

Klatten’s accomplishments are more than just the result of inheritance, however: an MBA graduate of the International Institute for Management and Development in Switzerland, Klatten is responsible for shaping Wesel-based Altana AG into a world-class pharmaceutical corporation. Today, Altana AG nets roughly $2 billion in sales each year, 85% from foreign customers. Since the company’s privatization, Klatten owns 100% and serves as co-Deputy Chairperson of the Supervisory Board. Klatten holds additional stakes in energy and geological companies such as Nordex AG, Geohumus and SGL Group, where she has served as Chairperson of the Supervisory Board since 2013.

Philip Knight

A graduate of the MBA program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Philip Knight has worked his way from university track star to #24 on Forbes’ 2016 World Billionaire Ranking, and the 16th richest in the United States. Now 78, Knight began his career at the University of Oregon before pursuing his MBA at Stanford.

After graduation, Knight traveled the world, during which experience he forged important connections with Japanese shoe suppliers. Together with track coach Bill Bowerman, Knight put up $500 to begin Blue Ribbon Sports, which later changed its name in 1978 to Nike.

With a net worth today of $25.7 billion, Philip Knight announced last year that, after fifty-one years, he will be stepping down as Nike’s chairman. “For me, Nike has always been more than just a company — it has been my life’s passion,” said Knight. Giving back to his alma mater, Knight this year pledged a $400 million cash gift for a graduate fellowship program at Stanford.

Kumar Mangalam Birla

Kumar Mangalam Birla is a graduate of the London Business School’s MBA program and, with a net worth of $6.9 in 2016, the #196 richest billionaire on Forbes’ 2016 list. Birla has chaired the Aditya Birla Group, a company named for his late father which has generated more than $41 billion in revenues, for more than twenty years. He is currently the eighth richest man in India.

Despite some challenges throughout the last year- including an 88% drop in net profits for aluminum company Hindalco – Birla’s success is unyielding. In February, his cement unit UltraTech acquired the rival Jaypee Group for $2.4 billion and in October, the group’s retail arm branched into e-commerce with online fashion portal abof.com. Although his acquisitions have provided Birla with spectacular profits, his work has also spread into philanthropic ventures with the recent launch of the nonprofit Aadyam, which supports theatre.

Peter Woo

With a net worth of $7.5 billion, Peter Woo Kwong-ching ranks at #174 of the Forbes’ 2016 list of world billionaires, and the #7 richest man in Hong Kong. Born in Shanghai, Woo earned his bachelor’s degree form the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York to pursue an MBA at the Columbia Business School. His career began with Chase Manhattan Bank in 1972. Within three years he would join his father-in-law’s company, Worldwide Shipping Group, later becoming vice-chairman.

After retiring, Woo’s father-in-law appointed him as the head of the Wheelock/Wharf business, which focuses on real estate development throughout Hong Kong, China and Singapore. The company owns a diverse set of investment properties including Harbour City and Times Square in Hong Kong, Marco Polo Hotels, and the high-end luxury retail group LCJG. In 2015, Woo stepped down as Wharf’s Chairman, officially becoming “chief adviser”.

Ronald Owen Perelman

Ronald Owen Perelman completed his MBA in 1966 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. It was here that his business success began- when only a freshman at Wharton in 1961, Perelman and his father bought Esslinger Brewery for $800,000, selling it just three years later for $1 million profit. Today, Perelman ranks at #78 on Forbes’ 2016 world billionaire list, #32 in the United States, and has a net worth of $12.5 billion.

Perelman’s true rise came in the 1980’s, when a number of massive takeovers took place on Wall Street. It was also during this time that Perelman took over Revlon, which he still owns today. In addition to his investments, Perelman has used his fortune to amass a spectacular art collection, currently worth more than $4 billion. He serves on the board of the Museum of Modern Art, has donated at least $50 million to New York Presbyterian Hospital, and in 2013, he donated $25 million to the University of Pennsylvania.

David Gilbert Booth

With a current net worth of $1.39 billion, David Booth owes a great deal to his alma mater, the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where he earned his MBA in in 1971. Then known as the Graduate School of Business, the school was renamed in his honor as part of a $300 million donation- the largest in the university’s history.

Now the #1367 richest billionaire in the world, according to Forbes, and #449 in the United States, Booth’s success began while studying for his MBA under Professor Eugene F. Fama. Booth centered his company, Dimensional Fund Advisors, around Fama’s Nobel Prize winning efficient market theory, which states the impossibility of predicting how markets will act in the short term. Taking this into consideration, Booth’s DFA offers low cost funds which focus on small companies. Today, Fama is a board member for DFA, which manages more than $400 billion in assets

Forrest Mars, Jr.

An MBA graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business, Forrest Mars, Jr., is a true-life candyman: the Mars company, which he owns with siblings Jacqueline and John, is the world’s largest candy maker, netting $33 billion in sales. Mr. Mars himself is worth $24.5 billion, making him the #27 richest billionaire around the world and #18 in the United States.

The Mars company began humbly in 1911, with homemade chocolates made by Forrest’s grandfather, Frank. His father joined the company in 1929, which turned out to be an important time for the firm: the year they invented a malt-flavored nougat, which later became the core of both Milky Way and Snickers.

More than just a candyman, the Mars brand makes Uncle Ben’s rice and owns pet food brands such as Pedigree and Whiskas. The company manufacturers almost all of its products within the United States, and in 2015 announced it would invest $100 million into a chocolate factory based in Topeka, Kansas. The first new chocolate factory in more than 35 years, Mars has invested $330 million into this new facility since 2014.