Business & Tech

6 Ohio Billionaires Make Forbes 2018 List

The family that used to own the Cleveland Browns made the list. Who else hails from the Buckeye State on the list? Find out.

CLEVELAND, OH — Six Ohioans have made Forbes annual list of the world's billionaires. None of the Buckeye State entrants sniffed the top of the list. The top spot instead went to Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who dethroned fellow Seattle-area billionaire Bill Gates. Gates has only lost the top spot six times since 1995.

The 2018 list has 2,208 members from 72 countries. With 585 Americans on the list, the United States leads the way with the most number of billionaires in the world, followed by China with 373 billionaires. The U.S. also had 18 newcomers featured on the 2018 list.

According to Forbes, Bezos is the first centi-billionaire at the top of the list, meaning he has a fortune of over a $100 billion. Forbes explains just how much wealth these billionaires have, being worth a combined $9.1 trillion. The top 20 people on the list alone are worth $1.2 trillion, 13 percent of the total fortune of all billionaires worldwide.

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Here are Ohio's billionaires that made the list:

  • Les Wexner, 80, is worth $6.1 billion, and is ranked 287 on the list of the world's billionaires. He founded and runs L Brands, which includes Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works.
  • Denise York, 67, is worth $2.5 billion and is ranked 965 on the list of the world's billionaires. She owns an estimated 90 percent stake in the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.
  • Clayton Mathile, 77, is worth $2.3 billion and is ranked 1,070 on the list of the world's billionaires. He bought Iams, the pet food maker, in 1982 and then sold it for $2.3 billion in 1999.
  • Tied for the 1,999 spot on the list are three Lerners: Nancy Lerner, 57; Norma Lerner, 81; and Randolph Lerner, 56. The Lerner fortune was largely the result of Al Lerner's work in banking. He bought control of Equitable Bancorp in 1981. That company then formed the credit card giant MBNA before merging with Bank of America, to form a $35 billion enterprise. The Lerners are familiar to Clevelanders as the former owners of the Cleveland Browns. They sold the team to Jimmy Haslam for $1 billion in 2012.

The top 10 billionaires on the list are:

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The Forbes billionaires list provides a look at wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from Feb. 9, 2018. Forbes values assets like private companies, art, real estate and more. Read more about Forbes methodology here.

See the full list of billionaires here.

Photo from Shutterstock


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