Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
South Florida’s top billionaires
Forbes list includes Carnival Cruise chairman, NFL team owner.
Fifty-two of the world’s richest people call Florida home, according to Forbes’ 2019 list of the billionaires.
Forbes, which released its list Tuesday, says the top-ranking billionaires in South Florida are:
Thomas Peterffy
Thomas Peterffy, CEO of Interactive Brokers, an electronic brokerage firm, is the only Florida resident who breaks the top 100 in the 2019 ranking. The Palm Beach resident is No. 63 on the billionaires list. His wealth is estimated by Forbes at $17.2 billion.
David Tepper
David Tepper, the Carolina Panthers owner and founder and president of Appaloosa Management, a hedge fund, has a wealth of $11.6 billion, according to Forbes. He is No. 119 on the list, and lives in Miami Beach.
Micky Arison
Micky Arison is chairman of Carnival Cruise Corp., the Miami-based cruise line empire.
He is No. 162 on the list with $8.9 billion, and resides in Bal Harbour.
Jeff Greene
South Florida’s billionaires also include Jeff Greene, who spent more than $30 million in a failed attempt to win the Florida governor’s race in 2018.
Still, the Palm Beach resident is No. 645 on the list with $3.4 billion in wealth, down from $3.8 billion in 2018.
William Koch
Longtime Palm Beacher William Koch, brother to the even richer David and Charles, has $1.8 billion in wealth, ranking 1,281, according to Forbes.
Of South Florida’s billionaires:
10 live in Palm Beach. Six in Miami or Miami Beach.
Two in Boca Raton. Two in North Palm Beach.
One in Delray Beach. One in Coral Gables. One in Fort Lauderdale. Of course, many of the world’s wealthy have winter or vacation homes in South Florida.
President Donald Trump, is often seen at his Mar-a-Lago Club on Palm Beach, but has residences in Washington, D.C., and New York.
Forbes notes that Trump, who became the only billionaire president in history in 2017, now ranks 715th. But in 2019, Trump climbed 51 spots even though his fortune remained flat at $3.1 billion, according to Forbes. The value of Trump National Doral Miami dropped an estimated $26 million over the last year, due to political fallout, the magazine notes.
Topping Forbes 2019 list is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. For the full list, go to forbes.com/ billionaires.
Forbes says total wealth shrank: There are 2,153 billionaires, 55 fewer than a year ago.
Of those, a record 994, or 46 percent, are less wealthy than they were last year. Together, they’re worth $8.7 trillion, down $400 billion from 2018.