BILL AUSTIN

$2.4

BILLION  SELF-MADE SCORE: ( SOURCE: HEARING AIDS AGE: 77 RESIDENCE: BROWNSVILLE, TX PHILANTHROPY SCORE: The Starkey Hearing Technologies founder’s first job helped make him a billionaire. Austin worked in his uncle’s hearing aid shop to help pay for college. Taken by the way the devices could transform lives, he dropped out after a month to create his own hearing aid production firm, which has become the largest in America. Customers have included five presidents, two popes and Mother Teresa. After a three-year legal battle, former Starkey president Jerry Ruzicka was convicted of federal fraud charges in 2018 and sentenced to seven years in prison.