Some of the richest people in the world left their home countries in pursuit of new opportunities, both in the business world and in life.
The Hurun Research Institute’s Hurun Immigrant Billionaires 2017 report indicated that around 13 percent (300 people) of the world’s billionaires are immigrants with most of them heading to the US (73 people), Switzerland (42 people), the UK (39 people) and Russia (20 people).
Their average asset value was worth 42.3 trillion won ($38 billion).
(Hurun.net)
The richest among the immigrant billionaires is Sergey Brin, president of Google’s holding company Alphabet, with 40.1 trillion won. He was born in Moscow, Russia, and moved to the US in 1979 with his family to escape the persecution of Jews.
Along with Andy von Bechtolsheim and David Cheriton, he is a billionaire shareholder of Google, “a company that has produced the most immigrant billionaires,” according to Hurun’s lead researcher Rupert Hoogewerf.
The next is George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, with 30 trillion won. He moved from Hungary to America, and is known for his charitable works.
The co-founder of 3G Capital, Jorge Paulo Lemann (Brazil to Switzerland), Canadian entrepreneur Galen Weston (Britain to Canada), financier of LyondellBasell Leonard Blavatnik (Russia to America), and Chairman of Interactive Brokers Thomas Peterffy (Hungary to America) followed suit.
One of the most well-known on the list, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, nicknamed “Iron Man,” owns 15.6 trillion won, according to Hurun. He moved from South Africa at the age of 17 to avoid national defense duty, and studied in Canada and America.
The youngest on the list is Ireland-born John Collison, 27, who co-founded the online payment system Stripes with his older brother, Patrick Collison. The corporate value of Stripes is 10 trillion won and each of the brothers are said to have accumulated 1.4 trillion won worth of assets.
On the list, only two were considered to have immigrated to South Korea: Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo, who was born before the division of the Korean Peninsula in Tongcheon, Gangwon Province, which is currently part of North Korea, and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin who was born in Japan.
On the other hand, Maruhan Chairman Han Chang-woo and Forever 21 CEO Chang Do-won left Korea for Japan and the US, respectively.
By The Superrich Team
Min Sang-seek
Lee Se-jin
Yim Ji-min (jiminy@heraldcorp.com)
