From fintech to foodtech solutions; from beauty brands to biotech infusions, FORBES AFRICA’s inaugural list of Small Giants across Africa showcases the tenacity of homegrown businesses and their impact on the communities they serve. Their pan-African CEO-founders and leaders are making giant strides in progressing Africa’s growth narrative, prioritizing ideas and innovation.



By Chanel Retief, Nicole Pillay and Oluwatomisin Amokeoja Art Direction: Manelisi Dabata Photography: Katlego Mokubyane ; Assistant: Sbusiso Sigidi | Studio: NewKatz Studio, Johannesburg Styling: Deneal Van Wyk Hair &amp; Makeup: SnehhOnline Beauty



The mark of a good business often relies on three Ps: profit, people and planet. It’s hard to say which ‘P’ should be prioritized but as the companies on our first cohort of impactful Small Giants will attest, people, be they employees, managers or customers, can make all the difference. Second to that is the ‘proudly African’ thread that has been woven through each of these businesses. The Small Giants are the businesses that believe small is better, and purpose as important as profit, and most times, even more. They are drawn from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in Africa that’s a sizeable mass, incorporated in the formal and informal economies.



In the 2023 Mastercard SME Confidence Index, the World Bank notes that SMEs account for 60% of jobs in Africa. However, they operate in cash-based economies and face a $330 billion financing gap. A 2022 African Union Development Agency report supports this, indicating that SMEs account for closer to 80% of jobs in Africa. These statistics reinforce SMEs as a significant mechanism for socio-economic growth.



StatsSA reported that industries in South Africa’s formal business sector, in particular, generated ZAR10.5 trillion ($677.42 billion) in total turnover in the 2019 financial year. The report further stipulated that the breakdown of turnover by business size shows that small businesses were responsible for generating ZAR2.3 trillion ($148.39 billion) of the ZAR10.5 trillion.



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To complement our research in compiling this list, we spoke to several of these small businesses, and a significant aspect of the discussion to determine scale revolved around financial revenues, but unsurprisingly, there was a common reluctance among the majority of the firms to share this data.



Carl Wazen, co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Yoco, a growing fintech company in South Africa, reasons that this could have to do with companies “keeping their heads down and focusing, and not having a lot of time to make a noise”, whilst the other aspect is cultural.



“You have different cultural nuances [in Africa],” Wazen says, also alluding to the more mature markets such as the United States (U.S.) where this may not be so. “The U.S. is a lot more comfortable talking about money or talking about milestones, whereas, in Europe, money is maybe more taboo there than it is in the U.S.”



Andrew Amoils, Head of Research at New World Wealth, a South Africa-based global wealth intelligence firm, offers another view, indicating that most of the time, no matter where, people are not quite open about speaking about their billions or millions.



“It’s not unique to Africa,” Amoils says. “I guess some people feel like you’re kind of putting a target on [their] back and [that] can affect the way they [talk about money]&#8230; only a few countries (the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia) have pretty transparent information.”



For those looking, there are enough studies and reports indicating the actual picture of wealth on the African continent. The total investable wealth currently held in Africa amounts to $2.5 trillion and its millionaire population is set to rise by 65% over the next 10 years, ac-cording to the 2024 Africa Wealth Report, published by international wealth advisory firm, Henley &amp; Partners.



“Future growth should [be] fueled by strong growth in fast-growing sectors such as fintech, eco-tourism, business process outsourcing, software development, rare metals mining, green tech, media and entertainment, and wealth management,” Amoils adds.



There has been global advancement in fostering gender diversity within leadership roles. However, when determining and understanding the spaces taken up by the titans in small business, FORBES AFRICA’s research led to more male founders, leaders, and C-suite executives, hence the preponderance of one gender over the other in our list of Africa’s Small Giants. This shows that progress comes with caveats. LinkedIn’s 2024 data indicates that the representation of women drops to 25% in C-suite positions on average, compared to 46% in entry-level positions.



The World Economic Forum reported in 2023 that women constitute 58% of self-employment across Africa, and contribute approximately 13% of Africa’s total GDP. However, many women still find themselves working a lot harder to be heard or seen by potential investors as well as colleagues. The female powerhouses on our inaugural Small Giants list attest to this reality, hands down.



“Being a woman in business, in general, is quite difficult,” says Tasneem Karodia, the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Newform Foods. “I come from a career in corporate, and that has its own challenges. I started quite young working in consulting, and had to be faced with a lot of top executives from big companies.”



“I’m an entrepreneur, and I don’t really take no for an answer,” offers Delia Stirling, founder of Grove and Meadow and Commercial Director at Brown’s Food Company. “I just wouldn’t tolerate somebody not working with me because I [am] a woman. I think it’s that perseverance that you have to have&#8230; When I work with anybody, they can feel the passion and understand where I’m coming from.”



“I was very used to being the only woman at the table,” Claire Blanckenberg, founder and CEO, Reel Gardening, tells FORBES AFRICA. “And I just kind of put my head down and claimed my seat at the table without asking for permission.” What remains steadfast as a theme on this list is the priority to showcase businesses that are African, with a proudly African mindset.



From a community-focused food-processing company or a sneaker brand that is uniquely recognizable for its mesh material to a female-led enterprise known globally as a pioneer in the tea industry, these businesses are small in scale but big on ideas and impact. For these businesses, it’s not about reaching three-comma numbers when it comes to revenues or fortunes, but rather, about honoring their unflinching belief that success can have a whole different definition in creating meaningful futures, for all.



METHODOLOGY



Africa is rich with opportunities and possibilities, as evidenced by this list, which is but only a small representation or subset of the growing, thriving small business sector on the continent. From across Africa, the FORBES AFRICA editorial team looked at businesses that were at least five years old this year, were privately-held, had sound business models and were profitable. Our research led us to finding the local heroes in their communities. We called for nominations, which gave founders an opportunity to put forth the names of their enterprises. To gain deeper insight into their impact-driven models, we interviewed the founders/directors/CEOs with one key question: what makes your business homegrown and proudly African? To determine their scale of success, we looked at metrics such as self-preservation, sustainability, community engagement, innovation and value-creation. While this unranked list of 25 local businesses captures the versatility of industries on the continent, purpose remains a common priority for each of these Small Giants.



Editor’s Note: The list on these pages follows no particular order. 



Download your copy now to find out who is on our #SmallGiants List by<a href="https://shop.forbesafrica.com/product/single-digital-issue-june-july-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> clicking here</a>

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The List: Purpose-Driven And Proudly African

Held for the third consecutive year in Botswana, the Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa welcomed delegates from all over the world last night at a grand opening ceremony celebrating youth entrepreneurship. In the country’s capital, Gaborone, thousands flocked to the historic Main Mall and square, ready to be part of the ‘pan-African celebration’.



The four-day event kicked off with a concert headlined by both local and international artists. Those in attendance also used the opportunity to network with young entrepreneurs from across Africa.



“I have never been to Africa,” said South Korean Dae Young Kim, 2017 Under 30 lister (Aisa) and CEO of Manimal Tribe. The restaurateur has attended other Under 30 summits in 2023 and was keen to be at an African edition and learn more about the food and beverage (F&amp;B) industry on the continent. “I am not looking for anything specifically because the entire program looks amazing but I do hope to meet more people in my industry. Because I would like to see what F&amp;B looks like here and maybe even see if there are collaboration opportunities, who knows?”


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Even the locals in attendance at the summit’s opening were enthralled. &#8220;Even before the main event, this has been an amazing experience,” said Belindah Wetshootile, a makeup artist as well as owner of a catering company in Botswana. “This has been a great networking opportunity to speak to young like-minded entrepreneurs.”



“I am an early childhood educator and I am also an entrepreneur who runs my own business,” Botswana local, Bonolo Raowang, added. Both Wetshootile and Raowan say such an event allows for bigger companies to recognize the entrepreneurial and creative spirit in Africa’s smaller economies like Botswana.



But Raowang would like for the momentum to continue through the year, and not only when the event happens. “This event has been amazing for exposure. But what happens when Forbes leaves? Look how talented we are, look how amazing we are. I would like for us to continue this buzz even after the event.”



The eager crowds outside the Cresta President Hotel, known as a legacy hotel, overlooking the main stage, waited for performances from Han-C, DBN Gogo and an international set by Nick Cannon. But what brought the house down was Afrobeats artist Stanley Omah Didia, known professionally as Omah Lay, who took to the stage to perform his biggest songs such as People and Soso.



The summit will kick off discussions at the Royal Aria Conference Center in Gabarone today and will include big-hitters such as Didia but also such names as Judy Dlamini, Founder and Executive Chairman, Mbekani Group; actress, humanitarian and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Nomzamo Mbatha, Ben Amadasun, Netflix’s VP of Content for Middle East and Africa, and many more.

Igor Barandovski for Forbes_U30AFRICA_2024_IMG_8035

Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa Opens, Held For The Third Year In Gaborone

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer are responsible for nearly three-quarters of deaths worldwide but are often “overlooked and underfunded” because few understand their true impact, according to a new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/invisible-numbers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;from the World Health Organization published Wednesday, which urges countries to tackle the issue with proven and cost-effective interventions that are readily available.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are one of the most significant public health and development challenges of the century and kill more than infectious diseases due to inaction, the WHO said in the report, which was released at the UN general assembly in New York.&nbsp;



NCDs are responsible for the premature death of some 17 million people each year and kill someone under the age of 70 every two seconds, the report said.



The vast majority of these premature deaths, 86%, are in low and middle income countries, the report found, and many could have been “prevented with investment in proven, cost-effective interventions,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/21-09-2022-heads-of-state-commit-to-noncommunicable-disease-global-compact-to-save-50-million-lives-by-2030" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>U.S. billionaire Michael&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/?sh=34cef3721417">Bloomberg</a>, who is the WHO’s ambassador for NCDs.



While all UN member states have committed to slashing premature deaths from NCDs by a third by 2030—it is one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals—few nations are on track to achieve this, the report said.



While the risk factors of many NCDs are well-understood—tobacco use and unhealthy diets each kill more than 8 million each year, alcohol consumption another 1.7 million and physical inactivity 830,000, the WHO estimates—the report said little is being done because many simply do not understand the scale of the problem.&nbsp;



The organization estimates at least 39 million NCD deaths could be prevented by 2030 if “every country were to adopt the interventions that are known to work.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



41 million people. That’s how many people NCDs kill worldwide each year, the WHO estimates. Cardiovascular diseases—a collection of diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels—are the world’s biggest killer and are responsible for 17.9 million deaths a year, the report found. The other leading NCDs, some of the world’s top killers, are cancer (9.3 million deaths each year), chronic respiratory diseases (4.1 million) and diabetes (2 million). Beyond deaths, each NCD can have a huge impact on the quality of life for those affected and also make them more vulnerable to other ailments. This was illustrated during the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO said, where people living with NCDs faced worse outcomes than those without. Covid has been the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/05/18/here-is-what-one-million-covid-deaths-in-the-us-looks-like/?sh=516565ac7b16">third-leading cause</a>&nbsp;of death for the past two years, behind heart disease and cancer.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Public health advances in recent decades mean infectious, or communicable, diseases no longer dominate the leading causes of premature death around the world. The issue, which has been well known in many affluent nations for decades, is now reaching worrying levels in fast-developing countries like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/21/chinas-hidden-epidemics-the-preventable-diseases-that-could-reshape-a-nation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China</a>, though these health emergencies are often more hidden than outbreaks of infectious disease. The invisible nature of NCDs is illustrated by the fact that they generally do not receive funding and public health effort in line with their impact, despite much more being known about what causes them. This holds true across all countries, not just less affluent ones, and the report says all countries could improve. It stresses that big gains can be made with relatively little investment in NCD prevention and treatment. “The data paint a clear picture,” the WHO report said. “The problem is that the world isn’t looking at it.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization had renewed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/?sh=34cef3721417">Bloomberg’s</a>&nbsp;appointment as its global ambassador for NCDs and injuries for another two years. Bloomberg, a billionaire who co-founded financial information and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981 and served 12 years as the mayor of New York City, was first appointed to the role in 2016. “As we continue to respond to this pandemic and prepare for the next, we have seen the critical importance of addressing a major risk factor in Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths – noncommunicable diseases,” Bloomberg said. NCDs “are the world’s biggest silent killers – but they can often be prevented with investment in proven, cost-effective interventions,” he added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FORBES VALUATION&nbsp;</h2>



$76.8 billion. That’s Bloomberg’s estimated net worth, according to&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/?sh=34cef3721417">real-time tracker</a>. That makes him the 13th richest person in the world at the time of writing. Bloomberg has donated billions to charity, a great deal of which has gone towards initiatives designed to address risk factors driving NCDs, such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.org/public-health/reducing-tobacco-use/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reducing</a>&nbsp;tobacco use.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/invisible-numbers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Invisible Numbers: The true scale of noncommunicable diseases</a>&nbsp;(WHO)



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/21/chinas-hidden-epidemics-the-preventable-diseases-that-could-reshape-a-nation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China’s ‘hidden epidemics’: the preventable diseases that could reshape a nation</a>&nbsp;(Guardian)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Son holding father’s hand at the hospital

These Diseases Cause 74% Of All Deaths But Lack Necessary Funding, WHO Says

For the first time on the African continent, the Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa kicked off in Botswana’s capital Gaborone yesterday, April 24, with 600 entrepreneurs in attendance for the five-day event.



At the opening night in Gaborone’s historic Main Mall, an outdoor shopping and commercial hub in the heart of the city, an audience of about 2,000, including summit delegates and members of the public, cheered and swayed to live music.



The country’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who&nbsp;took to the podium for the welcome speech, was greeted by more applause and celebratory ululations.



“Some of the finest under-30s that the world of entrepreneurship has to offer [are here], with 200 from Botswana, 200 from the rest of Africa and another 200 from the rest of the world… We will witness for the first time how Botswana harnesses the power of the entrepreneurial spirit and promotes conversations that foster innovations and creativity… In Botswana, the youth, being change-makers and future leaders, are continuously encouraged to play a leading role through various funding mechanisms from public to private sources… we have also embarked on digitization as the epicenter of our national development agenda and young people are being empowered through several initiatives,” said Masisi.



For the many watching, this was “a people’s concert” held in a place of significance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The Main Mall is the original mall built after independence. A lot of us grew up here,” remarked Pat Dambe, Head of Corporate Affairs at the De Beers Group of Companies in Botswana.



The crowds gathered outside the Cresta President Hotel, overlooking the main stage.&nbsp;



“The President Hotel is a legacy hotel. And our President wanted to bring everybody back to where we started and it really is a renaissance. It’s a rebirth. And it’s all about young people, so it’s also the future. We are so excited to see the buildings around that have been upgraded,” added Dambe.



In the crowd, Kemo Kwadiba, the Managing Director of Care Medicals Botswana and one of the 200 entrepreneurs from Botswana sponsored by De Beers and the country to experience the summit, was ecstatic as local hip hop artist ATI took to the stage for an energetic performance.



“I am very keen to meet with entrepreneurs from Africa and the world at the summit; I want to share notes with them, all the way from here to Kasane, where I will be attending the second leg of the summit,” said Kwadiba.



Yet another young businessman in the crowd, Botsile Tshepo Moreba, the owner of Sanctified Delights Bakery in Bobonong, a&nbsp;small town in the country’s Central District, drove five hours to get here.



“I am not an Under 30 lister, but I feel like one,” he said.



Lenny Motshodi, a small-scale farmer who mainly sells lettuce, said he too was looking forward to mingle with other agri-preneurs in the audience.



Similar sentiments from summit attendee, Busi Pooe, the CEO of Tshimong in South Africa and also FORBES AFRICA’s 2019 30 Under 30 lister: “Tonight was hugely inspirational. I had the opportunity to reconnect with past FORBES AFRICA Under 30s from all over the African continent who&#8217;ve been recognized for their potential, and have actually gone on to realize it. President Masisi commented that Africa&#8217;s time is now and the youth are in the driving seat. I&#8217;m excited for the next few days of networking as it will continue to build on the momentum set tonight.”&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;



Just before Ghana’s DJ Black made his way to the stage for his much-awaited show, President Masisi concluded his speech, summing up the mood of the night: “My wife and I are in our dancing shoes and we are ready to rock!”

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An African Night Celebrating Global Entrepreneurship  

After an injury stymied Brandon Fleming’s Liberty University basketball career, he dropped out to earn a living as an assembly line worker in Atlanta, Georgia. After attempting suicide, he was determined to turn his life around. 



He re-enrolled at Liberty University on a full-ride despite having a middle school-level reading comprehension. Fleming, however, only passed his courses only by cheating. His English professor caught Fleming cheating; rather than flunk him, she forced him to redo the assignment—by her side over the course of multiple months. In the process, she taught him to read and write, exposing him to Black authors like Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass. 



As a side hustle, he coached a debate team at an inner city Atlanta middle school. After the team became undefeated national champions, Harvard recruited him to coach their debate team. In turn, Fleming founded the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, which recruits highly motivated Black youth from Atlanta and trains them through a year-long debate residency with Harvard that culminates in competition against top-ranked debaters from 25 countries. So far, the three cohorts Fleming has trained since the program’s 2017 inception have won the prestigious national Harvard Debate Tournament. This month, Hachette Books published&nbsp;Miseducated, Fleming’s memoir.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">From drug dealer to Harvard educator, here&#39;s why Brandon Fleming believes heart-first teaching is key to racial equality: <a href="https://t.co/rjUzXo228v">https://t.co/rjUzXo228v</a> <a href="https://t.co/TfANQxjonk">pic.twitter.com/TfANQxjonk</a>&mdash; Forbes (@Forbes) <a href="https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/1408475118007902214?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 25, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Forbes&nbsp;spoke with Fleming about his childhood, plans to open the first truly equitable boarding school and heart-first teaching.&nbsp;



Alexandra Sternlicht:&nbsp;Tell me about how you ended up in debate.&nbsp;



Brandon Fleming:&nbsp;I didn’t know that Black people were scholars. In the world that I existed in, there were nothing but Black gangsters and Black drug dealers and Black athletes. When my professor introduced me to Black writers, she opened up this world in which I never knew there was space for me. I just became hungry for more. I started watching movies and reading books about Black scholars. I was Googling movies similar to&nbsp;Malcolm X&nbsp;and found another movie starring Denzel Washington about a Black teacher. It’s called the&nbsp;Great Debaters, and it changed my life forever. I was like, “If only this was a real thing.”&nbsp;



I grew up an athlete, and I got hurt. I had nowhere to direct my competitive drive. So now I was like, ‘You can be competitive in smart stuff?’ So I came to find out it was a real thing, and that my college had a debate team—and then I tried out and made the team. I was so captivated by debate because it was not only helping me learn but discovering my voice and identity.&nbsp;



Sternlicht:&nbsp;You made the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;30 Under 30 list as the founder of the Harvard Diversity Project. Are you still involved in that?



Fleming:&nbsp;Absolutely. I always wonder why I was the one who made it out of the ‘hood because there are so many people out there who never made it out. In fact, most of them never made it out. Some of them aren&#8217;t even alive anymore. When I made it from the hood to Harvard, I knew that my being there had to be far bigger than just me. I realized the reason I was there was to build a bridge—to create access for more people who look like me.



For three consecutive years, every group of students that I recruited and trained in Atlanta through the Harvard Diversity Project—every single one of them won the Harvard Debate Tournament. It shows the world that it’s bigger than debate. It shows the world that anything Black and Brown people have not achieved is not due to ability; it’s only due to access.&nbsp;



Sternlicht:&nbsp;From your own drive and from encountering some amazing mentors, you’ve had incredible success—all through education. Do you think that the education system is the main way to achieve racial equity?&nbsp;



Fleming:&nbsp;When we look at the plight of American education, it’s not a policy issue. It’s a heart issue. The reason is that we don’t understand that the way we create a more equitable world is through empathetic education. What does it look like? It looks exactly like what that professor did for me, which is meeting me where I was.&nbsp;



English did not change me. Academics did not change me. Love is what changed me. Empathy is what changed me.&nbsp;



The reason I wrote this book [Miseducated] is because we can’t reach people that we don’t understand. When we talk about reaching at-risk youth, that’s how we can reach them: love them first and teach them second. Once we learn how to do that, education will transform.&nbsp;



Sternlicht:&nbsp;How do you think educators and academic institutions can institute heart into their curriculum?&nbsp;



Fleming:&nbsp;We have to understand emotional learning. It goes beyond intellectual intelligence. You can’t be concerned with reaching the mind and not reaching the heart. We have to meet them where they are—that’s the definition of equity. It’s what that professor did for me: being willing to go the extra mile above the call of duty.&nbsp;



The other part of it is culturally relevant teaching. When my professor wanted to teach me to read and write, she didn’t go back to William Faulkner or F. Scott Fitzgerald. She understood the importance of culture and representation. That’s the definition of culturally relevant teaching: it’s marrying our agenda with their interests.&nbsp;



Young people are not disinterested. Young people are not disengaged. It’s easier for us to say they’re disinterested because that negates our responsibility.&nbsp;



English did not change me. Academics did not change me. Love is what changed me. Empathy is what changed me.&nbsp;Brandon Fleming



Sternlicht:&nbsp;What is the role of higher education in this system?



Fleming:&nbsp;One role higher education can play is creating equitable summer programming, which is what we’re doing at Harvard. We’re giving access to Black and Brown students because the other option is to leave these kids to fend for themselves.&nbsp;



Sternlicht:&nbsp;How do you think your impact will be most felt? Through your book? Through Harvard? Or other sorts of career things?&nbsp;



Fleming:&nbsp;I can let you in on something I haven’t shared with many others. If I have discovered the tool that levels the playing field for marginalized people, it means I have a responsibility to get that tool in the hands of as many people as possible, and I can’t do that at Harvard. Right now, I am in the process of building a school that is called the Veritas School of Social Sciences. It’s going to be the most equitable school in the world. It’s going to be a boarding school for people of color. It’s in Atlanta, Georgia and the development is already underway. We plan to open the school in either the fall of 2023 or 2024.&nbsp;



Sternlicht:&nbsp;You mentioned over email that your book is being optioned for a movie?&nbsp;



Fleming:&nbsp;Yes, it is! There’s not much I can share—only because now we’re negotiating with different production companies and studios to determine which contract we want to sign.&nbsp;



This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 



By Alexandra Sternlicht, Forbes Staff

Screenshot 2021-06-30 at 15.24.11

From Drug Dealer To Harvard Educator: Why Brandon Fleming Believes Heart-First Teaching Is Key To Racial Equality

Members of this year’s list of under 30s have one thing in common: A NEW COVID-INDUCED AGENDA FOR SOCIAL CHANGE. So what would a historic pandemic year throw up? ground-breaking entrepreneurs and thinkers. Our 2021 class of under 30s are just that: INFLUENTIAL CREATIVES, IMAGINATIVE BUSINESS OWNERS, INNOVATIVE TECHIES, AND GIFTED SPORTS STARS. Celebrating seven years of the FORBES AFRICA 30 UNDER 30 LIST, these achievers prove that now more than ever,&nbsp; they are crucial to the AFRICAN GROWTH STORY.



<h4 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-the-under-30-team">THE UNDER 30 TEAM</h4>



Words: Karen Mwendera, Chanel Retief, Simone Umraw Art Director: Lucy Nkosi Photographer: Motlabana Monnakgotla Retouching: Newkatz Studio Styling: Keabetswe Mafora; Outfits supplied by: Spero Villioti, Viviers Studio, Sisi the Collection, GertJohan Coetzee, Port of LNG, Amen Concepts, Europa Art Studio: Light Station Studio, Johannesburg | Hair &amp; Makeup: SnehhOnline Beauty



FORBES AFRICA finds out how some of the members of the CLASS of 2021 reacted when they found out that they made the most coveted list in Africa!



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EXTERNAL JUDGES: THE CATEGORY EXPERTS WHOSE ROLE WAS TO SURVEY ALL THE FINALISTS OF THE 2021 30 UNDER 30 LIST, RANK THEM AND PROVIDE COMMENTARY ON EACH CANDIDATE.



BUSINESS: Nigerian businesswoman Uche Pedro, the founder, and CEO of BellaNaija, a media-tech brand known for its entertainment and lifestyle content. She has been in the business game for over 15 years, collecting numerous local and international accolades along the way including making the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA 50 Most Powerful Women list in 2020.



TECHNOLOGY: Olugbenga Agboola, the cofounder and CEO of Flutterwave, an African fintech firm building digital payments infrastructure. He has contributed to the development of fintech solutions at several tech companies and financial institutions such as PayPal, Standard Bank, among others. Flutterwave recently raised $170 million, giving it ‘unicorn’ status with a value of over $1 billion.



CREATIVES: Dr John Kani, a South African actor, author, director, and playwright known for his roles in Marvel movies Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther as well as The Lion King. In addition, Kani is also the Founder of the Market Theatre LaboratoryAcademy, chair of the Apartheid Museum South Africa, patron and Ambassador of the Market Theatre, and Trustee for the WWFNedbank Green Trust.



SPORTS: Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira, a Zimbabwean-born professional rugby player who plays for Old Glory DC in Major League Rugby and previously for the South African national team and the Sharks in Super Rugby. With 117 caps, he is the most capped prop in South African history and the third most-capped Springbok of all time. He is also a 2019 Rugby World Cup winner. He owns a security company in South Africa and The Beast Foundation.



AUDIT PARTNER: FORBES AFRICA partnered again with SNG Grant Thornton to vet the business and financial statements of the candidates. This involved understanding the landscape, the profitability, growth and most of all, the scalability of each business.



For the full list download the digital copy <a href="https://shop.forbesafrica.com/product/single-digital-issue-30-under-30-june-july-2021/">here</a>

Forbes Africa #30Under30 List: CLASS OF 2021 Change-Makers In A Historic Year

The world&#8217;s richest person,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?list=rtb/">Jeff Bezos</a>, is wealthier than he&#8217;s ever been. Early Wednesday he crossed a milestone previously unseen in the nearly four decades&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has been tracking net worths: With Amazon stock edging up 2% as of Wednesday afternoon, Bezos&#8217; net worth is up by $4.9 billion, making the 56-year-old the world&#8217;s first-ever person to amass a $200 billion fortune.



As of 1:50 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the Amazon founder and CEO is worth $204.6 billion—nearly $90 billion more than the world&#8217;s second-richest person,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/?list=rtb/">Bill Gates</a>, who&#8217;s currently worth $116.1 billion.&nbsp;



Even adjusting for inflation, Forbes believes Bezos&#8217; fortune is the largest ever amassed. The person to come closest is Gates, who was the world&#8217;s first-ever centibillionaire. Near the height of the dot-com bubble, when Microsoft reached its then-peak in 1999, Gates&#8217; net worth surpassed $100 billion, roughly $158 billion in today&#8217;s dollars.



Fueled by the change in consumer habits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon stock is up nearly 80% since the beginning of the year, and Bezos&#8217; net worth, which was roughly $115 billion on January 1, has skyrocketed in tandem. Bezos’ roughly 11% stake in Amazon makes up more than 90% of his fortune. He also owns the&nbsp;Washington Post, aerospace company Blue Origin and other private investments.



Bezos would be even richer had he not gone through the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2019/08/01/mackenzie-bezos-now-officially-worlds-third-richest-woman/">most expensive divorce</a>&nbsp;settlement in history last year. When he split from ex-wife,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mackenzie-scott/?list=rtb/">MacKenzie Scott</a>, last July, he agreed to give her 25% of his Amazon stake, a chunk of stock now worth $63 billion. Even after giving away $1.7 billion in charitable gifts earlier this year, Scott is currently the world&#8217;s 14th-richest person and second-richest woman, behind L&#8217;Oréal heiress&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/francoise-bettencourt-meyers/">Françoise Bettencourt Meyers</a>.&nbsp;



Bezos isn’t alone among tech titans with fortunes surging to massive new heights. Facebook&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?list=rtb/">Mark Zuckerberg</a>&nbsp;ended Tuesday as a brand-new centibillionaire, worth $103.1 billion after adding $3.4 billion to his fortune in one day, on Facebook stock gains. That surge continued early Wednesday afternoon, with Zuckerberg up an astonishing $6 billion just on Wednesday as of publication time. He&#8217;s now worth $109.1 billion.



There are now more centibillionaires on the planet than ever. Joining Bezos, Gates and the newly crowned Zuckerberg is LVMH chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?list=rtb/">Bernard Arnault</a>, who first joined the 12-figure ranks last year. Though his net worth slipped to about $80 billion at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Arnault reclaimed the centibillionaire title in May and today is worth about $115 billion. This makes him the third-richest person on earth–$90 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos.



Update 8/26/2020, 6:05 p.m.: A regulatory filing made public late Wednesday revealed that Bezos donated 7,548 Amazon shares–worth about $26 million–to an undisclosed nonprofit organization. At market close on Wednesday, Bezos was worth $205 billion.



-Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff

Amazon CEO And Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos  Speaks At Air Force Association Air, Space And Cyber Conference

Jeff Bezos Becomes The First Person Ever Worth $200 Billion

After months of requests, the hip-hop superstar shared financial records, revealing details about his wildly popular Yeezy sneaker empire — and his fixation on outside validation.



When last we checked in with Kanye West, the mercurial hip-hop superstar-turned-footwear magnate, I was tiptoeing through a parking lot crop circle composed of hundreds of pairs of his Yeezy sneakers. “I’m not a numbers guy,” he explained ten months ago. “To ask me to somehow translate this to numbers is to ask your grandmother exactly what the recipe of the cake was.”



There’s only one number that West cares about. A billion, as in dollars. And he cares&nbsp;a lot.



When we featured West on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/07/09/kanyes-second-coming-inside-the-billion-dollar-yeezy-empire/">cover</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last summer, delving into his incredible success with Yeezy, he seemed pleased at first. His world-famous wife, Kim Kardashian West, even&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1148660167254274048?s=20" target="_blank">tweeted</a>&nbsp;her congratulations, to the positive affirmations of 32,300 of their closest Twitter friends.But without sufficient documentation on his unusual stake, versus just his word and industry guesstimates, we didn’t call him a billionaire. And that grated on him.&nbsp;As the year wore on, he protested&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/christian-genius-billionaire-kanye-west-talks-2024-presidential-candidacy-moving-yeezy-stateside-1253358" target="_blank">publicly</a>. (“I showed them a $890 million receipt, and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire,’” he told an industry panel, about something that no one at&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;remembers.) In private, he was more biting. (A “disrespectful article,” he texted this week, that was “purposely snubbing me.”)



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="783" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-783x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44642" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-783x1024.jpg 783w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-300x392.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-600x784.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-229x300.jpg 229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-768x1004.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px" /><figcaption>After months of requests, the hip-hop superstar shared his financial records, revealing details on his wildly popular Yeezy sneakers empire—and his own net worth. &nbsp;JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES</figcaption></figure>



When our annual&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/billionaires">billionaires list</a>&nbsp;appeared earlier this month, again with West absent—still no documentation, and now a pandemic to boot—West again reacted with hurt and venom. “You know what you’re doing,” he texted. “You’re toying with me and I’m not finna lye [sic] down and take it anymore in Jesus name.” At one point, he texted that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;was “purposely a part of a group of media” that was trying to suppress his self-made narrative because of his race.&nbsp;That sister-in-law Kylie Jenner did make the list also clearly stuck in his craw.



Then yesterday, a breakthrough: West directed his team to provide what we feel is an authentic numeric look into Kanye, Inc.



Three things became clear from this exercise. First, it reinforces why we put him on the cover in the first place—West, in just a few years, has created a brand that’s challenging Nike’s Air Jordan for sneaker world supremacy. It’s one of the great retail stories of the century.



Second, it reinforced that West, who claims both in words and in this paperwork that he’s worth more than $3 billion, is as overly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2015/09/29/inside-the-epic-fantasy-thats-driven-donald-trump-for-33-years/#225d05ca2037">boastful</a>&nbsp;as his political idol, President Donald Trump. Not a numbers guy? We agree.



Finally, and perhaps most critically to West, it does confirm, based on our estimates, that his stake in Yeezy indeed makes him a billionaire. A bit over $1 billion, actually.



In the process, we can now share more details about Yeezy than ever before revealed—as well as some insight into what drives this extremely creative, extremely enigmatic ten-digit artist.



Yeezy is a complicated asset. West owns 100% of it. But it’s functionally tied, at least for five-plus years based on the documents we saw, to Adidas, which produces, markets and distributes the shoes. There’s also a separate apparel division that we don’t believe makes money. Last year, our sources projected the shoes would finish 2019 with revenue north of $1.5 billion (Adidas would not comment then, or now)—per recent conversations and internal documents, we believe the final revenue number ended up closer to $1.3 billion.



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Our sources told us last year that West’s agreement calls for him to receive a royalty around 15% of Yeezy revenue from Adidas. Upon closer inspection, it appears some expenses are carved out of that slice, bringing his actual cut closer to 11%. At that rate, he would have received royalties of over $140 million from Yeezy sales last year.&nbsp;



West’s aggressive $3 billion self-appraisal is clearly based on the idea that the business is infinitely portable. It’s not. Taking Yeezy away from Adidas seems almost prohibitively cumbersome, if not contractually impossible. A safer way to value it: as a royalty stream, like music publishing or film residuals. Multiples, based on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/05/08/royalty-exchange-cardi-b-jay-z-beyonce-timberlake/#6fd9ea346364">services</a>&nbsp;like Royalty Exchange or in large private transactions, can be as low as three for something faddish like Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” to 17 for an evergreen asset like the Eddie Murphy film&nbsp;Trading Places.&nbsp;



A handful of experts surveyed felt West’s interest would fetch a multiple somewhere in the middle of that range, were it ever made available to outside investors. The convenience of the Adidas setup trumps publishing catalogs, where owners must actively collect payments from a complex web of sources—or outsource that labor to someone else in exchange for an administration fee. “His place in the capital stack is a preferred place to be,” says Royalty Exchange chief Matt Smith, who pegged the multiple at between 10 and 12.



Conservatively, as we typically are with such figures, a 10x multiple, applied to West’s Yeezy cut of $140 million, makes his stake worth about $1.4 billion. But that’s a private, highly illiquid $1.4 billion—our rule-of-thumb for private assets like that is to lop off at least 10%.&nbsp;That’s $1.26 billion.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-1024x785.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44643" width="678" height="519" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-1024x785.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-300x230.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-600x460.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-768x588.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-1536x1177.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy.jpg 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px" /></figure></div>



A handful of experts surveyed felt West’s interest would fetch a multiple somewhere in the middle of that range, were it ever made available to outside investors. The convenience of the Adidas setup trumps publishing catalogs, where owners must actively collect payments from a complex web of sources—or outsource that labor to someone else in exchange for an administration fee. “His place in the capital stack is a preferred place to be,” says Royalty Exchange chief Matt Smith, who pegged the multiple at between 10 and 12.



Conservatively, as we typically are with such figures, a 10x multiple, applied to West’s Yeezy cut of $140 million, makes his stake worth about $1.4 billion. But that’s a private, highly illiquid $1.4 billion—our rule-of-thumb for private assets like that is to lop off at least 10%.&nbsp;That’s $1.26 billion.



Customized real estate often sells for less than the money put in (buyers in that range tend to want their own features, versus Kanye’s Belgian plaster). If you want to start scraping, there’s $3,845,162 for “vehicles,” $297,050 for “livestocks.” Then there’s the matter of his music. Documents we reviewed show West’s G.O.O.D. label—and his own recorded music and publishing rights—to be worth at least $90 million.



We tend to look at self-appraisals somewhat skeptically.&nbsp;Aside from the music, half of all this presumably belongs to his wife, although she’s no slouch and that math goes two ways. Given the illiquidity of these myriad assets and the lack of independent backup, we’re giving all of this a 50% haircut, leaving about $125 million in assets outside of his Yeezy crown jewel.&nbsp;Then, there’s debt: Between mortgages, advances and other liabilities, we saw about $100 million that West is on the hook for.



All told, our current net worth estimate for Kanye West: $1.3 billion, which he’ll be pleased to note is $300 million more than little sister Kylie.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezys.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44644" width="540" height="304" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezys.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezys-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezys-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezys-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /></figure>



The chip on West’s shoulder dates back to his early days growing up in Chicago, where teachers sometimes scolded him for sketching sneaker designs instead of doing his schoolwork. He later produced songs for Jay-Z but felt the elder mogul didn’t view him seriously as a solo act. Over the past decade, West instigated more than his share of narcissistic episodes, including a self-appointed nickname, tour and album,&nbsp;Yeezus, that never seemed to treat his savior complex with much irony. (Typical song: “I Am A God.”)



When viewed through that lens, his famous affinity for President Trump makes a lot of sense. (And it continues unabated—one text to&nbsp;Forbes’ chief content officer this week ended with “Trump 2020” and a raised fist emoji.) As does West’s net worth lobbying—an art practiced, with gusto, for decades, by Trump.



“It’s not a billion,” West texted us last night. “It’s $3.3 billion since no one at&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;knows how to count.”



For years,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2018/04/20/the-5-things-to-know-about-president-trumps-36-year-relationship-with-the-forbes-400/">Forbes&nbsp;had an informal “Trump rule”</a>—take whatever the future president insisted he was worth, divide by 3, and start honing from there. Like mentor,&nbsp;like mentee. Welcome to the ten-digit club, Kanye. You may not like our number, but you’ve joined the highest company in that regard.&nbsp;



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/hollywood-entertainment">Hollywood &amp; Entertainment</a>



Additional reporting by Randall Lane

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Kanye West Is Now Officially A Billionaire—And He Really Wants The World To Know

The gap between the really rich and the merely rich continues to widen, as fortunes soar to new heights. A record 2,208 billionaires made Forbes’ 32 annual ranking of the world’s billionaires. Altogether they are worth a record $9.1 trillion, up 18% from a year ago. The 20 richest people on the planet are worth a staggering $1.2 trillion, a sum roughly equivalent to the annual economic output of Mexico. In aggregate, they may represent less than 1% of total billionaires but their riches amount to 13% of the total fortune of all billionaires worldwide.
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeff Bezos</a> is the richest person on the planet and the first centi-billionaire atop our annual ranking. Shares of his e-commerce giant Amazon rose 59%  in 12 months, helping boost his fortune by $39.2 billion. It was the biggest one year gain since Forbes started tracking billionaires in 1987. He easily moved ahead of Microsoft cofounder <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Gates</a>, who ceded the top spot for only the sixth time since 1995.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/01/10/heres-jeff-bezos-not-truly-richest-person-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Here&#8217;s Why Jeff Bezos Is Not Truly The Richest Man In History</a>
France’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bernard Arnault</a> had the second best year after Bezos. Record results at his luxury goods empire LVMH and a deal to buy out nearly all of Christian Dior helped boost Arnault’s fortune by $30.5 billion. He is the richest European for the first time since 2012 and number four richest in the world.
Two tech entrepreneurs from mainland China climbed into the top 20 for the first time. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ma-huateng/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ma Huateng</a> (also known as Pony Ma) is Asia’s wealthiest person, ranked number 17 in the world, thanks in part to his firm Tencent’s WeChat, a ubiquitous social-messaging app with nearly 1 billion active users. Tencent also has stakes in Tesla, Snapchat parent Snap and music-streaming service Spotify. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-ma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jack Ma</a>, the 20th richest person, is the chief of another e-commerce giant Alibaba, whose shares increased 76% in a year.
Forbes pinned down 259 newcomers who made their fortunes in everything from tech and aerospace to private aviation and wedding dresses. China has the most new faces with 89, while the U.S. is next with 18. That is helping close the gap between the two nations. Altogether the U.S. has more billionaires than any country in the world with 585, while greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) has 476.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/02/01/african-billionaire-fortunes-rise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: African Billionaire Fortunes Rise</a>
On this year&#8217;s list, the billionaires hail from 72 countries and territories, including the first ever from Hungary and <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2014/02/01/dealing-corruption-simple-just-say-no/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zimbabwe</a>. One country not represented: Saudi Arabia. Forbes chose to leave off all 10 Saudis given reports of asset seizures after the Saudi Crown Prince detained some 200 people, including some billionaires, some for as long as three months.
While the vast majority of the world’s billionaires added to their fortunes in the past 12 months, 16% had fortunes that slipped. One notable loser was President <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/donald-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>, whose fortune fell $400 million since March 2017 to a current $3.1 billion. He is now ranked 766 in the world, down from 544.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/03/06/donald-trump-drops-400-million-forbes-billionaires-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Donald Trump Drops $400 Million On Forbes Billionaires List</a>
Go <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for the full list of all the world&#8217;s billionaires.
Methodology
The Forbes World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from February 9, 2018. Some people will become richer or poorer within weeks—even days—of publication. For example, Jeff Bezos’ net worth climbed more than $12 billion in the two weeks between our measuring date for stock prices and when this issue went to press. We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share large fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune. In some cases we list siblings or couples together if the ownership breakdown among them isn’t clear, but here an estimated net worth of $1 billion per person is needed to make the cut. We value a variety of assets, including private companies, real estate, art, yachts and more. We don’t pretend to know each billionaire’s private balance sheet (though some provide it). When documentation isn’t supplied or available, we discount fortunes. For daily updates of net worths, go to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forbes.com/real-time-billionaires</a>. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Luisa Kroll</a>, FORBES STAFF

Forbes Billionaires 2018: Meet The Richest People On The Planet

One year after taking office, President Donald Trump’s fortune is down an estimated $400 million to $3.1 billion on the latest Forbes World’s Billionaires list. His net worth remains even from the most recent Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, released in October. What caused the year-over-year decline? Markets are partially to blame—retail real estate in New York City continues to struggle—but the president’s polarizing personality is costing him business as well.
The rise of ecommerce has pushed down the value of properties like Trump Tower, which sits in the heart of shopping mecca Fifth Avenue in New York City. Forbes estimates that the value of Trump’s most famous building declined $41 million in the last year.
Just around the corner, the president’s property at 6 East 57th Street has suffered even more. Piling onto the market challenges, longtime tenant Nike <a href="https://news.nike.com/news/new-york-city-flagship-store-5th-avenue" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://news.nike.com/news/new-york-city-flagship-store-5th-avenue">announced</a> it is vacating the space this spring. That leaves the Trump Organization in need of a new occupant at its roughly 65,000 square-foot property. “I don’t know of any tenants that need that much space other than department stores,” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/12/06/donald-trumps-real-estate-business-is-losing-one-of-its-most-important-tenants/#3f7bfe35e037" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Manhattan real estate broker Eric Anton. “And I don’t think there are any expanding department stores.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/12/07/donald-trumps-real-estate-business-losing-one-important-tenants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Donald Trump&#8217;s Real Estate Business Losing One Of Its Most Important Tenants</a>
The president’s golf properties have been less affected by market shifts, but they seem more susceptible to political currents. Three of the president’s largest golf clubs are in states that voted for him, and revenues appear to be up more than 5% at all of them. The reverse happened in places where Trump lost to Hillary Clinton, with sales down an estimated 4% in the northeast and Los Angeles. Revenues are also down in Scotland, where the president owns two golf clubs.
The value of Trump’s hotel licensing and management company dropped an estimated $50 million in the last year, as the power of the Trump brand seems to be fading in markets like Toronto and New York, where investors have removed the president’s name from hotels. On Monday, workers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-trump-panama-hotel-showdown-appears-to-end-and-the-trump-name-is-coming-down/2018/03/05/41fa8498-2097-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.9c83cb1f9775" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-trump-panama-hotel-showdown-appears-to-end-and-the-trump-name-is-coming-down/2018/03/05/41fa8498-2097-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.9c83cb1f9775">reportedly pried</a> Trump&#8217;s name off of a third tower, in Panama.
Shortly before Trump became president, his lawyer promised no new foreign deals while Trump was in office, effectively shutting down one potential avenue for growth. Months later, the Trump Organization <a href="http://www.trump.com/getmedia/dfb731db-8915-47e7-a501-9f1ce10cc628/Trump-Hotels-AI-SCION-Announcement-FINAL/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.trump.com/getmedia/dfb731db-8915-47e7-a501-9f1ce10cc628/Trump-Hotels-AI-SCION-Announcement-FINAL/">announced</a> plans for two new domestic brands, named Scion and American Idea. So far, they have only announced four deals. “I just think it’s an impossible mission,” says one hotel expert.
There are bright spots in the president’s portfolio. Downtown Manhattan office space is performing better than midtown retail, helping boost Trump’s most valuable property, 40 Wall Street, by an estimated $32 million.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/10/12/50-minutes-oval-office-citizen-trump-barely-word-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: 50 Minutes In The Oval Office With Citizen Trump &#8211; And Barely A Word About His Money</a>
Real estate tycoon Steven Roth may be doing more to add to the president’s fortune than anyone else. As CEO of publicly traded Vornado Realty Trust, Roth oversees management of 1290 Avenue of the Americas in New York and 555 California Street in San Francisco, two properties in which Trump owns a 30% interest. Profits surged an estimated 15% at the New York building, and the market continues to thrive in San Francisco, boosting the value of Trump’s two holdings by a combined $71 million.
Forbes also uncovered additional information that bumped up the value of certain assets while diminishing the value of others. The president paid off a loan against Niketown, for example, and apparently drew down an additional $45 million in debt at his Washington D.C. hotel.
It all adds up to an estimated $3.1 billion fortune—a far cry from the $10 billion-plus that Trump <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150723222800/https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-files-personal-financial-disclosure-statement-with-federal" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://web.archive.org/web/20150723222800/https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-files-personal-financial-disclosure-statement-with-federal">once claimed</a> but nonetheless enough to make him the richest president in U.S. history. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Dan Alexander</a>, FORBES STAFF

Donald Trump Drops $400 Million On Forbes Billionaires List

The old man would have been proud. You could find your way to the party of the year, blindfolded, by following the skirl of the pipes and whiff of fine whiskey.
The lowly Scottish roots of Bertie Charles Forbes – the son of a humble tailor of New Deer, Aberdeenshire – were bound up with the celebration of 100 years of the glossy world famous billionaire’s magazine that he founded. Pipers in tartan kilts blasted out the sound of the Highlands at the entrance to the big name party at Chelsea Pier, overlooking the Hudson River, in New York, in tribute to the journalist and entrepreneur. A man who never forgot where he came from and lies buried beneath the damp soil of New Deer thousands of miles across the Atlantic.
Parsimony could have been his middle name. Forbes, who grew up poor as a church mouse, was a struggling immigrant to this city who carved out a life by writing about money and avoiding lending or spending it – a lesson for us all. He bootstrapped his magazine to world fame, with a tiny investment, by keeping a careful eye on the pennies.
“My grandfather once asked me ‘how do you make copper wire?’ Simply get two Scotsmen to fight over a penny!” says grandson Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of the magazine, in his element on stage.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/11/03/lessons-ideas-100-greatest-living-minds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Lessons And Ideas By The 100 Greatest Living Business Minds</a>
BC Forbes, who worked as a journalist in South Africa on his way to fame and fortune, died in 1954 in New York, the city where he worked his way up from walking the streets, jobless, to the top tables. He was there, in spirit, in the shape of one of his favorite tailored tweed suits worn by grandson Kip Forbes. It was made in the 1940s, yet looked like it was cut yesterday.
“I managed to rescue it from the mothballs and felt it was important to wear it tonight,” Kip told me.
Was his grandfather really that parsimonious?
“I think he was very shrewd. My grandfather used to say: I don’t give advice, I sell it!’” says Kip with a broad smile.
Kip’s favourite story was he the time his grandfather questioned, angrily, his gentle grandmother, Adelaide, over her frivolous spending.
“But I like spending money,” she replied sweetly and slowly to the old man’s exasperation.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/homepage/2017/09/22/cheer-better-times-ahead-world-economy-steve-forbes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cheer up, better times ahead for world economy &#8211; Steve Forbes</a>
In later years, Adelaide was described by her son, Malcom, who took over the editorship of Forbes from his father, as an early Keynesian who believed that prosperity came through increased spending. If his father hadn’t been dead already, the thought of her spending would have killed him – in fact, Malcom said, it could have been enough to resurrect him.
Wally Forbes, now in his 90s, the youngest and surviving son of BC Forbes, attended the 100th birthday dressed in a kilt. He recalled, as a young man, he took some friends for lunch at the famous New York Athletic Club where his father was a member.
Soon afterwards came a terse, angry note from his father asking: “Who, for example, ordered the $5 lobster, I would personally never consider indulging in such extravagance.”
<div id="attachment_34301" style="width: 511px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34301" class=" wp-image-34301" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Patrice-Motsepe-Forbes@100-e1510041659749.jpg" alt="" width="501" height="341" />Patrice Motsepe (left) and Jacqueline Novogratz (right) are joined onstage by other influential business people and philanthropists. (Photo by Getty Images)</div>
Many of the billion-dollar names who came to Chelsea Pier, to pay homage to their chronicler Forbes, are not bothered in the slightest by extravagance. Wherever you looked there were people who know how to make money, in weird and wonderful ways, and spend it.
“Look, there’s the founder of Tinder,” a fellow guest nudged me.
The big names were everywhere: Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys; Steve Wynn; Muhammad Yunus; Steve Case and Jack Welch. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, worth $130 million according to Forbes, placed a huge wet kiss on the back of the head of Steve Forbes as he bounded on stage, as one of the 100 best business brains, to one of the biggest cheers of the night.
At the centre of it all was Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, who appears to improve with age as much as his investments.
“Forbes is living proof that you should never sell short,” he quipped to more cheers.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/09/20/forbes-magazine-100-years-hits-flops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes Magazine: 100 Years Of Hits And Flops</a>
True enough, Forbes is a worldwide concern now, with versions in scores of countries from Mexico to Russia and Azerbaijan. FORBES AFRICA was proud to become the 16th English language version, in 2011, going from strength to strength. It was an honor for us to be there on this historic night.
Speaking of historic there was no messing around when it came to bringing a legend onstage to top the night off. On came Stevie Wonder, almost as seasoned as the magazine, alone with a keyboard and straight into: My Cherie Amour.
<div id="attachment_34302" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34302" class=" wp-image-34302" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Warren-Buffett-Forbes@100-e1510041870963.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="419" />Warren Buffett onstage with other influential business people and philanthropists at the Forbes@100 celebration. Photo by Getty Images)</div>
Thirty seven years ago I danced, slowly, in the dark, with a young lady at the town hall to Wonder’s beautiful: Lately. “I’m a man of many wishes… ”
On that night, this then-awkward-and-confused teenager dreamed of exploring the whole wide world. Yet, if you had told me then that I would stand a few yards from the great man, in New York, I would have accused you of drinking too much of the rough cider that used to flow over the town hall bar like water. A lifetime later, I have explored the world, I was in New York, with the garnered skill to write about it; unforgettable and priceless in a room where wealth was everywhere.
The last words of the night went to Steve Forbes, who was fast becoming the wit of Chelsea Pier. He pointed out that Forbes had been launched in the same year as the Russian Revolution in 1917.
“My grandfather would have been very proud that his magazine outlived communism,” says Forbes to applause.
“We look forward to celebrating our next century and, if medical technology advances far enough, many of you will be there to celebrate it with us.”
As the laughter died down Forbes could not resist another light-hearted dig at his grandfather’s parsimonious Scottish roots as he lifted a fine glass of 18-year-old single malt Scotch – courtesy of one of the sponsors of the night – to his lips. The toast was Forbes, 100 years&#8230;
“My grandfather would have appreciated us toasting this anniversary with Scotch whiskey… especially as it is free!”
A final reminder that the Forbes founder’s innate care with money fostered a magazine that has survived the outrageous fortune of turbulent history with all its wars, revolutions and depressions. Cheers to the millions who read Forbes from Africa to Azerbaijan – may it enrich your lives.

The Night Of The Century

FORBES and Donald Trump. Talk about a complicated relationship. It&#8217;s been so for 35 years, since the birth of The Forbes 400. First, he was Playboy Trump. Then, The Donald. Then, Republican-candidate Trump. As New York&#8217;s ringmaster extraordinaire, he loved our rich list&#8211;until the newest one came out. Then he hated it, or at least the number we pinned on him. It was always too low&#8211;or &#8220;very low,&#8221; as only he can say it. As legend goes, it was so low one year he had words with the Forbes family.
Now, as president of the United States, he sent signals he wanted another Forbes cover (his fourth solo cover), much like celebrities rack up hosting gigs on Saturday Night Live. In the midst of a national tragedy, hurricanes and his early morning Twitter fisticuffs, he was ready to make the time. We were ready to oblige &#8211; in return for an interview focused on the first business president. Forbes and Trump. Maybe it&#8217;s more of a functional codependency.
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Trump is Trump. He will always be so, whether sitting behind a majestic desk in the Oval Office, where we talked with him last week, or at the &#8220;very best&#8221; table at Jean-Georges, a three-star Michelin restaurant in the Trump International Hotel &amp; Tower adjacent to Columbus Circle, where he took me to lunch several years ago. Yet this time he feigned no interest in his billions. No accountant was in tow to prove his net worth. Surrounding him this day were paintings, sculptures and writings of Washington and Lincoln. During our <a href="https://www.forbes.com/donald-trump/exclusive-interview/#62546f30bdec" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50-minute interview</a> he never asked what the number would be, sparing us a tongue-lashing and an inaugural-crowd-like media brouhaha.
America&#8217;s CEO for ten months, Trump&#8217;s unique C-suite mind has upended all White House norms, yet his new responsibilities humbled him for a split second&#8211;&#8220;Nothing prepares you for &#8230; when you send missiles, that means people are going to die. And nothing prepares you for that.&#8221; That can make it a &#8220;lonely&#8221; job, he says. He certainly snapped to life as our camera crew walked in. Remember, he is the master of his own image and was fixated on the photography.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2011/10/01/west-africas-donald-trump-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">West Africa&#8217;s Donald Trump?</a>
And he loves his current real estate, even though it can never really be his. The president joyfully showed our editor, Randall Lane, and me a bit of his new stomping grounds&#8211;a well-appointed terrace, a now-covered pool, a fabled room and the beautiful golf-course-like greenery outside his Oval Office window. He seemed as proud of the landscape as he is of Mar-a-Lago. From the Big Apple to the nation&#8217;s capital, Forbes and Trump live on. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lewisdvorkin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Lewis DVorkin</a>, FORBES STAFF

50 Minutes In The Oval Office With Citizen Trump – And Barely A Word About His Money

April 1927: B.C. Forbes takes on automobile pioneer Henry Ford, praising his manufacturing successes, but railing against his virulent anti-Semitism. Ford issues an apology.
May 1929: A B.C. Forbes column warns &#8220;Stocks too high&#8221; five months before the market begins a slide that will take it down 85%.
December 1929: Though Forbes declares the worst is over for stocks, the market remains down for the next three years.
June 1932: A little-known Columbia University lecturer named Benjamin Graham writes an article saying crash had been way overdone, saying stocks are cheap. With the Dow at 45, it was nearly the bottom.
July 1956: Forbes is the first magazine to launch an Annual Report on Mutual Funds, including performance grades in Up and Down markets. The survey is widely followed and copied.
July 1963: A Forbes cover story examines the evidence that tobacco causes cancer and concludes, &#8220;The U.S. tobacco industry is headed for trouble of a kind no other industry has ever seen.&#8221;
September 1972: &#8220;The New Super Money Men&#8221; cover is the first to identify the rise of professional athletes and their managers as business-focused enterprises.
December 1972: A cover story predicts Mazda&#8217;s rotary engine will take over Detroit. Its popularity stalls soon after.
November 1974: In the depths of a bear market, Warren Buffett tells Forbes that stocks are cheap. &#8220;I feel like an oversexed man in a harem. This is the time to start investing.&#8221; Stocks soon rise.
August 1980: Chrysler is near bankruptcy and written off by the media. Forbes accurately predicts a comeback under the leadership of auto veteran Lee Iacocca.
November 1984: A Forbes investigative team is the first to shine a light on Drexel Burnham&#8217;s Michael Milken and his junk bond money machine.
November 1987: Despite dire predictions, a Forbes cover story assures readers that there would be no serious economic downturn as a result of the October 1987 crash. The market ends the year with a gain.
May 1990: &#8220;How Rich Is Donald?&#8221; A cover story digs deep into Trump&#8217;s finances, exposing a liquidity crunch and revealing a net worth of only $500 million versus the $4 billion he claimed.
April 1992: The magazine puts a tulip bulb on the cover and advises our readers not to put any new money into the stock market. The bull market rages on, almost without interruption, for eight more years.
March 1993: George Gilder&#8217;s cover story &#8220;Telecosm &#8221; in Forbes ASAP, predicts the coming wireless Web and computers the size of a wallet that would store your life&#8211;smartphones.
April 1994: Midway through Bill Clinton&#8217;s first term as president, a cover exclaimed: &#8220;Why Bill Clinton Looks Like a One-Termer.&#8221;
December 1996: In &#8220;Gilbert Amelio&#8217;s Grand Scheme to Save Apple&#8221; Forbes predicts that a new OS will save Apple, which would squash Microsoft. Amelio is ousted within seven months&#8211;by Steve Jobs.
December 1996: In &#8220;Is He the Godfather of the Kremlin?&#8221; Forbes reveals how Russia&#8217;s Boris Berezovsky, is the real muscle behind President Yeltsin. The oligarch will factor heavily in the selection of Vladimir Putin.
December 1998: A cover story on &#8220;Tax Shelter Hustlers&#8221; reveals a myriad of income tax avoidance maneuvers by leading accounting firms and their corporate clients and prompts alarm at Treasury and in Congress.
January 1999: &#8220;Amateur Hour on Wall Street&#8221; warns that a growing mob of novices, armed with cheap, fast PCs and e-brokerage accounts, is fueling a dangerous speculative tech stock bubble. Fourteen months later&#8211;pop!
April 2008: A cover story, &#8220;No Thain, No Gain,&#8221; gushes over Merrill Lynch and its ill-fated CEO, John Thain. Within a year, Merrill Lynch is bailed out by Bank of America and Thain is ousted amid scandal.
November 2008: With the financial crisis in full bloom, Steve Forbes&#8217; cover story, &#8220;How Capitalism Will Save Us&#8221; extols the underlying strengths of the U.S. economy and accurately predicts a resumption of the global boom.
October 2011: The magazine calls Chesapeake Energy&#8217;s CEO Aubrey McClendon, &#8220;America&#8217;s Most Reckless Billionaire.&#8221; Two years later, he&#8217;s out as CEO. Within five years, he dies in a car accident one day after being indicted for bid-rigging.
February 2013: A cover story on Airbnb identifies the share-economy as a new disruptive threat in a myriad of industries from hotels to car rentals to camping.
September 2015: In &#8220;Money&#8217;s New Operating System&#8221; Forbes predicts that the blockchain will become the &#8220;dial tone for the 21st-century global economy.&#8221;
June 2016: Forbes exposes billionaire Peter Thiel as the hidden money behind Hulk Hogan&#8217;s $140 million libel case against Gawker.
December 2016: The magazine chronicles how billionaire Kenneth Feld keeps Ringling Brothers circus alive. Within six months, the 146-year old entertainment business is shuttered.
March 2017: A cover package called &#8220;In Trump They Trust&#8221; exposes the vast web of global business partners&#8211;from Indonesia to Panama&#8211;cashing in on the 45th president.
Paul Klebnikov (1963-2004)
Bold journalism takes brave journalists, and Forbes has produced none braver than Paul Klebnikov, who climbed the ranks to become founding editor of Forbes Russia. Klebnikov launched the magazine at a time, like now, when the powers-that-be didn&#8217;t appreciate tough questions. And he asked them, chronicling the looting of the country by crony capitalists, the rise of organized crime and the war in Chechnya.
On July 9, 2004, Klebnikov was shot nine times with a semiautomatic pistol as he left his Moscow office. Just 41, he left behind a wife and three children. While Russian officials have never brought his killer to justice, some investigators have tried to pin the killing on now-deceased oligarch Boris Berezovsky, whom Klebnikov had dubbed the &#8220;Godfather of the Kremlin.&#8221; Others point to Chechen criminals. A team of investigative reporters, Project Klebnikov, continues to seek answers. And a generation of Forbes journalists, inspired by his fearless reporting, continue to ask tough questions.
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Matt Schifrin</a>, FORBES STAFF

Forbes Magazine: 100 Years Of Hits And Flops

The cutoff to qualify among the world&#8217;s most valuable sports franchises is higher than ever, up 18% this year to $1.75 billion. There are 36 franchises worth at least $1 billion that did not make the top 50. Credit soaring TV contracts for the rising franchise values, as well as labor deals with players that almost ensure profitability barring outrageous spending on payroll by an owner.
No sports league is as profitable as the NFL where the average team earned an operating profit (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $91 million and no one banked less than $26 million. The boffo profits helped 29 NFL teams rank among the 50 most valuable franchises (only the Bengals, Lions and Bills missed the cut). Other sports include eight MLB clubs and seven each from the NBA and European soccer.
The Dallas Cowboys lead for the second straight year at $4.2 billion. Jerry Jones&#8217; team unseated Real Madrid last year as the most valuable sports team. The Spanish soccer powerhouse had ranked No. 1 for three straight years.
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Below is the full list of the most valuable teams across all sports (51 this year thanks to a tie at $1.75 billion between the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim). Values are based on Forbes valuations done over the past year for NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, F1, soccer and Nascar (no NHL, F1 or Nascar teams made the top 50).
Rank, Team, Value, 1-Yr change (Sport)
1. Dallas Cowboys, $4.2 billion, 5% (NFL)
2. New York Yankees, $3.7 billion, 9% (MLB)
3. Manchester United, $3.69 billion, 11% (Soccer)
4. Barcelona, $3.64 billion, 2% (Soccer)
5. Real Madrid, $3.58 billion, -2% (Soccer)
6. New England Patriots, $3.4 billion, 6% (NFL)
7. New York Knicks, $3.3 billion, 10% (NBA)
8. New York Giants, $3.1 billion, 11% (NFL)
9. San Francisco 49ers, $3 billion, 11% (NFL)
9. Los Angeles Lakers, $3 billion, 11% (NBA)
11. Washington Redskins, $2.95 billion, 4% (NFL)
12. Los Angeles Rams, $2.9 billion, 100% (NFL)
13. New York Jets, $2.75 billion, 6% (NFL)
13. Los Angeles Dodgers, $2.75 billion, 10% (MLB)
15. Bayern Munich, $2.71 billion, 1% (Soccer)
16. Chicago Bears, $2.7 billion, 10% (NFL)
16. Boston Red Sox, $2.7 billion, 17% (MLB)
18. Chicago Cubs, $2.68 billion, 22% (MLB)
19. San Francisco Giants, $2.65 billion, 18% (MLB)
20. Houston Texans, $2.6 billion, 4% (NFL)
20. Golden State Warriors, $2.6 billion, 37% (NBA)
22. Philadelphia Eagles, $2.5 billion, 4% (NFL)
22. Chicago Bulls, $2.5 billion, 9% (NBA)
24. Denver Broncos, $2.4 billion, 24% (NFL)
25. Miami Dolphins, $2.38 billion, 28% (NFL)
26. Green Bay Packers, $2.35 billion, 21% (NFL)
27. Baltimore Ravens, $2.3 billion, 19% (NFL)
28. Pittsburgh Steelers, $2.25 billion, 18% (NFL)
29. Seattle Seahawks, $2.25 billion, 19% (NFL)
30. Minnesota Vikings, $2.2 billion, 38% (NFL)
30. Boston Celtics, $2.2 billion, 5% (NBA)
32. Indianapolis Colts, $2.18 billion, 16% (NFL)
33. Atlanta Falcons, $2.13 billion, 27% (NFL)
34. Oakland Raiders, $2.1 billion, 47% (NFL)
35. Manchester City, $2.083 billion, 8% (Soccer)
36. Los Angeles Chargers, $2.08 billion, 36% (NFL)
37. Carolina Panthers, $2.075 billion, 33% (NFL)
38. Arizona Cardinals, $2.025 billion, 31% (NFL)
39. Tennessee Titans, $2 billion, 34% (NFL)
39. Los Angeles Clippers, $2 billion, 0% (NBA)
39. New York Mets, $2 billion, 21% (MLB)
42. Jacksonville Jaguars, $1.95 billion, 32% (NFL)
43. Arsenal, $1.93 billion, -4% (Soccer)
44. Kansas City Chiefs, $1.88 billion, 23% (NFL)
45. Cleveland Browns, $1.85 billion, 23% (NFL)
46. Chelsea, $1.845 billion, 11% (Soccer)
47. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, $1.8 billion, 19% (NFL)
47. Brooklyn Nets, $1.8 billion, 6% (NBA)
47. St Louis Cardinals, $1.8 billion, 12% (MLB)
50. New Orleans Saints, $1.75 billion, 16% (NFL)
50. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, $1.75 billion, 31% (MLB)
Written by <a class="link preload-hidden ng-binding" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, FORBES STAFF

Full List: The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2017

The wealthiest women in the US have gotten even richer over the past year. Buoyed by a strong stock market and rising real estate prices, the combined net worth of the ten richest women on The Forbes 400 is $156.6 billion, up from $124.2 billion last year.
Altogether there are 48 women on this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, up from 45 last year. Newcomers include Elaine Marshall, who inherited a stake in private conglomerate Koch Industries from her late husband, and Anne Gittinger, granddaughter of the co-founder of Nordstrom  department stores.
Another new woman is a longtime Forbes 400 member: James Pritzker, a former lieutenant colonel in the army and an heir to the extended Chicago Pritzker family fortune, announced in August that she will now be known as Jennifer Pritzker. That makes her the first transgender billionaire. Pritzker runs the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.
<div id="attachment_5799" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5799" class="size-medium wp-image-5799" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/006-Lauren-Powell-Jobs-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Lauren Powell Jobs</div>
The wealthiest woman in America, Christy Walton, is also the world’s richest woman, with a net worth Forbes pegs at $35.4 billion. Walton inherited a stake in retailer Wal-Mart and a chunk of stock in solar firm First Solar FSLR -1.23% when her husband, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.
Walton ranks 6th on The Forbes 400 list. She leads a very private life in Jackson, Wyoming but in August had a rare bit of publicity when was given an award by the Imagen Foundation for producing the film Bless Me, Ultima, based on the book by Rudolfo Anaya, who is considered the father of Chicano literature. Walton, aged 59, has faced a number of difficulties in her life in addition to her husband’s death. Her son – her only child – battled cancer when he was just three years old and she fought a case of pneumonia that nearly killed her, according to the Imagen Foundation.
America’s second-richest woman is Alice Walton, sister-in-law of Christy Walton and daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Forbes puts her net worth at $33.5 billion, a fortune mostly comprised of stock she inherited in Wal-Mart and her art collection. She ranks 8th on The Forbes 400. Alice Walton opened the Crystal Springs Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2011, and it has proved to be a popular attraction, already clocking 1 million visitors.
<div id="attachment_5801" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5801" class="size-medium wp-image-5801" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/004-Abigain-Johnson-300x229.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="229" />Abigain Johnson</div>
Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, ranks 35th on The Forbes 400. She is the richest woman in Silicon Valley and is the 6th richest woman on the list, with a net worth of $11.7 billion.
Women still make up a minority of The Forbes 400 richest – just 12% of this elite group. Most of the women inherited their fortunes; only seven of the 45 started their own businesses or co-founded them with their husbands.
&nbsp;

Tag: Forbes

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