World's Richest People 2008

Following are World's Top 10 Richest people, according to the list published by Forbes on 11th of February 2008. Since then Top 6 positions are still retained by the same individual, however there is a change at position 7, where Rinat Akhmetov from Ukarine has taken over the place, pushing the other people one step downwards. But since this change is not yet official, as the listings are made annually, so the official list is being published here.

1 - Warren Buffett
Age: 77
Fortune: Self Made
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Net Worth: $62.0 billion
Country Of Citizenship: United States
Industry: Investments
Marital Status: widowed, remarried, 3 children

Warren Buffet soared past friend and bridge partner Bill Gates as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed 25% since the middle of last July. Son of Nebraska politician delivered newspapers as a boy. Filed first tax return at age 13, claiming $35 deduction for bicycle. Studied under value investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia. Took over textile firm Berkshire Hathaway 1965. Today holding company invested in insurance (Geico, General Re), jewelry (Borsheim’s), utilities (MidAmerican Energy), food (Dairy Queen, See’s Candies). Also has noncontrolling stakes in Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo. Insurance operations flourished in 2007. Had long promised to give away his fortune posthumously. Irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire shares to charity in 2006, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gift was valued at $31 billion on day of announcement; donation will far exceed that sum so long as Berkshire shares continue to rise.

2 - Carlos Slim Helu
Age: 68
Fortune: Self Made
Source: Telmex, América Móvil
Net Worth: $60.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: Mexico
Industry: Communications
Marital Status: widowed, 6 children

Second-richest man in the world this year, thanks to strong Mexican equities market and the performance of his wireless telephone company, America Movil. The son of a Lebanese immigrant, Slim made his first fortune in 1990 when he bought fixed line operator Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) in a privatization. In December, America Movil struck a deal with Yahoo to provide mobile Web services to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years, he has donated close to $7 billion worth of cash and stock to fund education and health projects, and to the revitalization of Mexico City’s downtown historical district.

3 - William Henry Gates III (Bill Gates)

Age: 52
Fortune: Self Made
Source: Microsoft
Net Worth: $58.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: United States
Industry: Software
Marital Status: married, 3 children

Harvard dropout and Microsoft visionary is no longer the world’s richest man. Blame Yahoo: Microsoft shares have fallen 15% since the company boldly attempted to merge with the search engine giant to better fight Google for Internet dominance. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has $38.7 billion in assets, donates to causes aimed at bringing financial tools to the poor, speeding up the development of vaccines (for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis), bettering America’s lagging high schools. Sells 20 million Microsoft shares every quarter, proceeds going to private investment vehicle Cascade; more than half of net worth now outside of Microsoft.

4 - Lakshmi Mittal
Age: 57
Fortune: Inherited
Source: Arcelor Mittal
Net Worth: $45.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Manufacturing
Marital Status: married, 2 children

Lakshmi Mittal was born and raised in India, but created most of his fortune from his London base. The company he inherits, ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, accounts for about 10% of the world’s steel production. Mittal is also the richest resident in Europe today. He is now living in Kensington Palace Gardens, the property he bought from Formula One honcho Bernie Ecclestone for about $130 million.

5 - Mukesh Ambani
Age: 50
Fortune: Inherited
Source: Reliance Industries
Net Worth: $43.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Manufacturing
Marital Status: married, 3 children

Receiving an MBA from prestigious Stanford University and being valued at $43 billion make Mukesh Ambani both rich and smart. Rumor has it that he never completed his Stanford studies but he would care little about it now. Mukesh now heads India’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries, founded by his late father, and is also a Fortune 500 company. He is also the first ever Indian citizen to have reached a trillion mark in terms of net worth (In Indian currency).

6 - Anil Ambani
Age: 48
Fortune: Inherited
Source: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
Net Worth: $42.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Diversified
Marital Status: married, 2 children

Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Energy, and was formerly Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited. His personal stake in Reliance Communications is 66%. Reliance group is India's largest business house, founded by Anil's late father Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002). His mother is Kokilaben Ambani. He is married to Tina Ambani (Munim) who was a well known Indian Actress in early 80's, and with whom he has two sons, Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul. He has been linked with buying Newcastle United and Everton premier league football clubs. He recently raised $3 billion from the highly anticipated initial offering of his Reliance Power, the biggest in India’s history.

7 - Ingvar Kamprad
Age: 81
Fortune: Self Made
Source: IKEA
Net Worth: $31.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: Sweden
Industry: Retailing
Marital Status: married, 4 children

Ingvar Kamprad is most likely less popular than the company he founded, IKEA. Born dyslexic did not stop Kampard from bringing up one of the most successful companies in the world. He once admitted that the Swedish-sounding names of the IKEA furniture were chosen because of his difficulty remembering stock numbers. Interestingly enough, despite his wealth, Kamprad still keeps the habit of eating in cheap restaurants, flying economy class and avoiding himself from wearing the suit.

8 - KP Singh (Kushal Pal Singh)
Age: 76
Fortune: Inherited
Source: DLF Group
Net Worth: $30.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Real Estate
Marital Status: married, 3 children

The property businessman was not anywhere in the top 10 list last year but the successful listing of his company, DLF Limited tripled his fortune and jumped him to 8th place this year. The company now is the largest estate developer in India. Singh graduated in engineering, before recruited by the Indian Army soon after his graduation, and later turned to corporate world. Now practically retired, the running of the company is left to his children.

9 - Oleg Deripaska
Age: 40
Fortune: Self Made
Source: Rusal
Net Worth: $28.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: Russia
Industry: Diversified
Marital Status: married, 2 children

If for the past few years it is always Roman Abramovich who always made headlines as both Chelsea owner and Russia’s richest man, it’s now Oled Deripaska’s turn. Oleg is the youngest in Top 10 Billionaires this year. Oleg is the Chairman of RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium company, which employs a massive 100,000 people across a number of countries and continents. Like Roman, Oleg also has a home based in London, and as a matter of fact, was once rumored to have interest in taking over Chelsea’s great rival, Arsenal.

10 - Karl Albrecht
Age: 88
Fortune: Self Made
Source: Aldi Süd
Net Worth: $27.0 billion
Country of Citizenship: Germany
Industry: Retailing
Marital Status: married, 2 children

With little formal education, the Germany’s richest man started a small grocery store with his mother and brother.The first Aldi ( Albrecht-Discount )was opened in 1961, after the end of the World War II, which soon grew into a large discount supermarket. It did not stop there as the family opened up more and more supermarket and today the company can be proud with themselves with over 8,000 stores worldwide. Albrecht is a man very much elusive of publicity. He is a fan of golf, and plays at his personal golf course, the Öschberghof, which he built in 1976. He also raises orchids. In 1994, Karl Albrecht removed himself from the daily operations of Aldi Süd and took the position of chairman of the board. At the beginning of 2002, he also relinquished this position, thereby completely ceding control of the firm. Today, the business is no longer run by any of Karl Albrecht’s family members.