Money Matters -
August 2008
1) Alike Dangote
Company: The Dangote Group
Position: Chairman, President
Industry: Manufacturing
Country: Nigeria
Aliko Dangote, is the second richest black person in the world and Nigeria’s first billionaire with an estimated net worth of $3.3 billion dollars (March 2008). Forbes magazine ranks him as the 334th richest man in the world.
Mr. Dangote is the founder of the Dangote Group, which has operations in Nigeria and several other countries in West Africa.
The Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria, as he is the major sugar supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to Nigeria’s largest Industrial group, including Dangote Sugar Refinery (the most capitalized company on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, valued at over $3 billion with Aliko Dangote’s equity topping $2 billion), Africa’s largest Cement Production Plant: Obajana Cement, Dangote Flour amongst others.
2) Michael Lee-Chin
Born: Port Antonio, Jamaica, 1951
Company: AIC Limited
Position: Founder, Executive Chairman
Industry: Financial Services
Country: Canada
Michael has distinct beliefs regarding wealth creation, role modelship, and his firm’s investment strategy. AIC’s goal is to create long-term wealth for investors. To achieve that objective, Michael looked for role models – those business people who created wealth in society by owning one or two businesses. For this reason, Michael established AIC’s investment philosophy of buying few excellent businesses in long-term growth sectors and holding these businesses for the long term in order to help AIC investors prosper by preserving and growing their capital and minimizing taxes.
As a result of his investment philosophy, AIC stands today as one of the largest privately held mutual fund companies in Canada. Michael was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997. In 2002, he earned the Harry Jerome Award for a decade of achievement. Michael has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Canadian Business, Black Enterprise, National Post and Time magazines.
Forbes Magazine ranks him as the 365th (2006) richest person in the world with a net worth of $2.1 billion, making him the richest black person in the world. Recently formed a $1 billion private equity group based in Toronto to invest in the Caribbean.
3) Mohammed Al Amoudi
Born: 1946, Dessie, Ethiopia
Company: Corral Petroleum Holdings, MIDROC Ethiopia
Position: Chairman
Industry: Petroleum,
Country: Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia
Mohammed Al Amoudi, is Ethiopia’s richest man and the richest black person in the world, with a net worth of $9 billion.
Mr. Al Amoudi owns a broad portfolio of businesses in oil, mining, agriculture, hotels, hospitals, finance, operations and maintenance. He owns Swedish refinery Preem as well as Svenska Petroleum, which made big plays in Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Angola in 2008.
Mr. Al Amoudi has invested more than $1 billion in Ethiopia. He controls his vast business conglomerate through two holding and operating companies, Corral Petroleum Holdings and MIDROC. His companies employs over 40,000 people through these companies.
Mr. Al Amoudi holds an honorary doctorate in Philosophy from Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University.
4) Oprah Winfrey
Born: January 29, 1954
Company: Harpo Inc.,
Position: Chairman
Industry: Media
Country: United States
Oprah Gail Winfrey is the chairman of Harpo, Inc., Harpo Productions, Inc., Harpo Studios, Inc., Harpo Films, Inc., Harpo Print, LLC and Harpo Video, Inc. She is one of a handful of women who are self made billionaires, and is the only black female billionaire, with a 1.4 billion fortune.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is the highest-rated TV talk show in history and is seen in 110 countries. Ms. Oprah is co-founder of Oxygen Media, which was formed in November 1998 along with fellow founders Geraldine Laybourne, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Mandabach. Oxygen Media includes the Oxygen Network, a women’s cable network that launched on February 2, 2000 and is currently available in 48 million homes across the country.
5) Patrice Motsepe
Born: January, 28, 1962, Johannesburg
Company: African Rainbow Minerals Limited
Position: Chairman
Industry: Mining
Country: South Africa
Patrice Motsepe
Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is Executive Chairman of African Rainbow Minerals Limited, ARM, a leading, niche-diversified mining and minerals company, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also the non-executive Chairman of Harmony and the Deputy Chairman of Sanlam. His various business responsibilities include being President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), which is the voice of organised business in South Africa. He is also president of Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.
Mr. Motsepe began his business career as a child when he would wake early to help his entrepreneurial father by selling liquor to mine workers at his father’s shop. “I must have been about eight when my dad said one day, We make so much money when you’re behind the counter you should take over the business when you grow up. But it was hard work, from 6am to 8pm. I soon realised I needed to choose a career that would keep me away from that shop! That’s how I came to decide when was only eight that I’d become a lawyer.”He went on to earn a BA from Swaziland University and a LLB from Wits University.
Mr.Motsepe formed African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) in 1997 and acquired a number of marginal shafts at Vaal Reefs in January 1998 on favorable financial terms, followed by the purchase of other marginal shafts owned by AngloGold in the Free State.
6) Robert L. Johnson
Date of Birth: April 8, 1946, in Hickory, Mississippi.
Education: University of Illinois, BA, 1968; Princeton University, MPA, 1972.
Company: The RLJ Company
Position: Founder, CEO
Industry: Real Estate, Hospitality, Professional Sports, Media and Entertainment, Gaming
Country: United States
Robert Louis Johnson graduated from the University of Illinois in 1968 and then earned a Masters degree in public administration from Princeton University. He then moved to Washington D.C. where he launched his career in television.
While working as a lobbyist for the National Cable Television Association (NCTA). He began toying with the idea of developing a television network that targeted Black Americans BET became the first and largest black-owned broadcasting company and the first black-owned business to go public on the New York Stock Exchange.
BET was sold to VIACOM for $3 billion dollars on November 3, 2000 making Johnson one of its largest share holders and the first Black American Billionaire. Johnson stepped down as CEO of BET in January 2006.
Since selling BET, Johnson has become the first black majority owner of a major sports team, the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, which Johnson named after himself. He is also the owner of the largest African-American owned hotel investment company, RLJ Development, LLC., launched in December 2000 in Bethesda, Maryland. RLJ Development, LLC., is a division of The RLJ Companies, a diverse portfolio of companies in the financial services, real estate, hospitality, professional sports, media and entertainment, and gaming.
