Big hearts but even bigger bank balances: The dozen billionaires planning to spread their wealth around
Spreading the wealth: Billionaires (l-r) Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, Bill and Melinda Gates, Pete Peterson, Leon Black, Jon Bon Jovi, Marc Benioff, David Rubenstein, Steve Case, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Marc Andreessen
Congregated behind closed doors of the grandiose Trustees Room at New York Public Library, this group of individuals made for the wealthiest gathering in the world.
The twelve – Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bill and Melinda Gates, Pete Petersen, Leon Black, Jon Bon Jovi, Marc Benioff, David Rubenstein, Steve Case, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Marc Andreessen – may have made their billions from as diverse pursuits as rock music to microchips, but they have united to dedicate vast portions of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
Their combined wealth totals a staggering $126billion – with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in first and second place respectively. The two leaders of the billionaire pack supported the Summit on Philanthropy – where 161 of the richest people in America met to share ideas on how the wealth might be spread across education, poverty, religion, medicine and the environment.
The billionaires posed at the library in Manhattan on June 26 this year for the 30th anniversary cover of Forbes 400, published on October 8.
The United States still has the largest share of billionaires of any nation with 480. The top ten richest in the Forbes 400 reads: Bill Gates ($66 billion); Warren Buffett ($46 billion); Larry Ellison ($41 billion); Charles Koch ($31 billion); David Koch ($31 billion); Christy Walton & family ($27.9 billion); Jim Walton ($26.8 billion); Alice Walton ($26.3 billion); S. Robson Walton ($26.1 billion) and Michael Bloomberg ($25 billion).
