How'd They Do That? Philip Frederick Anschutz (/ˈænʃuːts/ AN-shoots; born December 28, 1939) is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls many companies in a variety of businesses, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, movies, theaters, arenas and music. His name appears on medical and educational institutions to which he has donated millions. His grandfather, Carl Anschutz,[6] was an ethnic German who emigrated from Russia and started the Farmers State Bank in Russell. His father was an oil tycoon and land investor who invested in ranches in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and eventually went into the oil-drilling business. ~ Philip Frederick Anschutz Land ownership In 1970, Anschutz bought the 250,000-acre (1,000 km²) Baughman Farms, one of the country's largest farming corporations, in Liberal, Kansas, for $10 million. The following year, he acquired 9 million acres (36,000 km²) along the Utah-Wyoming border. This produced his first fortune in the oil business.[17] In the early 1980s, the Anschutz Ranch, with its billion-barrel (160,000,000 m³) oil pocket, became the largest oil field discovery in the United States since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in 1968. In 1982 Anschutz sold an interest in it to Mobil Oil for $500 million. For several years, Anschutz was Colorado's sole billionaire. With his acquisition of land in other Western states, he became one of the 100 largest landholders in the United States.[18][19] Anschutz then moved into railroads and telecommunications before venturing into the entertainment industry. In 1999, Fortune magazine compared him to the 19th-century tycoon J.P. Morgan, as both men "struck it rich in a fundamentally different way: they operated across an astounding array of industries, mastering and reshaping entire economic landscapes." Next Chapters... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Anschutz
Edmond Safra The Safra family came from Beirut, Lebanon and Aleppo. Edmond's father, Jacob Safra, had opened the J. E. Safra Bank in 1920 in Beirut. By the time when he was sixteen, Edmond Safra was working at his father's bank in Beirut and was engaged in the precious metals and foreign exchange aspects of the business. In 1949, the family moved from Lebanon to Italy, where he worked for a trading company in Milan. The family moved again in 1952, this time to Brazil, where Edmond Safra and his father founded their first Brazilian financial institution in 1955. In 1956, Edmond Safra settled in Geneva to set up a private bank, the Trade Development Bank, which grew from an original US$1 million to US$5 billion during the 1980s. He extended his financial empire to satisfy his wealthy clients from around the world. He also founded the Republic National Bank of New York in 1966, and, later, Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse) in Geneva. The Republic bank operated 80 branches in the New York area, making it the number three branch network in the metropolitan region behind Citigroup and Chase Manhattan. The sale of Trade Development Bank to American Express for more than US$450 million in 1983, turned into a legal battle between the two parties. The financier came out on top, winning a public apology from American Express for starting a smear campaign against him and US$8 million in damages, all of which he donated to charities. In 1988, he also founded Safra Republic Holdings S.A., a Luxembourg bank holding company. By the early 1990s, Safra's fortune was an estimated at US$2.5 billion. He was a major philanthropist during his lifetime, and he left his wealth to the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation which supports hundreds of projects in fifty countries around the world in the areas of education, science and medicine, religion, culture and humanitarian assistance. In 1996 Safra co-founded Hermitage Capital Management with Beny Steinmetz and Bill Browder. The hedge fund became one of the most important investment companies in Russia and later became famous in connection with the Sergei Magnitsky affair. As he approached his 60s, the financier divided his time between his homes in Monaco, Geneva, and New York City and the Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Safra https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2000/12/dunne200012
Teledyne Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men in the world, is quoted as saying that “Henry Singleton of Teledyne has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business."[28] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Earl_Singleton