| Hampton Style - June 27, 2008 |
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Barry Diller
While he managed to successfully retain control of his embattled company InterActiveCorp, Diller tells Portfolio magazine (he's on their current cover) that he is still stinging from the recent court battle with John Malone over the multimedia conglomerate. It's a narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless and it's in keeping with Diller's long track-record of such things. Dropping out of UCLA after only a few weeks, Diller really cut his teeth at the William Morris Agency in the mail room (a practice he still insists his MBA protégés undergo). By age 26 he was the head of programming for ABC and within six years he became the youngest chairman ever at Paramount Pictures. He went on to create the FOX network, forging a lasting partnership with Rupert Murdoch in the process. Diller moors his 305-foot yacht, Eos, in Sag Harbor and pops up at Hamptons social events with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.
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Ralph Lauren
Montauk, 67 years old, net worth $4.7 billion. Money is self-made and comes from: Polo Ralph Lauren; apparel. Married with three children, he was once a Brooks Brothers clerk, and left business school to design ties for Beau Brummel in 1967. He launched Polo with $50,000 later that year and sold 28% of company to Goldman Sachs for $138 million in 1994. He signed an exclusive deal with Wimbledon to dress umpires and ballpersons in French navy RLX Tennis clothes. His son David runs Polo advertising, his daughter Dylan owns a chain of candy stores called Dylan's Candy Bar, and his son Andrew is a film producer.
SELF-MADE
Two thirds of our billionaires have attained self-made fortunes-financiers dominate the list but the fashion and film industries have Ralph Lauren and Steven Spielberg. They are joined in their entrepreneurial spirit by John Castimatisdis, Stanley Druckenmiller, Barry Diller, Glenn Dubin, Carl Icahn, Henry Kravis, Thomas Lee, Stephen Ross, John Paulson, Ron Baron, Ron Perelman, Ira Rennert, Wilbur Ross, Sheldon Solow, Leonard Stern, Alfred Taubman, Sandy Weill, Mort Zuckerman, Steven Roth, Steven Schwarzman, Richard Perry, Pete Peterson, Theodore Forstmann, George Soros, Harry Maclowe, Nelson Peltz and Jerry Speyer.
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Thomas Lee
Southampton, 63 years old, net worth $2.0 billion. Money is self-made and comes from finance.
Married with five children; one divorce, he founded the Blue Star hedge fund of funds in 1999. Today the outfit is believed to be one of the world's best-performing funds, as it's said to have returned 43% net of fees in a year ending July 31. The Harvard grad built fortune on inheritance in buying Snapple for $135 million in 1992, which he sold 2 years later for $1.7 billion to Quaker Oats.
Richard LeFrak
Southampton, 62 years old, net worth $3.0 billion. Money is inherited and comes from: real estate.
Married with two children, he is a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia University. He joined his grandfather's NYC Real Estate firm that has roots from 1901. He became a chairman after his dad died in 2003 and now runs the company with his two sons. He is also on the board of the American Museum of Natural History.
Harry Maclowe
East Hampton, 70 years old, networth $2.0 billion. Money is self-made and comes from real estate. Married with two children, the New York University drop-out became a real estate broker in 1959 and founded developer Macklowe Properties in the mid-1960s. Today he runs Macklowe Properties with his son, William. He purchased eight buildings from the Equity Office Properties portfolio for $6.8 billion in February and now owns 12 million square feet of office space in New York.
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Richard Perry
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Peter Peterson
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Stewart Rahr
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Ira Rennert
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Wilbur Ross
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John Paulson
Southampton, 51 years old, net worth $2.5 billion. Money is self-made and comes from investments.
Married with two children, he became the managing director in mergers and acquisitions at Bear Stearns before founding Paulson & Co. in 1995. He tripled his hedge fund's assets to $21 billion while short-selling subprime credit this year.
Nelson Peltz
Southampton, 65 years old, net worth $1.4 billion. Money is self-made and comes from: Triarc Companies; finance. Married with ten children; one divorce, he is a Wharton School drop-out. He had his first score with Triangle Industries' acquisition of National Can in 1985, which he sold for $4.2 billion 1988. He bought Snapple from Quaker Oats for $300 million and then sold the company three years later to Cadbury Schweppes for $1.5 billion. He owns the roast beef sandwich chain Arby's.
Ron Perelman
East Hampton, 64 years, net worth $10.0 billion. Money is self-made and comes from Citigroup, investments. Divorced four times, has 6 children. He bought the cosmetics company Revlon in 1985. He is involved in Siga Technologies, which is looking for ways to battle bioterrorism and TransTech Pharma, which is trying to cure Alzheimer's.
Richard Perry
Sag Harbor, 53 years old, net worth $1.2 billion. Money is self-made and comes from: hedge funds. Married he is a graduate of NYU and the Wharton School. He got started in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and later cofounded hedge fund outfit Perry Capital in 1988. Estimated assets under management: $13 billion. He serves on boards of Harlem Children's Zone, Facing History and Ourselves.
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Mort Zuckerman
In 1998, Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Reports and chairman and co-publisher of New York's Daily News, returned to his estate in East Hampton to find muddy footprints tracked throughout his house. After some investigating, the East Hampton police reasoned that the second floor shower must have been "just right" for the anonymous Goldilocks, who took nothing but a shower. As no one was home at the time, only a few towels were disturbed. While in many ways Zuckerman seems to live a fairy-tale life, his latest attempted business endeavor didn't come with a happy ending. Interested in buying Newsday, Zuckerman's bids were ultimately bested in May by James Dolan, whose family owns Cablevision, Madison Square Garden and the Knicks. Zuckerman, however, had better refocus locally, because there are bigger fish to fry. After his team of wordsmiths lost last summer's 59th Artists and Writers Softball Game in East Hampton 13-5, the pitcher has some serious rallying to do. This year's benefit for East End Hospice takes place on August 16 in Herrick Park from 3-5:30pm.
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Peter Peterson
Water Mill, 81 years old, net worth $2.5 billion. Money is self-made and comes from: finance. Married with five children, the Wall Street giant manages $90 billion across private equity, real estate, corporate debt and hedge fund operations. Schwarzman and Peterson cofounded Blackstone Group 1985 with $400,000 and since then have invested in 112 companies, with a total enterprise value of $200 billion. He was the Commerce Secretary under Nixon, going on to become the chairman of Lehman Brothers 1973. He headed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York 2000 to 2004. He has earmarked hundreds of millions to charity.
Stewart Rahr
East Hampton, 61 years old, net worth $1.7 billion. Money comes from pharmaceuticals; inherited and growing. Married with two children, he took over his father's Brooklyn pharmacy after dropping out of law school in 1975. Today Kinray's highly automated operation supplies more than 3,000 independent pharmacies in 8 northeastern states. He entertains celebrity friends with lavish summer barbecues at his East Hampton estate.
Ira Rennert
Sagaponack, 73 years old, net worth $3.5 billion. Money is self-made and comes from: investments Married with three children, he made his fortune by issuing junk bonds secured by the metals companies he acquired. He acquired a military contractor from AM General for $133 million 1992 and is the maker of U.S. Army's all-terrain Humvee vehicles. He created the luxury-SUV market with the 2.5-ton Hummer. A majority of stake was sold to Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes holding company for $930 million in 2004. His Sagaponack mansion is believed to be 100,000 square feet and have 30 bedrooms.
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