Net Worth: $5.5 Billion
Industry: Entertainment
Notable Member(s): Charles Dolan
Claim to Fame: Cablevision
Now, you may not immediately recognize the name Dolan, but if it weren’t for the Dolan family, TV would be seriously bland. Charles Dolan is responsible for Cablevision, the parent company of HBO, AMC, Sundance, IFC and more. So, this means that if it weren’t for him – there would be no Game of Thrones.
Dolan found his first cable company in the 1970s, which he named Home Box Office. He sold that company to Time Life before launching Cablevision, which would ultimately be the key to his success. He also acts as the chairman emeritus for the Lustgarten Foundation, which works diligently to research and find a cure for pancreatic cancer. Dolan has made donations to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign for 2020. He’s also donated to his alma mater – Fairfield University, which resulted in him having the School of Business there named after him. His children have used a portion of the fortune to invest in the sports world too and bought shares in several major teams, including the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Indians.
The Hastings
Net Worth: $2.3 Billion
Industry: Media and Technology
Notable Member(s): Reed Hastings
Claim to Fame: Netflix
You may not recognize the name Reed Hastings, but you’re definitely familiar with a little company that he runs, called Netflix. Hastings co-founded the streaming service back in 1997 when it was DVD-only. In 2007, they started streaming directly to computers.
Hastings was pretty active in the political scene in California for a while, when he became interested in improving the educational system. He donated $1 million to an educational network to help them open a new charter school in his home town. Then, in 2014, he fought to end his town’s era of elected school board officials. Very recently, Hastings sold nearly 58,000 shares of Netflix for almost $350.00 per share. That means that he closed a deal for around $20 million! The company has an average growth of about 13 percent per year – and we all know Netflix isn’t going anywhere anytime soon!
The Newhouses'
Net Worth: $18 Billion
Industry: Media Notable
Member(s): Donald Newhouse
Claim to Fame: Advance
The Newhouse clan is another powerhouse family that happens to control a large portion of media in the western world. The original billionaire behind the scenes was Sam Newhouse, who launched the family business – Advance Publications – back in 1922. When Sam passed on in 79’, his two sons inherited the fortune.
Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, who happens to publish some of the biggest magazines in the world. Under the blanket of the company lies Vogue, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. But it isn’t just magazines that the company puts out. Condé Nast owns Bright House Networks and Discovery Communications, as well, along with multiple newspapers, including The Oregonian and The Star-Ledger. The Newhouse family transmedia empire reaches all the way across the globe. Donald Newhouse himself had a net worth of around $10 billion when he passed. Today, the family business is worth an estimated $18 billion and continues to grow every day. It was recently ranked as the 44th largest private company in the country.
The Powell-Jobs’
Net Worth: $10 Billion
Industry: Technology
Notable Member(s): Steve Jobs
Claim to Fame: Apple
Steve Jobs is arguably one of the greatest minds in the history of technology. He grew up in the foster care system in California and devoted his adult life to creating cutting edge products that eventually led him into co-founding Apple in 1976.
Before he made it big, Jobs was working for Atari, creating circuit boards for their games. He used his free time to work on the first Apple computers in his garage. Luckily, the project caught the attention of an investor who dropped $60,000 into it. While he was still working in the garage, however, his girlfriend at the time got pregnant and gave birth to his daughter – Lisa. Jobs was a millionaire before he even turned 23 years old, and in 1985 he founded NeXT, which he spent $7 million on and actually sold back to apple for over $400 million. In 2003, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in 2011, he passed away. He was always very aloof with his daughter, refusing to help her mother and doing the least possible to seem as though he was really even helping her, though he did leave her a couple of million dollars when he passed.
The Butts
Net Worth: $10.8 Billion
Notable Member(s): Charles Butt
Industry: Retail
Claim to Fame: H.E.B Grocery
Charles Butt took over the family business for grandma and grandpa in 1971 and remains the largest shareholder in the company today. H.E.B Grocery has over 300 stores across the country today, and over 50 in Mexico, as well.
Charles’ grandma, Florence, actually started the original grocery store after her husband was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1905. Little did she know just how successful the brand would ultimately be. Now, the Butt family is worth nearly $11 billion. In 2015, the “meat market mogul,” was ranked as the 4th richest person in the state of Texas, falling just short of oil tycoon Richard Kinder. Butt placed 44th that year on the list of their “richest people in America.” The company was recently reported to have exceeded $20 billion in sales.