Net Worth: $3 billion Source: In-N-Out Burger So it seems the CEO of In-N-Out Burger clearly doesn’t eat its burgers, because she looks fit as a fiddle for a 37-year-old mother of four children! Lynsi Lavelle Snyder-Ellingson is a billionaire businesswoman and heiress of the famed burger chain. As the only child of Lynda and H. Guy Snyder and the only grandchild of Harry and Esther Snyder, the entire wealth falls to Lynsi! According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, in 2012, Snyder was America’s youngest female billionaire. Until Instagram and Kylie Jenner came along and the makeup giant knocked her off the top spot!
On her thirty-fifth birthday, Lynsi became the full owner of the business and became president after Mark Taylor, her brother-in-law. For a long time, Snyder has been called reclusive – hey, if she wants to decline interviews, she’s more than entitled to doing so! But there’s a reason for her hesitation – after opening up in a 2014 interview with Orange Coast, Snyder said she was the target of multiple kidnapping attempts. For hers and her family’s safety, Snyder has kept out of the public eye. The paps can’t argue with that! Fun fact: two of her husbands have been In-N-Out employees. Who says you can’t date the boss eh?
James Murdoch
Net Worth: $500 million Source: Rupert Murdoch Born in Wimbledon, London, the English businessman is the fourth of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s six children. A graduate of the Horace Mann School and then Harvard (well, he didn’t technically graduate from Harvard as he dropped out and started a record label instead!), he had a business mind, and soon was hired by Sky Television in Hong Kong, heading the company as its CEO. Down the track, Murdoch took over the development of News Corporation’s media platforms, but was caught up in a previous phone hacking scandal whilst he was the chairman of British Sky Broadcasting. News of the World quickly became the news of the world! At one point too, Murdoch was the chairman of 21st Century Fox, with control over media channels which function globally!
Most recently Disney’s $71.3 billion takeovers of the majority of 21st Century Fox has left Murdoch now unemployed. But it seems that Murdoch is looking beyond the family business. In March 2019, Murdoch founded Lupa Systems (Lupa is Latin for female wolf – and its origins go back to the idea that the company wants to nurture early-stage companies and invest from the beginning), but observers are keeping a watchful eye on the young Murdoch as to what move he makes next. According to Enders Analysis founder Claire Enders, “the focus in his life is building things.” So currently he’s at $500 million – we’ll just have to see if he can grow his wealth to lapse his father’s net worth of almost $20 billion!
Ann Kroenke
Net Worth: $7.6 billion Source: Walmart, Inc. So we just heard about her younger sister, Nancy, but now it’s time to hear a little about older sister Ann Kroenke. The other half of the Walmart fortune went to Ann, who now has a net worth over $7 billion. A registered nurse, Kroenke isn’t actually involved with Walmart as a board member or an executive; instead, she has the freedom to pursue whatever she wants but still receive dividends! Together with her husband Stan Kroenke, who is worth even more than his wife, the pair own Arsenal Football Club in the UK, as well as the LA Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and Colorado Rapids! Fun fact: “Silent Stan” Kroenke is worth a cool $8.8 billion. That’s independent of Ann. Crazy money!
The pair married in 1974 and have two children together, Josh and Whitney. Whilst we’re not totally sure what Ann gets up to apart from being a philanthropist and exploring the world in her superyacht, we do know that the coffers are overflowing for the Walton-Kroenkes, that’s for sure.
Gloria Vanderbilt
Net Worth: $200 million Source: Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt Gloria Vanderbilt, what an icon. Sadly, this legend passed away just last month – and social media made sure everyone knew. Living to a grand age of 95, the fashion trailblazer and artist “was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms," her son Anderson Cooper said in a statement. "She was a painter, a writer and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend. She was 95 years old, but ask anyone close to her, and they'd tell you: She was the youngest person they knew -- the coolest and most modern."The former fashion designer, socialite, author and actress was born in Manhattan in 1924. Being born into a family with so much money and prestige involved surely wasn’t easy, and this came to light in a huge public custody battle over the young Gloria, between her mother Gloria and her aunt, Gertrude. Both her aunt and mother wanted control of her trust fund, and was labelled by the New York press as “the trial of the century.”
In a twist which rocked the nation, scandalous evidence showed that Gloria was an unfit parent, with Gertrude winning custody. Despite fighting for her custody, it came out later that Gloria’s nanny, Dodo, was more of a mother figure to the young Vanderbilt. She began modeling at 15, photographed for Harper’s Bazaar and then she appeared in Vogue and Vanity Fair, posing for greats like Richard Avedon. At 21 she took control of her trust fund which was worth a whopping $4.3 million US (back in the 40s that was a huge amount of money!). Calculators estimate the wealth was worth almost $60 million in the current day! Gloria went on to become a fashion designer and actress, and of course, leaves behind her son, Anderson Cooper.
Douglas Durst
Net Worth: $600 million Source: Seymour Durst The 74-year-old Douglas Durst is the heir to the Durst fortune, which was built from real estate. Born into a Jewish family in 1944, his father was real estate investor and developer Seymour Durst. Did you know Durst was the inventor of the National Debt Clock? Just reminding us all how much we all owe to the government. Gee, thanks – what a swell guy! In saying that, the story of the Durst family’s rise to fortune is a good one. Durst’s paternal grandfather, Joseph Durst was a penniless immigrant tailor from Austria Hungary. After moving to America, he invested and became a very successful real estate manager and developer, founding the Durst Organisation in 1915.
Years and years compounded the family’s wealth, and Douglas took over the “family business” in 1992 after his father Seymour retired. But whilst he’s mega-rich, he’s also respected for emphasising density and sustainability in his projects. He, in fact, presided over the development of the 48-story 4 Times Square, the 38-story Helena at 601 West 57th Street, the 57-story Epic on West 31st Street and in 2008, the 58-story Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park. So next time you’re in NYC and looking for something to do (gee you’d have to be super bored), check ‘em out!