#Richest #European #Billionaire

In this video we look at the to 10 Richest European Billionaires and how they accumulated their wealth.

10. Vladimir Lisin - $22.5 B
Vladimir Lisin is chairman of NLMK Group, a leading manufacturer of steel products. Lisin started out as an electrical fitter in a coal mine in Siberia and then worked as a steelworker in Central Russia. He is a leading world authority on metallurgical processes; holding various patents on and having published over 100 articles on metallurgy and economics, including 15 monographs.

9. Vladimir Potanin - $24.3 B
Vladimir Potanin acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in the early to mid-1990s. In 1993, Potanin used government contacts to cofound Onexim Bank, which controlled industrial behemoths, in 1993. The oligarch formerly owned interests in insurance, media, agriculture, engineering and oil. Today he has stakes in pharmaceutical company Petrovax Pharm and ski resort Rosa Khutor near Sochi.

8. Vagit Alekperov - $24.7 B
Vagit Alekperov a former Caspian Sea oil rig worker, Vagit Alekperov became a deputy minister overseeing the oil industry in the Soviet Union. In 1991 he took three large ministry-controlled oil fields and set up Lukoil, now Russia's largest independent oil company. Lukoil is the third largest company in Russia after state companies Sberbank and Rosneft.

7. Leonardo Del Vecchio - $24.8 B
Leonardo Del Vecchio began his career as an apprentice in Milan. At the age 25, Leonardo Del Vecchio founded eyewear brand Luxottica in 1961. Luxottica bought Sunglass Hut, Ray-Ban, and Oakley. They also make eyewear for most brands as well. In 2018 Luxottica merged with French lens maker Essilor, creating the world's largest producer and retailer of sunglasses and prescription glasses.

6. Leonid Mikhelson - $25.0 B
Leonid Mikhelson is CEO, chairman and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek. He started working as a foreman at a construction and assembling company in the Tyumen area of Siberia. His partner in both Novatek and Sibur is Gennady Timchenko. He owns the megayacht Pacific. Mikhelson has a strong interest in art, stating that “99 per cent” of his interest is in Russian and contemporary art.

5. Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr. - $35.2 B
Heirs to the Aldi retail fortune, Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht Jr. are the children of Karl Albrecht Sr., who died in July 2014 at age 94. After World War II, Karl Sr. and his brother, Theo Sr., who died in 2010 at age 88, took over their family's corner grocery store in Essen, Germany. Using a strategy similar to Wal-Mart, they pioneered German discount retailing building their Aldi supermarket chain. In 1961, the brothers split ownership: Karl Sr. took the stores in southern Germany, plus rights to the Aldi brand in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. Theo Sr. took over the stores in northern Germany and the rest of Europe.

4. François Pinault - $35.7 B
François Pinault is founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment company Artémis. Pinault started his business in the timber industry in the early 1960s. The Pinault family pledged $113 million to the rebuilding of Notre Dame cathedral following the April 2019 fire. In 2003, he passed on the management of his companies to his elder son François-Henri to follow his passion for contemporary art. Pinault and his family own a 3,000-piece art collection, with works by Picasso, Mondrian and Koons. They plan to open a museum in France in 2020.

3. Françoise Bettencourt Meyers - $55.7 B
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the richest woman in the world and the granddaughter of L'Oreal's founder. She has served on L'Oreal's board since 1997 and is chairwoman of the family holding company. Together, L'Oreal and Bettencourt Meyers' family foundation are donating $226 million to repair Notre Dame cathedral following the April 2019 fire.

2. Amancio Ortega - $76.1 B
Amancio Ortega Gaona is the founder and former chairman of Inditex fashion group, best known for its chain of Zara clothing and accessories shops. He is the head of the Ortega family and the second wealthiest retailer in the world. He owns about 60% of Madrid-listed Inditex, which has 8 brands, including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, and 7,500 stores around the world. Very private about his personal life, as of 2012 he had only given three interviews to journalists. Until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published.

1. Bernard Arnault - $105 B
Bernard Arnault oversees an empire of 70 brands including Louis Vuitton and Sephora. His father did well with a construction company, and Arnault used $15 million from that business to buy Christian Dior in 1985. Arnault and LVMH pledged over $220 million to help repair the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris following a devastating fire in mid April 2019. He added more than $30 billion to his net worth in 2019 alone.