Among the 26 billionaires who passed away in 2022 were a mutual fund tycoon, an energy drink businessman, and an eyeglass industrialist. According to Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires, which was published in April 2022, there are a total of 2,668 billionaires.
Edward “Ned” Johnson III, the longtime CEO of the massive mutual fund company Fidelity, Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-creator of the Red Bull energy drink, and Julian Robertson, the first hedge fund pioneer and the man behind Tiger Management, are among those who have passed away.
Many of the billionaires who passed away had nicknames that perfectly captured their entrepreneurial spirit, like the “Orange King” of Brazil José Luis Cutrale, who established an orange growing and exporting business, and “The Sphinx” of the United States, Fayez Sarofim, a money manager with Egyptian ancestry.
Americans made up over half of the dead billionaires this year. There were also numerous deaths of billionaires from France, Austria, and India. Leonardo Del Vecchio of Italy, whose eyeglass empire included the store Sunglass Hut and names like Ray-Bans, and Mateschitz, the creator of Red Bull, were two of the deceased who had fortunes exceeding $20 billion.
In addition to Robert Brockman, who was accused of orchestrating the biggest tax evasion case in American history but passed away before the case got to trial, the majority of the billionaires were at least 80 years old. Of them, nine survived into their 90s. The youngest was Kim Jung-ju, the 54-year-old founder of a South Korean video game firm, who passed away in February. “The deceased had been receiving treatment for depression, and we are sad that it seemed to have worsened recently,” his personal holding company, NXC, told a local news agency.” Here are top 8 billionaires who died in 2022, let’s read out about them
- John Arrillaga
Citizenship: U.S.
Net worth at death: $2.6 billion
Died: January 2022 at age 84
With his partner Richard “Dick” Peery, John Arrigalla was a Silicon Valley real estate developer who acquired farmland in the 1960s and turned it into office parks. Tech behemoths like Google and Intuit have leased space from their firm, Peery Arrillaga. He made a $151 million pledge to the university in 2013, the largest gift from a living donor at the time. His family’s name appears on at least nine Stanford buildings, including the Frances Arrillaga Alumni Center and the Arrillaga Family Sports Center.
2. Alberto Bailleres
Citizenship: Mexico
Net worth at death: $8.6 billion
Died: February 2022 at age 90
3. Rahul Bajaj
Citizenship: India
Net worth at death: $8.2 billion
Died: February 2022 at age 83
Rahul, the founder’s great-grandson of the Bajaj Group, took over the family firm in 1994. Under his direction, the 40-company Bajaj Group expanded into industries like two-wheeled scooters, financial services, and electrical appliances. One year before he passed away, he was named chairman emeritus.
Pawan Munjal, chairman and CEO of Hero MotorCorp and a fellow auto billionaire, referred to Bajaj as “one of the pioneer nation builders in modern India.”
The Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian distinctions, was given to Bajaj, a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Indian parliament.
4. Pierre Bellon
Citizenship: France
Net worth at death: $4.2 billion
Died: January 2022 at age 92
Bellon founded catering company Sodexo in 1966, serving as chairman for 50 years until his daughter, Sophie, took over in 2016. Sodexo expanded internationally in 1971 and as of 2021 served 100 million people in 64 countries daily. Bellon is the author of two books: I’ve Had A Lot Of Fun: The Sodexo Story, published in 2006, and To Serve And To Grow, published in 2019.
5. Lily Safra
Citizenship: Monaco
Net worth at death: $1.3 billion
Died: July 2022 at age 87
Her late husband’s foundation, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, which Safra led, says it grants to groups promoting religion, science and medicine, education, and humanitarian relief in 40 countries. Safra received her wealth from her banker husband Edmond Safra, who perished in a fire in their Monaco apartment in 1999.
Safra, who was born in Brazil to Jewish immigrants, first lived in Uruguay when she was 17 years old before quickly moving back to Brazil. Homes in Geneva, London, Paris, New York, and Monaco belonged to Edmond and Lily.
6. Rudy Ma
Rudy Ma was the founder of the financial services firm Yuanta Financial Holdings and was ranked as the 15th richest person in Taiwan before his passing. Before taking over Yuanta’s forerunner company in 1986, Ma worked for a steel company, a glass producer, and assisted in running his family’s building materials store. In 2007, he grew his company through acquisitions to form Yuanta Financial Holdings. Ma received a seven and a half-year prison sentence in 2014 for breach of trust, but he wasn’t imprisoned at the time because of a dementia diagnosis.
7. Edward “Ned” Johnson III
Citizenship: U.S.
