9 Tennessee Billionaires Make Forbes’ 2018 List

Jeff Bezos is at the top of Forbes’ billionaires list for 2018, dethroning fellow Seattle-area billionaire Bill Gates, who has lost the top spot for only the sixth time since 1995. Among the elite club of billionaires on the 32nd annual list, 9 of them have Tennessee ties.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam made the list, ranking 1,070. Haslam, 59, is worth $2.3 billion and was the president of his family's chain of truck stops, Pilot Flying J, for four years until 1999.

The 2018 list has 2,208 members from 72 countries. With 585 Americans on the list, the United States leads the way with the most number of billionaires in the world, followed by China with 373 billionaires. The U.S. also had 18 newcomers featured on the 2018 list.

According to Forbes, Bezos is the first centi-billionaire at the top of the list, meaning he has a fortune of over a $100 billion. Forbes explains just how much wealth these billionaires have, being worth a combined $9.1 trillion. The top 20 people on the list alone are worth $1.2 trillion, 13 percent of the total fortune of all billionaires worldwide.

Here are the other Tennessee billionaires who made the Forbes list for 2018:

• Thomas Frist, Jr., 79, is worth $9.6 billion and is ranked 158th on the list. He founded Hospital Corp. of America with his father in 1968. HCA owns and operates over 170 hospitals in 20 U.S. states and London.
• Frederick Smith, 73, is worth $5.1 billion and is ranked 382nd on the list. FedEx founder Fred Smith came up with the idea for the company for a term paper at Yale in 1965.
• Martha Ingram, 58, is worth $5 billion and is ranked 388th on the list. Ingram and her family own distribution and marine firm Ingram Industries. Ingram took over the business after her husband Bronson Ingram died in 1995.
• Jimmy Haslam, 63, is worth $3.4 billion and is ranked 679th on the list. Haslam is the CEO of Pilot Flying J, a truck stop company founded in 1958 by his father who paid $6,000 for an existing gas station in Virginia.
• Jeffrey Lorberbaum, 63, is worth $2.5 billion and is ranked 965th on the list. Lorberbaum built Georgia-based Mohawk Industries into the largest flooring company in the world; he owns a nearly 15 percent stake.
• Brad Kelley, 61, is worth $2.3 billion and is ranked 1070th on the list (tie). Kelley, a Kentucky native and a farmer's son, built a fortune from discount cigarettes. He built Commonwealth Brands, maker of USA Gold and Malibu cigarettes, and sold it for $1 billion in 2001. Kelley has since used that cash to become one of the largest landowners in the U.S., with 1.5 million acres from Hawaii to Florida.
• Jon Yarbrough, 60, is worth $2 billion and is ranked 1,215th on the list. Yarbrough started Video Gaming Technologies, which produces multiplayer and casino games in 1991. VGT was once the largest company leasing Class II gaming machines to Native American tribes. Yarbrough sold his company to Australian firm, Aristocrat Leisure, for $1.28 billion in October 2014.
• Forrest Preston, 84, is worth $1.4 billion and is ranked 1,650th on the list. Preston founded Life Care Centers of America in 1970 and has since made a fortune with facilities that house and care for the elderly. The private firm raked in $3.1 billion in sales in 2016 from nursing homes, assisted living facilities and retirement living communities in 28 states. Preston is the CEO and sole owner of the company, which is based in Cleveland, Tennessee.

The top 10 billionaires on the list are:

• Jeff Bezos, 54, worth $112 billion
• Bill Gates, 62, worth $90 billion
• Warren Buffett, 87, worth $84 billion
• Bernard Arnault, 69, worth $72 billion
• Mark Zuckerberg, 33, worth $71 billion
• Amancio Ortega, 81, worth $70 billion
• Carlos Slim Helu, 78, worth $67.1 billion
• Charles Koch, 82, worth $60 billion
• David Koch, 77, worth $60 billion
• Larry Ellison, 73, worth $58.5 billion

The Forbes billionaires list provides a look at wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from Feb. 9, 2018. Forbes values assets like private companies, art, real estate and more. Read more about Forbes methodology here.

See the full list of billionaires here.

Image via Shutterstock