Wednesday, October 05, 2005

The 400 Richest Americans

Forbes recently released its list of the 400 richest Americans, with Bill Gates coming in at #1. I scanned through the list looking at the Source category, curious as to how all of these people amassed their vast fortunes. Most of the sources of income listed were either well-known companies such as Wal-Mart and Google, or things like investments or real estate. That is, until I hit #93. Source: Potatoes, microchips. What?!? Who makes a billion dollars from potatoes? This guy.

Supplier of more than half of McDonald's french fries gets richer as we get
rounder. Eighth-grade dropout left home after quarrel with dad. Worked on farm
with spuds and hogs; branched into processing potatoes, other vegetables. Today
produces more than 2 billion pounds of french fries a year. Reinvested potato
proceeds into equities: owns big stakes in Micron Technology, Remington Oil.

Fittingly, he lives in Boise, Idaho. You go, John Richard Simplot.

3 comments:

Jon said...

His head looks like a big potato.

eileen said...

You look like a big potato.

Anonymous said...

This Simplot guy gets a whole chapter in that book "Fast Food Nation". Definitely recommended reading.