10.Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg

• 

Net Worth

$25 B As of September 2012

At a Glance:

• Age: 70
• Source of Wealth: Bloomberg LP, self-made
• Residence: New York, NY
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Master of Business Administration, Harvard University; Bachelor of Arts / Science, Johns Hopkins University
• Marital Status: Divorced
• Children: 2

Forbes Lists:

#10 Forbes 400

#20 Forbes Billionaires 

#11 in United States

#17 Powerful People

 

Profile:

New York City's Mayor Mike has been working to enact as much change as he can in his adopted hometown in his third and final term. This spring, he proposed a ban on super-sized sugary drinks, and he was vocal in his support of the state's Marriage Equality Act, which passed in 2011. He's also taking on pro-gun groups in his renewed call for gun control in the wake of July's movie theater shootings in Colorado. Gun control is one of the many projects he personally supports with his charitable dollars: over the years, he's given $2.8 billion of his fortune away in support of public health, the environment, the arts and education. In 2011, he donated $330 million to such groups as the Sierra Club, the Alliance for the Arts and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. His fortune comes from his financial data firm Bloomberg LLC, whose sales were up 20% in 2011 to $7.6 billion. The Boston-born Harvard MBA started the company after being fired from Salomon Brothers in 1982. Bloomberg originally sold data and analytic tools to Wall Street; in recent years, it has added a news service, multiple magazines, a cable network and radio station. There are now 313,000 Bloomberg LP data terminals in use worldwide, up from 300,000 last year. Bloomberg owns at least 10 homes in Manhattan, Westchester County, Bermuda, Vail and the Hamptons.