Items14The creator’s order
  1. 1Henry Ford IIHenry Ford IIBorn 4 Sept 1917Listing without losing control. When Ford Motor Company first sold shares to the public in 1956, Henry Ford II arranged that the Ford family would hold a separate class of shares carrying 40 per cent of the votes, although they owned a small fraction of the equity. Much of the family's stock had…0i
  2. 2Gianni AgnelliGianni AgnelliBorn 12 Mar 1921Holding companies and family partnerships. Agnelli led Fiat for decades through a chain of family holding companies, at the top of which sat a partnership of family members, letting a minority stake control Italy's largest private industrial group. He chose his grandson John Elkann as heir. After…0i
  3. 3Sam WaltonSam WaltonBorn 29 Mar 1918Passing on a fortune early. Walton put his stake in his stores into a family partnership, Walton Enterprises, in 1953, giving his children shares long before Walmart was valuable, so most of the later growth in value never passed through his estate. When Walmart listed in 1970 the family kept a…0i
  4. 4Charles KochCharles KochBorn 1 Nov 1935Staying private. Koch took over his father's refinery and engineering firm in 1967 and built Koch Industries into one of America's largest companies without ever listing it on a stock exchange, reinvesting most profits. Private ownership meant no public reporting and no outside shareholders to…0i
  5. 5Sumner RedstoneSumner RedstoneBorn 27 May 1923A cinema chain controlling media giants. Redstone used his family's cinema company, National Amusements, to buy voting control of Viacom in 1987 and later CBS, holding most of the votes through special shares with a small share of the equity. In his old age the structure turned succession into a…0i
  6. 6Rupert MurdochRupert MurdochBorn 11 Mar 1931A family trust and its limits. Murdoch controlled News Corp and Fox through voting shares held in a family trust that gave his four eldest children equal votes after his death. When he tried to change the trust to hand control to his son Lachlan, a Nevada probate court blocked him in 2024, and in…0i
  7. 7Ratan TataRatan TataBorn 28 Dec 1937Charitable trusts at the top. Tata chaired Tata Sons from 1991 to 2012, a holding company about two thirds owned by charitable trusts founded by earlier family members, which in turn control listed companies such as Tata Steel and TCS. When the board removed his successor Cyrus Mistry in 2016, the…0i
  8. 8Li Ka-shingLi Ka-shingBorn 29 Jul 1928Pyramids and restructuring. Li, who began making plastic flowers in Hong Kong, built control of a vast group through layered holdings: Cheung Kong controlled Hutchison Whampoa, which controlled ports, telecoms and retail around the world. In 2015 he reorganised the group into two companies, CK…0i
  9. 9Ferdinand PiëchFerdinand PiëchBorn 17 Apr 1937Family control of a car giant. Piëch, Ferdinand Porsche's grandson, ran Volkswagen and then chaired its supervisory board, while his family and the Porsche family together owned Porsche SE, which after a failed attempt by Porsche to take over VW in 2008 and 2009 ended up holding most of VW's voting…0i
  10. 10Lee Kun-heeLee Kun-heeBorn 9 Jan 1942Circular shareholdings and inheritance tax. Lee ran Samsung through a web of cross-shareholdings, with Samsung C&T, Samsung Life and Samsung Electronics owning stakes in each other, so a family holding a few per cent controlled the whole group. The 2015 merger used to strengthen his son Jay Y.…0i