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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 458 John Collison|# 460 Fred Smith ➡

# 459 Jim Kavanaugh 

$6.79B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 11/21/2024

# 459 Jim Kavanaugh 

$6.79B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 11/21/2024
OccupationCofounder and CEO, World Wide Technology
Source of WealthIT Provider
Age62
ResidenceSt. Louis, Missouri
EducationBS, St. Louis University
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$5.93B
Jim Kavanaugh
Jim Kavanaugh
United States
Net worth: $6.79B

Self-Made Score 

Rado DiaStar Original Swiss Automatic Watch 35 mm

Wealth History

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Biography

Overview

James P. (Jim) Kavanaugh, born in 1963, is an American billionaire and the CEO and co-founder of World Wide Technology (WWT), a technology services provider based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kavanaugh and David Steward launched WWT in 1990, initially focusing on selling computers and printers to telecom giants like AT&T. Today, WWT boasts $17 billion in annual revenue and employs over 9,000 people, serving clients ranging from Citi to the federal government.

Early Life and Education

Kavanaugh earned his Bachelor of Science in business administration from Saint Louis University in 1986.
He was an accomplished soccer player during his college years, playing for Saint Louis University and representing the United States in the 1983 Pan American Games.

Sports and Entrepreneurship

In 1986, Kavanaugh was drafted to the Los Angeles Lazers in the Major Indoor Soccer League as the second overall pick.
He later played for the St. Louis Steamers.
Kavanaugh's involvement in sports extended beyond playing. He served as CEO of the United Soccer League's Saint Louis FC from 2014 to 2020 and was a minority investor in the St. Louis Blues hockey team and St. Louis City SC, a Major League Soccer franchise.
Transitioning from sports to entrepreneurship, Kavanaugh worked as a sales manager for Future Electronics before co-founding WWT with David Steward in 1990.

Career Highlights and Achievements

As CEO of WWT, Kavanaugh oversaw its remarkable growth from a startup to a multi-billion-dollar company.
Under his leadership, WWT secured partnerships with industry giants like Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Microsoft.
WWT expanded globally, opening warehouses and integration labs across continents, including in Europe and Asia.
In 2020, WWT received Webby Awards for its innovative St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Patient Care App.
The company has consistently been recognized for its workplace culture, making Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list from 2012 to 2022.

Awards and Recognition

In 2022, Kavanaugh was inducted into the Junior Achievement of Greater St. Louis Hall of Fame for his contributions to business and the community.
WWT has been named one of Time's 100 Most Influential Companies, in the 'Leaders' category, in 2021.
Throughout its history, WWT has garnered recognition for its impact and success, solidifying its position as a leading player in the technology industry.

Additional Board Appointment

In 2022, Kavanaugh was appointed to the board of St. Louis-based Stifel Financial, further expanding his influence and involvement in the business community.

Jim Kavanaugh's Wealth is Equivalent to:

5,229,407 Herman Miller Aeron Chairs

Herman Miller Aeron Chair

1,285,336 Gold Bars (50 gram)

24K Solid 50g Gold Ingot

69,426 Tiny Homes

Tiny House, Two Bedroom Solar Prefab Home

How long would it take you to become as rich as Jim Kavanaugh?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 43.43% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Jim Kavanaugh's net worth of $6.79B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 58.67% compared to 23.91% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Jim Kavanaugh is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Jim Kavanaugh, IT Provider is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We only recommend products or services we believe will add value to our readers.

Edited by: Lee Bailey