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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 131 Philip Anschutz|# 133 Leonard Lauder ➡

# 132 Leon Black 

$14.3B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
-$169.7M (-1.19%)

# 132 Leon Black 

$14.3B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
-$169.7M (-1.19%)
OccupationCofounder, Apollo Global Management
Source of WealthPrivate Equity
Age72
ResidenceNew York, New York
Marital StatusMarried
Children4
EducationBS, Dartmouth College; MBA, Harvard University
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$6.35B
Leon Black
Leon Black
United States
Net worth: $14.3B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Overview

Leon David Black was born on July 31, 1951, in the United States.
He is the son of Eli M. Black, a Jewish businessman, and Shirley Lubell, an artist.
His father, Eli M. Black, was the chairman and later majority owner of the United Brands Company.
Tragically, in 1975, his father committed suicide.
Leon Black earned an AB in philosophy and history from Dartmouth College in 1973 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1975.
He served on the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College from 2002 to 2011.

Career Highlights

Black started his career as an accountant at Peat Marwick and worked with the publisher Boardroom Reports.
From 1977 to 1990, he was employed by investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he rose to managing director and head of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group.
After Drexel filed for bankruptcy in 1990, Black co-founded Apollo Global Management with Joshua Harris and Marc Rowan.
Apollo went public in 2011, and Black still owns roughly 15% of the company.
Black stepped down as CEO and chairman of Apollo in March 2021, following revelations of $158 million in fees paid to Jeffrey Epstein.

Personal Life

Leon Black is married to Debra Ressler, a 1976 Barnard College graduate, Broadway producer, and sister of Ares Management co-founder Antony Ressler.
The couple has four children, and one of their children, Ben, runs an investment fund.
Debra Black is a melanoma survivor, and in 2007, the couple donated $25 million to form the new Melanoma Research Alliance.

Controversies and Legal Issues

In 2021, Black stepped down as CEO and chairman after an investigation revealed $158 million in payments to Jeffrey Epstein between 2012 and 2017.
In 2023, Black paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims related to Epstein.
In July 2023, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced an investigation into Black's tax strategies and dealings with Epstein.
Black faced sexual misconduct accusations, including allegations of a consensual affair and lawsuits, which he denied.

Other Ventures

In 2012, Black acquired Phaidon Press, a fine art books publishing house.
He has an extensive art collection, including purchasing one of the four versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream in 2012 for $119.9 million.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Leon Black?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.01% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Leon Black's net worth of $14.3B.

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 40.45% compared to 10.08% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

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

Leon Black 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 Leon Black, Private Equity 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.

Edited by: Lee Bailey