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| Description: Net Worth: $7.8 billion Industry: Diversified Country of Citizenship: South Africa Age: 64 Number of Jobs Created: 1,465 Johann Rupert is South Africa’s richest person this year. He is the chairman and largest shareholder of Swiss-based luxury goods company, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, which owns 20 premium brands including Cartier, Dunhill, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Chloe, and Piaget, among others. He is also chairman and the largest shareholder of Remgro, an investment company with financial, mining and industrial interests. Both companies were founded by his father Anton Rupert, who grew a small garage-based cigarette manufacturing operation into major industrial and luxury goods concerns. Richemont is the sixth largest company on the Swiss stock exchange and the third largest luxury goods chain in the world. It reported sales of €10.6 billion for the year ended March 2014 and an operating profit of €2.4 billion. Johann grew up in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa. He attended but dropped out of the University of Stellenbosch, where he studied economics and law. Stellenbosch University later awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in economics. He currently serves as Stellenbosch University Chancellor. Rupert also owns two of South Africa’s best-known vineyards, Rupert & Rothschild and Anthonij Rupert Wines, which between them produce some of the country’s most acclaimed wines. An avid golfer, cricketer and conservationist, Rupert serves as the head of the South African PGA Tour and the South African Golf Development Board. He also founded the Franschhoek Motor Museum, which houses his personal collection of over 200 antique motor vehicles. |
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