Rank #1636
Stephan Schmidheiny
Net worth $2.6B
Investments · Switzerland
- Born
- Oct 29, 1947
- Age
- 78
- Source
- Investments
- Residence
- Hurden
- Citizenship
- Switzerland
- Marital status
- Married
- Children
- 2
- Education
- Doctorate, University of Zurich
Net worth over time
Biography
- Stephan Schmidheiny's fortune dates back to 1867, when his great-grandfather founded a brick yard in eastern Switzerland that eventually became a giant in building materials.
- Schmidheiny joined the family business in 1974 as a sales manager. He became board president of his father's construction materials company Swiss Eternit Group in 1976 at age 28.
- When his father Max divided the estate in 1984, Stephan inherited Eternit while brother Thomas got cement and concrete supplier Holcim.
- Stephan Schmidheiny sold all his holdings in the Swiss Eternit group at the end of the 1980s and invested in other businesses.
- Since 2009, Schmidheiny has faced criminal charges in Italy for negligence that led to 2,000 asbestos-related deaths at Italian Eternit factories in the 1970s and 80s. Proceedings are still ongoing.
- Schmidheiny studied law at the University of Zurich.
- In 2003 Schmidheiny placed $1 billion in business assets in a charitable trust that promotes sustainability in Latin America.