Only billionaires need apply

Mike Taylor //December 1, 2014//

Only billionaires need apply

Mike Taylor //December 1, 2014//

Five Colorado billionaires cracked this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, led again by Charlie Ergen. The DISH Network chairman and founder’s estimated net worth of $17.2 billion placed him 26th in the ranking. Other Coloradans on the list, released in advance of Forbes’ October issue:

No. 40: Philip Anschutz, investor in energy, real estate and entertainment ($11.1 billion);

No. 60: John Malone, Cable TV magnate ($7.6 billion);

No. 90: James Leprino of the Leprino Foods cheese empire ($3 billion);

No. 324: Pat Stryker, from the Stryker Corp. medical equipment maker, and the only Colorado woman on the list ($2 billion).

Microsoft’s Bill Gates topped the Forbes ranking for the 21st straight year with estimated wealth of $81 billion, followed by Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet at $67 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, No. 11, showed the biggest wealth increase, as his net worth rose $15 billion over last year, to $34 billion.

A “self-made” score introduced by Forbes this year indicated more than two-thirds of this year’s 400 billionaires are self-made, whereas fewer than half on the list were self-made 20 years ago, Forbes research concluded.