Different sources of financial wealth

The 67-year-old Carlos Slim Helú is a telecom investor, worth $53.1 billion, in Mexico, a nation with per-capita income less than $6,800 a year and half the population living in poverty. He is now the second-richest person in the world measured by net worth, according to Forbes, but relatively few have heard of him. Many people know about Bill Gates (worth $56 billion, co-founded Microsoft in 1975) and Warren Buffett (worth $52.4 billion, value investor), but there are other extremely wealthy people who are almost unknown to general public. Often the reason for this is that these individuals make their financial fortunes in privately held companies, although Slim is an exception in this respect.

Here are some other names

Abigail Johnson : $12.5 billion. The family controls Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in USA.

Anurag Dikshit : $3.3 billion. A self-made billionaire with a degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, owns 32% of the Internet casino outfit PartyGaming.

Barbara Piasecka Johnson : $2.6 billion. A Polish immigrant in USA, former chambermaid, she married her boss, Johnson & Johnson heir John Seward Johnson, who died in 1983.

Ruth Parasol : $1.8 billion. Parasol and her husband, J. Russell DeLeon, own 32% of the Internet poker site PartyGaming.

Albert von Thurn und Taxis : $1.6 billion. He inherited a fortune on his 18th birthday in 2001, Germany.

Paul Riegel : $1.4 billion. In 1946 he was released from a prisoner-of-war camp, and set about rebuilding the family's candy company.

Michael Price : $1.4 billion. He manages a private firm, MFP Investors. Price, 53, has at least $1.6 billion under management, much of it his own money, and has a reputation for painstaking analysis and management shake-ups.

John MacMillan : $1.2 billion each person in MacMillan family, and $1.8 billion each person in Cargill family.

Vijay Mallya : $1 billion. A flamboyant liquor mogul, India. Mallya's UB Group recently acquired archrival Shaw Wallace, becoming the third-largest alcohol producer by volume.

Lily Safra : $1 billion. The widow of billionaire banker Edmond Safra. Lily Safra, 68, is a citizen of Monaco, and has two children.