- Forbes put together a ranking of the 250 'greatest' self-made Americans.
- Oprah Winfrey tops the list that includes business magnates, scientists, athletes and actor.
- Several people with connections to Utah made the list.
Forbes is well known for its rankings of the world’s richest people. This year, the 109-year-old business magazine assembled a list of the 250 greatest living self-made Americans in honor of the country’s semiquincentennial.
“The American Dream is built on the audacious belief that anyone can make it to the top. Every elementary school kid is imbued with the belief that anyone can become president of the United States. Or a hip-hop megastar. Or a space-faring billionaire,” according to Forbes.
“The notion is as old as the Republic and stands self-consciously in contrast to class-ridden Europe where one’s prospects were often determined at birth.”
To come up with the list, Forbes dug deep into its archive. It asked its current beat reporters for ideas. It ran hundreds of queries through ChatGPT and Gemini.
After that, it ran the names past a panel of judges: DeAngela Burns-Wallace, CEO of the Kauffman Foundation; Keith Dunleavy, founder of Inovalon; Rich Karlgaard, Forbes former publisher; Steven Klinsky, founder and CEO, New Mountain Capital; Jim McKelvey, cofounder of Block (formerly Square); and Ryan Rippel, CEO of NextLadder Ventures.
Forbes’ Self-Made Score, a 1-to-10 ranking that quantifies the “distance traveled” by each individual, separated those who started with nothing from those with a big head start. Only those ranking nine or 10 made the cut. The final list encompasses financial success, obstacles overcome and enduring impact.
Who tops the 250 Greatest Self-Made Americans ranking?
“While we put a heavy emphasis on rags-to-riches billionaires, we also included pioneering scientists, Supreme Court justices and others whose ‘wealth’ is measured in influence and impact, not just dollar signs,” per Forbes.
The ranking is peppered with athletes, actors and singers, not all of them in the billionaire club.
The top six, though, are billionaires, led by Oprah Winfrey.
“Born to a teen mother, Winfrey grew up on a rural Mississippi farm without indoor plumbing. At 9 she was raped by a cousin; at 14 she gave birth to a son, who died soon thereafter. Thanks to a federal program, she attended a rich suburban school where she discovered a knack for public speaking and debate, which earned her a part-time radio gig and, later, a scholarship to Tennessee State University. In 1984 she took over a struggling morning talk show in Chicago and eventually turned it into a national media brand,” Forbes wrote.
NBA star LeBron James checked in at No. 5. Dolly Parton is the first non-billionaire on the list at seventh. Former President Bill Clinton ranks eighth, while current Vice President JD Vance is tenth.
Martha Stewart made the list at No. 250.
“The queen of entertaining, who put herself through Barnard by modeling, was a stockbroker before opening her catering business. Despite spending five months in prison, she continues to expand her lifestyle empire,” per Forbes.
Who with Utah ties made the Forbes list?
Five people with connections to Utah appeared in the ranking. Two were born in Utah — one’s family moved when she was a child, while the other still lives in Salt Lake City. One taught at the University of Utah and one graduated from Brigham Young University, while the other got his advanced degree at the University of Utah.
In the spirit of Forbes, we ran the 250 names through ChatGPT and Gemini looking for connections to the Beehive, along with our own research.
Here’s what we came up with: (Words in quote marks are Forbes’ description of each individual.)
No. 43 Frank VanderSloot, 77
“The Melaleuca founder labored on the family farm while his father worked the railroad; he lived in a laundromat during college.”
Vandersloot was the first person in his family to go to college, earning a degree in business management from BYU. His company is headquartered in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
No. 54 Mario Capecchi, 88
“While his mother was incarcerated in Germany, possibly at Dachau, during World War II, the Nobel winner spent his childhood on Italy’s streets.”
Capecchi is a world-renowned molecular geneticist and was a professor at the University of Utah. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 for his work on gene targeting. A street on the university campus bears his name.
No. 63 Gail Miller, 82
“Raised in a house with one light bulb that was moved from room to room, the billionaire and her husband risked their savings to buy their first business, a Toyota dealership.”
Miller is perhaps the most prominent Utah figure on this list. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, she and her late husband, Larry H. Miller, built an auto empire. The Millers owned the Utah Jazz for decades before selling the team in 2020. After also selling the car dealerships, the Miller family now owns men’s and women’s pro soccer teams, movie theaters and real estate. Gail Miller is a pillar of the business and philanthropic community.
No. 103 Jewel, 51
“The singer-songwriter grew up in a one-room Alaskan cabin and once lived in her van.”
Jewel Kilcher was born in Payson, Utah, while her father was attending BYU. The family moved to Alaska shortly after her birth.
No. 122 James Clark, 81
“The Netscape founder dropped out of high school and joined the Navy to escape a turbulent childhood.”
Clark earned his bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in physics at the University of New Orleans, followed by a doctorate in computer science at the University of Utah. His work in computer graphics led to the development of systems for the fast rendering of three-dimensional images.