2014 Forbes Billionaires List: # 61- Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi – $15.3 Billion

Sheikh Mohammed Al AmoudiSon of a Saudi father and Ethiopian mother, Mohammed Al Amoudi has accumulated a portfolio of construction, agriculture, and energy companies across Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia since he began investing in Sweden in the 1970s.

He made his initial fortune in construction in Saudi Arabia, where he continues to add to his portfolio with new projects for King Saud University as well as a medical complex and a new housing development. He is also the biggest individual investor in Ethiopia. His Saudi Star Horizon and Agri-CEFT have cultivated thousands of acres for fruits, vegetables, cereals, coffee, tea, flowers and most recently rice fields for customers in Ethopia, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. He exports coffee beans to Starbucks and tea leaves to Lipton. He continues to build his cement, steel and oil plants in Ethiopia to supply growing demand in East Africa. He also owns oil refineries in Morocco and Sweden and oil fields off the coast of West Africa.

He is hindered, he told a summit of business leaders in December 2013, by the “lack of enough trained and educated manpower” and is committed to growing and keeping talent. He has invested in Ethiopia’s Unity University to train more middle managers.

He is also a philanthropist, committing funds to fighting AIDS in Africa and working with the Clinton Health Access Initiative. He has supported the construction of Africa’s largest observatory in the mountains north of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

Source: Forbes Magazine