In 1981, Genzyme, which develops treatments for rare diseases, employed 14 people in an office in Chinatown. Eighteen months later, she hired the Dutchman Termeer. Today, the biotech company employs more than 8,000 people in 70 offices and factories worldwide, making it the third largest company of its kind. So it`s no surprise that Termeer was the region`s highest-paid CEO in 2004, earning him a total compensation of at least $37.9 million. Vinciarelli founded Vicor, which makes power supplies after an outdated converter set fire to its stereo system. He had no business experience, his lab was his basement, and his start-up investors were his relatives and friends. Fortunately for them. Although Vicor`s share price has risen since its IPO in 1991 in 1991 – Vinciarelli has already lost $408 million in a week – the company`s shares are recovering. This is Vinciarelli`s net worth. He plans to sell up to a million shares in the coming months, which will add at least $18 million to his bank account. Belkin invented affinity marketing and sold branded credit cards and travel packages to groups such as professional associations and alumni clubs.
But money can`t buy everything. What Belkin really wants is to own a major league sports team. After twice trying to buy the Celtics, he eventually became the main owner of the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers, only to be bought by his partners in ugly dust. In January, he asked a court to award him the value of his 30 percent stake in the franchises — which he estimates at $500 million — or force his former partners to sell them to him. Just in case it is still on the market for another team. Some speculate that Johnson will eventually go to pasture within five years. But make no mistake: the old lion is still roaring. When the SEC said it would prevent executives who run mutual fund companies from having a financial interest in the funds they manage, Johnson made a scathing comment to the Wall Street Journal (he`s chairman of all 377 Fidelity funds and his family owns nearly half of the company). “Any damned mule can demolish a barn,” Johnson wrote to investors. And Fidelity, worth an estimated $40 billion, is the largest barn of all time.
Welch earned $10,500 in his first year as a young chemical engineer at GE. In his final year as CEO, he earned $16 million. Although investors balked at his estimated $50 million bond package, he increased GE`s value by $400 billion during his two decades as CEO, making it the world`s most valuable company for a while. Now Welch lives with his third wife, Suzy Welch, née Wetlaufer, in a 20,000-square-foot rented townhouse overlooking Boston Common. He owns four other homes, including one in Nantucket, where he paid college scholarships for caddies at the island`s Sankaty Head Golf Club (Welch still gets the best caddies). He doesn`t apologize for falling in love with Suzy — whose ring finger wears 10.8-carat diamonds — while he`s still married to his second wife, although rumor has it that the woman reduced her fortune by more than $100 million in divorce (the settlement remains sealed). Venture capital giant Bain Capital earned him $3 million when he founded Staples. Now, Stemberg, who says he was forced to leave the company he founded, is a venture capitalist himself. Along the way, he invested some of his own money in KaBloom florists, zoot cleaners, and Olly Shoes, a chain of children`s shoe stores he co-funded in partnership with a woman who later became his mistress — thanks to which some of Stemberg`s estimated $202 million net worth shown here might already belong to his ex-wife. A few years after making his way through the BU working in the construction industry in the summer, Karp convinced his employer at the time, a real estate development company, to accompany him to a shopping mall in Danvers.
The Liberty Tree Mall was the first in a series of 20 malls it would develop before selling most of them for $1.75 billion. Karp still owns CambridgeSide Galleria and much of downtown Nantucket, where he bought about $75 million worth of real estate last year alone. Now it`s targeting Newburyport, where it spent $38 million on commercial space last year. Its Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, co-developed with Joe O`Donnell (No. 24), is set to open in July. Her divorce from King Tom Lee in 1996 made Barbara Lee a very wealthy woman. (Her net worth received another boost when she sold her Brookline home for $18.5 million, a city record at the time.) Since then, she has established a foundation to support women in politics, organized a $500,000 fundraiser in October for Hillary Clinton and the three other U.S. senators who are running for re-election, and received the first $5 million for the new $62 million ICA. of which she co-directs the fundraising campaign. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1965, Kraft worked in the paper business of his father-in-law, Rand-Whitney. Less than three years later, he took over half of the business as part of a loan buyout (presumably he did for unpleasant family Thanksgivings) and built it, along with his own International Forest Products, in one of the largest paper conglomerates in the world.
Of course, he gained greater visibility in 1994 with his record buy from the Pats of $172 million (his former Brookline neighbor Jeffrey Lurie broke the record later that year by buying the Philadelphia Eagles for $185 million). Twelve years and three Super Bowls later, the Patriots franchise alone is worth about $1 billion (we deducted the value of the $15,000 Super Bowl ring now in Vladimir Putin`s sock drawer). Now, Kraft, which also owns the revolution, is about to develop Patriots Place on its 500 acres around Gillette Stadium, a “mall” anchored by a Bass Pro store. And Kraft`s mother wanted him to become a rabbi. Not everyone at the top has done so well since we last made this list. CMGI`s David Wetherell, for example, saw his stake in the company grow from $2.1 billion to $100 million in less than a year. Others took their greenery to greener pastures. Viacom`s Sumner Redstone, worth $8.4 billion, has moved to Beverly Hills. Casino Baron Sheldon Adelson, who once drove his purple Rolls-Royce to Newton, brought his $15.6 billion to Las Vegas, where he owns the Venetian. Buyout king Thomas Lee ($1.2 billion) did as Johnny Damon did and parted ways with New York. Estimating a person`s net worth is not easy. Stern and his team relied on a variety of sources, including SEC filings, corporate records, court documents, valuation databases, and newspaper and magazine articles.
Deshpande experienced a long fall after the exhilarating days when he founded Cascade Communications with $1,000 and sold it for $3.7 billion, then founded Sycamore Networks, which had the fourth largest IPO of all time. These successes brought his net worth to a peak of $13 billion and made him the richest Indian in the world. Sycamore`s share price has since fallen from a high of around $200 to less than $5, and Deshpande and its CEO Dan Smith (No. 38) are stuck at 32% of the shares. Of course, that`s a third of a business that`s still valued at nearly $1 billion. Meanwhile, he continues to invest in other startups. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft tops the list with a net worth of $4.8 billion.