WALKER, Mich. (WOOD) — The pair of brothers at the helm of Meijer are the richest people in Michigan, according to Forbes.
A dozen people from Michigan made it onto Forbes’ complete 2017 list of billionaires, released Monday. Hank and Doug Meijer are the richest among them, with a combined net worth of $7.2 billion, according to Forbes.
However, the Meijer brothers were far from the top of the list, coming in at No. 194. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was officially the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $86 billion, followed by followed by Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet at $75.6 billion, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at $72.8 billion, Spain’s Amancio Ortega at $71.3 billion and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at $56 billion.
Marian Illitch was the third richest Michigan resident, coming in at No. 239 with $6 billion. Quicken Loans’ Daniel Gilbert came in at 250 with $5.8 billion. Amway co-founder Richard DeVos was No. 269 with $5.6 billion.
Three people connected to Kalamazoo-based Stryker were among Michigan’s richest. Ronda Stryker, the granddaughter of the company’s founder was No. 385 with $4.4 billion, followed by former chairman John Brown, who had a net worth of $2.9 billion and ranked 745th. The founder’s grandson, Jon Stryker, came in at No. 814 with $2.6 billion.
Michigan’s William Young, who co-founded Plastipak with his father, came in at No. 973 with a net worth of $2.1 billion. The auto industry’s Roger Penske, Martha Ford and Manuel Maroun rounded out Michigan’s list of billionaires, with $1.6 billion, $1.5 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.