This Date In History: The Greek Billionaire’s Club of 2013

September 16, 2013: Forbes magazine lists 6 Greek-American billionaires, including John Paul DeJoria, John Catsimatidis, Jim Davis, Michael Jaharis, Dean Mitropoulos, and George Argyros.

The first issue of Forbes Magazine, an American business magazine, came out on September 15, 1917, founded by B.C. Forbes, financial columnist for the Hearst papers, together with his partner, Walter Drey, general manager of Magazine of Wall Street. Starting in March 1987, Forbes began ranking the net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, based on United States dollars.

On September 16, 2013, Forbes released its 400 richest Americans, first time listing six Greek-Americans, including, John Paul DeJoria, son of an Italian father and Greek mother with a net worth of $4 billion, ranking him 110th. He co-founded the John Paul Mitchell Systems.

Jim Davis’ net worth is $3.1 billion and ranks 161st richest American (Davis is now listed as the richest Greek-American in 2019 worth $5.6 billion). He is the son of Greek immigrants and developed a global conglomerate with over 4,000 employees. Former New York City mayoral candidate, John Catsimatidis is the owner of Gristedes supermarkets in New York and has a stake in real estate and oil companies. He is ranked 161st and worth $3.1 billion.

Ranked as the 260th richest American, worth $2.1 billion, is George Argyros, who made his money through real estate and investment companies. He was Ambassador of the United States to Spain under the second George W. Bush administration. Michael Jaharis comes in at 273rd worth $2 billion dollars. He holds a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and owns pharmaceutical companies. Dean Mitropoulos is worth $1.3 billion and is ranked 386th. He is the founder of the investment firm, Metropoulos & Co.

In 2019, additional Greek-Americans were added to this list including, Tom Gores (Investment firms and sports), Peter Nicholas (Medical device development) Alec Gores (Technology), Haseotes Family (Cumberland Farms), Peter G. Angelos (Law and Owner of Baltimore Orioles), and many others.