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29-622: During the 1960s, one of Thomas H. Friedkin 's hobbies was racing cars. He was friends with Carroll Shelby , famous for designing the AC Cobra and the Shelby Mustang . Shelby had turned down an offer to become a distributor for Toyota because Lee Iacocca told Shelby that "the domestic makers were going to push the Japanese back into the ocean". Shelby introduced Friedkin to Toyota, and Friedkin entered into an agreement to distribute Toyota vehicles from

58-705: A Grumman F4F Wildcat , among other planes. Many have been used in motion picture and television production. When asked to allow his F4U Corsair to be used in the television show Baa Baa Black Sheep , Friedkin insisted on piloting it himself; he has since flown in several films. Friedkin is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Motion Picture Pilots Association . Wildlife conservation and Big-game hunting were two additional passions of Friedkin. He created Tanzania Game Tracker Safaris in 1989. Profits from those expeditions help fund

87-513: A 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m ) training center, in addition to Gulf States Marketing and Gulf States Financial Services offices. Gulf States Toyota Distributors is one of only two remaining private Toyota distributors in the United States, the rest having been reacquired by Toyota. The other is Southeast Toyota Distributors , founded by the late billionaire Jim Moran . By 2001, Tom Friedkin, then 66, had turned over responsibility for running

116-635: A college degree, greatly exceeding any other educational background. The most common field of university education was finance and economics, which only contributed to a combined 15.5% of billionaire educations. There is little correlation between any university and becoming a billionaire. The top 10 universities produced just 99 of the top 400 billionaires combined, significantly less than the total number of billionaires who were not college educated. Military service produced 21 billionaires, more than any single university. Very few college-educated billionaires pursued business interests in their field of study, with

145-529: A combined net worth of $ 8.5 trillion. Also according to the report, billionaires have a substantial positive impact on the sustainability and success of companies controlled by them. Billionaire-controlled companies listed on the equity market returned 17.8 percent, compared with the 9.1 percent of the MSCI AC World Index . According to the authors of the report, this Billionaire Effect is connected with smart risk-taking and willingness to plan and invest for

174-654: A combined wealth of over US$ 14.2 trillion, up from US$ 12.2   trillion in 2023. According to a 2024 Oxfam report, the world's top 1% of earners own more combined wealth "than 95% of humanity". As of October 2024, seventeen people have reached the status of USD centibillionaires, meaning that each has had a net worth of at least $ 100 billion. According to the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report 2019 report released in November 2019, there are currently 2,101 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, from 66 countries, with

203-575: A major currency such as the United States dollar , euro , or pound sterling . It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultra high-net-worth individual . The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916. As of April 2024, there are 2,781 billionaires worldwide, with

232-466: Is chairman of the family-owned holding company, Friedkin Group, which owns the auto distributorship Gulf States Toyota. Friedkin died after a short illness on March 14, 2017. Friedkin served in several movies either on the crew working as a pilot or as an actor, including: Billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency , usually of

261-530: Is located between Houston and Dallas . GST was granted a 300-acre tract as an incentive to locate there. Construction was expected to begin in July 2009 and be completed by December 2011. However, the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 and 2009–2011 Toyota vehicle recalls caused Gulf States and Temple to adopt an amendment to the agreement in 2010. GST was allowed to postpone construction for up to five years while compensating

290-441: Is publicly available. In 2019, Forbes counted a record 607 billionaires in the U.S.. Over the course of the 2020s, depending on the source and the year, the world's richest person has been reckoned to be Jeff Bezos , Bernard Arnault and family, or Elon Musk . In 2019, 19 people became billionaires. Four were a result of death or divorce, including Julia Koch , and Jeff Bezos 's former wife MacKenzie Scott . From 2014 to 2019,

319-1040: The Friedkin Conservation Fund , which works with the Tanzanian government to protect 3.2 million acres of wild Tanzania from poachers and illegal harvesting of natural resources. The Friedkin Group, the owner of Gulf States Toyota, contributed $ 2 million in 2005 to establish the Friedkin Disaster Relief Fund to help provide relief to Hurricane Katrina victims who worked for Toyota and other dealerships. The Friedkin Foundation takes care of his philanthropic activities. In 1961, Friedkin married Susan Wille Friedkin; and they had four children: Dan Friedkin (Debra), Tomisu Friedkin Dawley (James Raymond Dawley III), Dorothy Friedkin Tang, and Kenneth Friedkin (Mary). His son Dan

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348-539: The Port of Houston . Gulf States Toyota Distributors (GST) was founded in 1969. Gulf States Toyota is the smaller of just two private distributors of Toyota vehicles in the United States. The other is Southeast Toyota Distributors in Jacksonville, Florida , founded by the late Jim Moran . GST signed an economic development agreement with Temple, Texas in 2008 to construct a $ 50-million Inland Processing facility. The city

377-576: The Scorpions in 2013. Thomas H. Friedkin Thomas Hoyt Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – March 14, 2017) was an American billionaire businessman, airplane pilot, and stuntman who founded Gulf States Toyota Distributors . Thomas Friedkin was the son of Jean and Kenny Friedkin . His father was a combat pilot and trainer with the British Royal Air Force during World War II . After

406-507: The Texan who was famous for designing the Shelby Cobra and the Shelby Mustang for Ford , would probably be a billionaire today if he had accepted Toyota's 1968 offer to become an automobile distributor. According to Shelby: "I turned it down because I went to Lee Iacocca , and he told me not to take it because the domestic makers were going to push the Japanese back into the ocean. In the end I

435-540: The United States. GST is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Friedkin Group and ranked 53rd on the Forbes 2008 list of America's Largest Private Companies with revenues estimated at $ 5.7 billion. GST's corporate headquarters is in west Houston with a 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m ) campus consisting of a five-story and a ten-story building, connected by a concourse and an eight floor parking garage. The complex includes

464-491: The city for infrastructure improvements already made: $ 4.6 million over three years. The project was never resumed. Hurricane Harvey inflicted severe damage on the company's headquarters in August of 2017, causing staff to relocate for several months while repairs were made. Toby Hynes served as president and general manager at GST from 1999 to 2012. Martin "Marty" Collins, formerly a marketing executive for Ford Motor Company ,

493-903: The community include several programs. After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Toyota people from the US raised over $ 1.5 million for the Friedkin Disaster Relief Fund . GST parent Friedkin Group also donated $ 500,000 to the United Way of Greater Houston. In September 2013, the soccer-specific stadium formerly known as Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas was renamed Toyota Stadium . It is primarily used by Major League Soccer club FC Dallas (also sponsored by Gulf States Toyota) and Frisco Independent School District . GST also purchased naming rights to Toyota Field in San Antonio, home of minor league soccer team

522-401: The exception of computer science majors. All twelve of the computer science major billionaires worked in computer science, while only half of engineers worked in engineering, and less than a quarter of finance and economics majors ever worked in finance or economics. The most common field for billionaires to enter was sales and military service. According to a 2016 Oxfam report, the wealth of

551-401: The holding firm and its 3,000 employees to son Dan , but remained chairman and was content to dispense advice. "I'm kind of a bum these days," he told Forbes . "I am not a greedy person, and I don't have to make the last dollar there ever was." Friedkin was a Grand National Owner from 1965–1969 and two of his drivers, Jim Paschal and Bobby Allison were moderately successful. Tom Friedkin

580-612: The long term. The majority of billionaires are male, as fewer than 11% (197 of 1,826) on the 2015 list were female billionaires . The United States has the largest number of billionaires of any country, with 536 as of 2015 , while China , India and Russia are home to 213, 90 and 88 billionaires, respectively. As of 2015 , only 46 billionaires were under the age of 40, while the list of American-only billionaires, as of 2010, had an average age of 66. Different authorities use different methodologies to determine net worth and to rank them, and not all information about personal finances

609-436: The number of female billionaires grew by 46%. That is more than the number of male billionaires in the same period (39%). As of 2019 there were 233 female billionaires in the world, compared to 160 in 2013. Billionaires come from a very wide number of backgrounds. A review of the education and work histories of the top 400 billionaires shows little correlation between education and success. Nearly 30% of billionaires do not have

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638-707: The poorest 95% dropped by 38% between 2010 and 2015, due to an increase in the global population of 400 million. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people between the World's Billionaires increased by $ 500bn (£350bn) to $ 1.76tn. More recently, in 2017 an Oxfam report noted that just eight billionaires have as much net worth as "half the human race". However, the Oxfam report has been criticized for considering debt as negative wealth, which leads to wealthy people with large amounts of debt to be considered poor or not wealthy. These aggregated statistics for billionaires include

667-562: The required state inspection before leaving the center so that receiving dealers do not have to. Gulf States Toyota built a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m) Parts Distribution Center (PDC) near Sealy, Texas in 1986. The center was expanded by 40% in 2019 to 426,000-square-foot (39,600 m) in May, 2019. The expansion created a shipping dock on the north side of the facility to separate shipping and receiving operations. The warehouse handles 55,000 different parts/accessories. Outreach efforts in

696-573: The war, his father opened Friedkin Aeronautics, a flight school in San Diego, California , before founding Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1949 with a single leased DC-3 . In 1958, it carried nearly 300,000 passengers. Friedkin learned to fly while he was a youth and in 1962, started working as a pilot for PSA. In 1962, Friedkin's father died abruptly of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 47. In 1963, PSA went public and soon after, his mother also died, making

725-459: The younger Friedkin the largest shareholder of the airline. Although he had a seat on the Board of Directors, he continued working as a full-time pilot for the carrier. The airline continued operating until 1988, reaching $ 500 million in revenues, when US Airways purchased the carrier for $ 400 million. Friedkin received just $ 3.4 million. During the 1960s, one of Friedkin's hobbies was racing cars. He

754-536: Was friends with Carroll Shelby , who had turned down an offer to become a distributor for Toyota Motors . Shelby introduced Friedkin to Toyota and Friedkin founded Gulf States Toyota Distributors (GST). Friedkin has built GST into a multibillion-dollar franchise that buys Toyota, Scion and Lexus cars wholesale and sells them—as well as parts and service—to about 150 dealerships in his franchise states of Arkansas , Louisiana , Mississippi , Oklahoma and Texas . GST's sales account for nearly 13% of Toyota sales in

783-539: Was friends with Bill Thomas of Bill Thomas Race Cars in Anaheim California and creator of the Bill Thomas Cheetah . Bill Thomas Race Cars built one of the first sprint cup cars for Friedkin enterprises in 1965 for driver Jim Paschal to race in the 1965 season. It was a 1965 Impala powered by a new secret 396 Chevrolet big block engine that was bored to 427 cubic inches. Friedkin's close friend Carroll Shelby ,

812-865: Was hired after Hynes retired. Ford filed a lawsuit in Detroit, claiming that Collins violated his employment contract by working for a competitor and sharing proprietary information. Collin's attorney responded that Collins was employed by the Friedkin Group, an investment company which owns GST. The suit was eventually dropped. Collins quit abruptly in 2017 and was replaced by Jeff Parent, a Senior VP who remains in that position as of early 2022. Vehicle processing center in Houston includes an industrial spur with 7- sidings to offload vehicles from Rail cars . Vehicles are customized to order with options, such as window tinting and they're loaded to Car carrier trailers for transport to dealerships. All vehicles destined for Texas receive

841-523: Was just 'dumb' for listening to him at all." For several years, Friedkin co-owned the Miss Budweiser with Bernie Little . The Hydroplane boat won American Power Boat Association Gold Cup Races in 1969, 1970, and 1973. Friedkin also owned numerous warbirds , including a North American F-86F Sabre , a Chinese Air Force MiG-15 , a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt and the General Motors version of

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