29-555: Valarie "Larry" Kestelman (born 1966) is an Australian billionaire property developer and businessman. He co-founded internet service provider Dodo in 2001, which was bought out in 2013, and has interests in various other industries via his holding company LK Group. He is also known for his involvement in Australian basketball, including as the majority owner of the National Basketball League (NBL) since 2015. Kestelman
58-652: A 50-storey residential tower in South Yarra that would be reportedly be the tallest building in Melbourne outside of the central business district. He retained the penthouse of the development for his own use. In September 2001, Kestelman established internet service provider Dodo Services with his cousin Michael Slepoy and Russian-born Igor Gilenko. He took a 49 percent stake in the company, with Slepoy holding 28 percent and Gilenko 23 percent. The business grew rapidly with
87-488: A 50-storey residential tower in South Yarra that would be reportedly be the tallest building in Melbourne outside of the central business district. He retained the penthouse of the development for his own use. In September 2001, Kestelman established internet service provider Dodo Services with his cousin Michael Slepoy and Russian-born Igor Gilenko. He took a 49 percent stake in the company, with Slepoy holding 28 percent and Gilenko 23 percent. The business grew rapidly with
116-617: A blood bank. He grew up in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, attending Murrumbeena High School before going on to study accounting at Victoria College in Prahran . His first job was in accounts payable department of a tyre company. Kestelman became interested in basketball as a spectator in the 1990s. He began sponsoring the Melbourne Tigers NBL team in the early 2000s and acquired the team in 2012, immediately sacking head coach Trevor Gleeson . In 2014 he controversially announced that
145-635: 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
174-529: 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
203-654: 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
232-405: A focus on simplifying customer billing, including providing fixed-price plans and unlimited downloads. However, in 2003 Kestelman and fellow Dodo director Mark Baranov were found to have knowingly engaged in "misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct", following an Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation into misleading advertising. The company was not fined but
261-404: A focus on simplifying customer billing, including providing fixed-price plans and unlimited downloads. However, in 2003 Kestelman and fellow Dodo director Mark Baranov were found to have knowingly engaged in "misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct", following an Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation into misleading advertising. The company was not fined but
290-421: A laboratory assistant at a blood bank. He grew up in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, attending Murrumbeena High School before going on to study accounting at Victoria College in Prahran . His first job was in accounts payable department of a tyre company. Kestelman became interested in basketball as a spectator in the 1990s. He began sponsoring the Melbourne Tigers NBL team in the early 2000s and acquired
319-696: A new television rights deal, the revival of the Brisbane Bullets , and a revamp of the league's brand identity and digital platform. He subsequently increased his stake in the NBL to 94 percent. Kestelman began investing in property at a young age, starting with a block of land in Caulfield South . He moved from subdividing residential lots to building townhouses , later expanding to large apartment blocks in Footscray and Southbank . In 2015 he launched Capitol Grand,
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#1732891341338348-435: 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
377-494: Is an Australian billionaire property developer and businessman. He co-founded internet service provider Dodo in 2001, which was bought out in 2013, and has interests in various other industries via his holding company LK Group. He is also known for his involvement in Australian basketball, including as the majority owner of the National Basketball League (NBL) since 2015. Kestelman was born in 1966 in Odesa , Ukraine . His father
406-441: 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,
435-616: The Financial Review 2017 Rich List with an estimated net worth of A$ 749 million. As of May 2023, Kestelman's net worth was assessed at A$ 1.27 billion in the Financial Review Rich List. Billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency , usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar , euro , or pound sterling . It
464-567: The Review, Black Pepper and Yarra Trail brands. In 2021 it acquired footwear and fashion retailer Brand Collective , whose brands include Volley , Shoes & Sox, and Shoe Warehouse. In April 2023,Queens Lane Capital purchased bed and mattress company Snooze from Greenlit Brands . Kestelman debuted on the BRW Young Rich List in 2005 with Dodo co-founder Igor Gilenko, with a shared net worth estimated at A$ 87 million. He debuted on
493-454: The Review, Black Pepper and Yarra Trail brands. In 2021 it acquired footwear and fashion retailer Brand Collective , whose brands include Volley , Shoes & Sox, and Shoe Warehouse. In April 2023,Queens Lane Capital purchased bed and mattress company Snooze from Greenlit Brands . Kestelman debuted on the BRW Young Rich List in 2005 with Dodo co-founder Igor Gilenko, with a shared net worth estimated at A$ 87 million. He debuted on
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
551-402: The league's brand identity and digital platform. He subsequently increased his stake in the NBL to 94 percent. Kestelman began investing in property at a young age, starting with a block of land in Caulfield South . He moved from subdividing residential lots to building townhouses , later expanding to large apartment blocks in Footscray and Southbank . In 2015 he launched Capitol Grand,
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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#1732891341338638-707: 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
667-425: The team in 2012, immediately sacking head coach Trevor Gleeson . In 2014 he controversially announced that the team would rebrand as Melbourne United . In 2015, Kestelman secured a majority 51 percent stake in the National Basketball League in exchange for a A$ 7 million equity stake. The league was in financial distress with a number of teams close to collapse. In his first year as league owner Kestelman negotiated
696-402: The team would rebrand as Melbourne United . In 2015, Kestelman secured a majority 51 percent stake in the National Basketball League in exchange for a A$ 7 million equity stake. The league was in financial distress with a number of teams close to collapse. In his first year as league owner Kestelman negotiated a new television rights deal, the revival of the Brisbane Bullets , and a revamp of
725-466: The total number of known billionaires and the net worth of the world's wealthiest individual for each year since 2008. Data for each year is from the annual Forbes list of billionaires, with currency figures given in U.S. dollars. Data since 2018 also includes the Wealth-X billionaire census which typically finds higher numbers than Forbes . Brand Collective Valarie "Larry" Kestelman (born 1966)
754-566: Was an electrical engineer and his mother was a gynaecologist. The family emigrated when he was 11 years old as part of a wave of Jewish immigrants leaving the Soviet Union, living for six months in Ostia , Italy, before securing Australian visas. Kestelman arrived in Australia at the age of 12, with his father finding work as a draftsman with Holden and his mother working as a laboratory assistant at
783-436: Was born in 1966 in Odesa , Ukraine . His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was a gynaecologist. The family emigrated when he was 11 years old as part of a wave of Jewish immigrants leaving the Soviet Union, living for six months in Ostia , Italy, before securing Australian visas. Kestelman arrived in Australia at the age of 12, with his father finding work as a draftsman with Holden and his mother working as
812-811: Was ordered to compensate customers and carry out a trade practices compliance programme. Dodo claimed revenues of $ A80 million by 2005 and received a takeover offer from Telstra which was rejected. Dodo was ultimately sold to M2 Group for $ A204 million in 2014. Kestelman's holding company is the LK Group. As of 2017 his interests outside of property included Philippines-based call centre provider Acquire BPO , recruitment agency First Avenue, investment firm Oxygen Ventures, digital content firm Newsmodo, human resources firm Wall Street, customer loyalty provider Infinite Rewards, and software companies eCal, eTaskr and Saisei. In 2020, LK Group's private equity arm Queens Lane Capital acquired womenswear retailer PAS Group, which owns
841-756: Was ordered to compensate customers and carry out a trade practices compliance programme. Dodo claimed revenues of $ A80 million by 2005 and received a takeover offer from Telstra which was rejected. Dodo was ultimately sold to M2 Group for $ A204 million in 2014. Kestelman's holding company is the LK Group. As of 2017 his interests outside of property included Philippines-based call centre provider Acquire BPO , recruitment agency First Avenue, investment firm Oxygen Ventures, digital content firm Newsmodo, human resources firm Wall Street, customer loyalty provider Infinite Rewards, and software companies eCal, eTaskr and Saisei. In 2020, LK Group's private equity arm Queens Lane Capital acquired womenswear retailer PAS Group, which owns
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