These 18 GA Billionaires Are Among World’s Richest: Forbes 2022 List

GEORGIA — The billionaires of the world are worth a mind-blowing $12.7 trillion in total— even though their fortunes were caught up in the economic chaos caused by the invasion of Ukraine and the lingering effects of the pandemic, according to the recently released Forbes World's Billionaires List.

In Georgia, three new billionaires joined the list from a year ago. Trudy Cathy White is the only daughter of the late Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, and worth $4.8 billion. Other newcomers are Tope Awatona, the founder and CEO of scheduling software company Calendly, is worth $1.4 billion; and Jeff Sprecher, founder and CEO of global stock exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange, also known as ICE, is worth $1 billion.

More than 1,000 billionaires are richer than they were a year ago. And more than 200 people became billionaires over the past year as ordinary Americans grapple with record gas prices and rising food costs at the grocery store.

The number of billionaires on this year’s list slipped to 2,668 — 87 fewer than last year.

A total of 18 billionaires on this year’s list hail from Georgia.

Bernard Marcus, who confounded Home Depot with Arthur Blank, is at the top of the list with a net worth of $8.6 billion. Marcus, who signed the Giving Pledge with his wife in 2010, has given away over $1 billion to education, hospitals, and Jewish causes.

Other Georgia billionaires on the list include:

• Bernard Marcus, Home Depot, $8.6 billion
• Jim Kennedy, Cox Enterprises, $7.9 billion
• Arthur Blank, Home Depot/Atlanta Falcons, $7 billion
• John Brown, medical equipment, $5.8 billion
• Gary Rollins, pest control, $5.7 billion
• Ben Chestnut, email marketing, $5 billion
• Dan Kurzius, email marketing, $5 billion
• Bubba and Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A, net worth: $4.8 billion
• Trudy Cathy White, Chick-fil-A, $4.8 billion
• Ted Turner, cable television, $2.3 billion
• Joe Rogers Jr., Waffle House, $2 billion
• David Zalik, financial technology, $1.9 billion
• Tope Awatona, scheduling software company Calendly, $1.4 billion
• Ronald Clarke, payments technology, $1.1 billion
• Tyler Perry, movies, television, $1 billion
• Jeff Sprecher, global stock exchange operator ICE, $1 billion.

To compile this year’s list, Forbes used a snapshot of its real-time billionaires rankings by analyzing stock prices and exchange rates for March 11.

The United States still leads the world with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion. This includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who tops the World’s Billionaires List for the first time.

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos fell to the second spot on this year’s list. Bezos, who founded the e-commerce giant out of his garage in Seattle, Washington, stepped down as CEO in 2021 and is now executive chairman of the company.

Meanwhile, France’s Bernard Arnault of LVMH remains at No. 3, followed by Bill Gates of Microsoft at No. 4. Rounding out this year’s top five is Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway.

U.S. billionaires could surrender more wealth should Congress pass a “Billionaire Minimum Tax” proposed in President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal.

Related: Proposed Biden Tax Could Cost 14 Georgia Billionaires

Under the proposal, households worth more than $100 million would pay at least 20 percent in taxes on both income and “unrealized gains,” or the increase in an unsold investment’s value. Many wealthy people hold onto these investments for decades, meaning they’re never taxed, the administration said.

However, the bill’s prospects seem grim after Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin spoke out against it.

“You can’t tax something that’s not earned. Earned income is what we’re based on,” Manchin told The Hill. “There’s other ways to do it. Everybody has to pay their fair share.”

See the full 2022 Forbes Billionaires List.