5 New Jersey Residents Among Wealthiest Americans: Forbes 400

Forbes has released its 2016 list of the top wealthiest billionaires in America, and there were a handful of New Jersey natives represented in the bunch.

The aggregate net worth of all 400 billionaires adds up to $2.4 trillion, or an average of $6 billion per person. An overwhelming majority of figures who made the overall list are between the ages of 60 and 79, and most work in technology, finance and investments, but two New Jersey billionaires are a little younger.

Here they are:

• No. 42 Donald Newhouse, $10.9 Billion, news publisher, Somerset County, dropout from Syracuse University: Forbes noted that Donald Newhouse and his brother Samuel "Si" Newhouse are heirs to the multimillion-dollar publishing and broadcasting empire Advance Publications. According to Forbes: "Si, who became chairman emeritus in 2015, ran the glossy magazines of its Conde Nast unit. Donald has overseen the newspaper business that his father built up from a single daily, The Staten Island Advance, and is president of Advance Publications. Newspapers it owns include the Newark Star-Ledger, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Like the industry at large, however, profits, circulation, and ad revenues have been declining in recent years, prompting Advance to cut print editions and focus on a controversial 'digital-first' strategy directed by Donald's son, Steven. In addition, the company owns social news site Reddit and a substantial stake in Discovery Communications. In a deal that closed in April 2016, the Newhouse brothers sold cable TV company Bright House Networks to John Malone's Charter Communications for $11.4 billion in cash and stock."
• No. 194 John Overdeck, $3.3 Billion, co-founder and co-chairman, Two Sigma Investments, Millburn, Stanford University: Forbes noted that Overdeck has built a quantitative trading powerhouse that is one of the fastest growing hedge funds in the business. "With $35 billion of assets under management, Two Sigma is a data-driven hedge fund that absorbs large amounts of information to predict the prices of securities ranging from stocks to futures contracts. While most hedge funds have continued to struggle, Two Sigma's hedge funds keep churning out solid returns. Its Compass fund, for example, returned 8.24% in the first half of 2016. A math prodigy who won a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad at age 16, Overdeck worked at D.E. Shaw and Amazon before starting Two Sigma with David Siegel in 2001. The firm also runs a market-making business, owns a Bermuda reinsurance company and operates a venture capital arm."
• No. 204 Leon G. Cooperman, $3.1 Billion, Founder, Omega Advisors Inc., Short Hills, Hunter College, Columbia Business School. According to Forbes: "Leon Cooperman is one of Wall Street's legendary hedge fund managers, but he is currently going through a difficult time. The Securities & Exchange Commission in September charged Cooperman and his Omega Advisors hedge fund firm with insider trading. Cooperman claims the charges are without merit. Federal prosecutors are awaiting the outcome of a closely-watched Supreme Court case before making a decision on their insider-trading investigation of Cooperman. After a bad start to 2016, Cooperman has recovered a lot of lost ground as he looks to avoid his third down year in a row. After being down as much as 10 percent to open 2016, Omega was up on the year by September, led by a recovery in its holding of collateralized loan obligations, gains on stocks like Chimera Investment Group and Ashland, and a bottoming in financial sector investments such as First Data and AIG. Still, as of August, $5.5 billion Omega Advisors had lost $1.2 billion assets in 2016 and Cooperman's personal investment in the hedge fund continues to grow as a percentage of overall assets. Cooperman grew up in the South Bronx, where his parents landed after fleeing Poland."
• No. 239 Peter Kellogg, $2.8 Billion, Short Hills, businessman, dropout, Babson College: According to Forbes: "Peter Kellogg joined his father, James Kellogg, at the older Kellogg's brokerage house Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in 1973 and took over several years later. Under his leadership, the brokerage thrived, becoming the first specialist brokerage to control more than 10 percent of the stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2000, Kellogg sold the firm to Goldman Sachs for $6.5 billion in cash and stock. He plowed some of the proceeds into reinsurance outfit IAT; he stepped down from his position as CEO of IAT in January 2015, but remains chairman of the board. Kellogg has donated more than $4 million to the U.S. ski and snowboarding teams, as well as some $40 million to his alma mater The Berkshire School, a prep school in Sheffield, Massachusetts."
• No. 374 Larry Robbins, $1.8 Billion, founder, Glenview Capital Management, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. According to Forbes: "Larry Robbins, founder of hedge fund firm Glenview Capital Management, is known for both his hot streaks and his cold streaks. Robbins' has recently been dealing with a chilly stretch. His main hedge fund was down 10.9 percent in the first half of 2016 on top of an 18 percent drop last year. Robbins penned an apology to investors in October 2015. A month later news broke that he had spent $38 million on a Manhattan apartment. His main residence is still in northern New Jersey. Robbins is a vice-chair of the Robin Hood Foundation. Through his own Robbins Family Foundation, Robbins is an active supporter of education reform, both in New York City and on the national level. He serves as chairman of the board for KIPP New York and Relay Graduate School of Education. He is a member of the board of Teach For America (New York)."

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