Society seems to exalt and at the same time envy those individuals who accumulate wealth and power, however, according to experts, when it comes to powerful families, the perspective changes. Being a family group , other values such as authenticity, tradition, inheritance and continuity are joined that most of us can extrapolate to what happens at another level in our own families. For that reason they call social attention powerfully and do not receive as many attacks as individualities. Join us to meet the 10 most powerful families in the world and ... hallucinate!
In this ranking we will not contemplate the families that have the power to belong to royalty or the dynasties of autocratic power, but those that have obtained wealth and therefore power by their own means, because there is no doubt that money represents the possibility of influence all aspects of political and social life.
The 10 most powerful families in the world
According to the finance magazine Bloomberg, among the 25 richest families in the world control nothing more and nothing less than $ 1,100,000,000,000, although possibly more since it is very difficult to know exactly what they have.
1. Walton Family
The Waltons are the owners of Wal-Mart and their fortune is close to 152 billion dollars. The company was founded by Sam Walton in Arkansas in 1962 and is engaged in retail. It has more than 2'3 million employees and manages a revenue figure of 500 billion dollars. Jim and Alice Walton are at the head of the family. Their power is not only economic and for example they invested their money in a campaign in favor of increasing the minimum wage, knowing that this would sink some of their competitors who could not assume it.
2. Family Koch
The Kochs are the masters of Koch Industries and their fortune amounts to 99 billion dollars. His fortune was born from the oil business. David and Charles Koch are the head of the family and do not stop investing in conservative policies in the US.
3. Mars Family
Surely you have eaten some M & M in your life; for these fantastic candies are produced in the Mars industries. It is the largest candy company in the world and also has interests in many other fields. His fortune amounts to 90 billion dollars. The company was founded by Frank Mars, managed for many years by the brothers Jacqueline and John Mars and today the fourth generation of this family is taking over from their parents.
4. Slim Family
The Slim family of Mexico ranks fourth in the most powerful families in the world . It is a family with a business tradition that, apart from Mexico, where it has the headquarters of its companies, has ramifications in the Lebanon and Europe. The Grupo Carso, S.A.B de C.V. It is one of the largest business groups in Mexico and Latin America and is headed by the current head of the family: Carlos Slim.
5. The Spanish Family Ortega
It occupies the fifth place in terms of the volume of wealth. Amancio Ortega and his ex-wife, the late Rosalía Mera, starting from a small store built a giant of the fashion industry called Inditex. Amancio Ortega is still part of the board of directors and him and his daughter. Sandra Ortega Mera, a fortune of 72 billion dollars is calculated.
6. The Arnault family
Formed by Bernard, the father, and his two eldest sons, Delphine and Antoine, are the principal shareholders of a conglomerate of luxury companies of French origin called LVMH Moët Hennessy (Louis Vuitton). His fortune amounts to 70 billion dollars. Christian Dior and Fendi, the Dom Perignon champagne, the Hennessey liqueur, the famous Hublot and TAG Heur watches and the popular Sephora cosmetics store belong to this group. The businessman is a friend of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
7. Krampack family
They are the owners of Ikea. The founder of this company was born poor in a small Swedish town. Ingvar Kamprad opened his first furniture store in the 1950s and died immensely rich in 2018. His fortune was left to his 3 natural children and his adopted daughter. It amounts to more than 55 billion dollars.
8. The Van Damme, De Spoelberch and De Mevius
In the eighth place we have placed a conglomerate of families, the Van Damme, De Spoelberch and De Mevius who are the masters of Anheuser-Busch Inveb and whose fortune is around 54 billion dollars. They are engaged in the manufacture of beer and have a market share that approaches 25% of world production.
9. Albrecht and Heister
The owners of the popular stores "Aldi" they are also one of the most powerful families in the world . K arl and Theo Albrecht Jr. and Beate Heister they have a fortune that exceeds 50 billion dollars. They have more than more than 10,000 stores worldwide.
10. Family Dumas
The tenth place we have reserved for the Dumas family , owner among other things of the signature Hermes that formerly provided luxury items to the royalty and the aristocracy and now does it to the new millionaires of the planet. His fortune is around 49 billion dollars.
The most powerful families in the world at an economic level they go up and down in this ranking, but they will hardly disappear from it as they tend to diversify their investments. It is in their hands to influence in one way or another many of the policies that are developed in the world. Did you know that these were some of the 10 most powerful families in the world ? Have you missed any on this list? If you want to meet the 5 richest men in history, we invite you to read the post: The 5 richest men in history.