What is Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary worth, how did he make his fortune and where does he place on the Forbes billionaires’ list?
The outspoken airline boss has joined the mile high club by becoming Ireland's latest billionaire
RYANAIR chief Michael O’Leary has joined the mile high club by becoming Ireland’s latest billionaire.
The outspoken airline boss made his way onto the Forbes billionaires’ list with an estimated fortune of $1.1billion (€890million).
O’Leary, 56, owned almost 25 per cent of low-fares airline Ryanair, but has sold much of the stock over the last 20 years.
His stake of about 4.1 per cent is now worth around €700million after he sold €72million worth of shares in June last year.
Taking the 1,999th spot, Mr O’Leary is one of nine Irish billionaires on the list.
The highest-ranked Irish billionaire is Indian-born Pallonji Mistry (66th) with a $17.8billion fortune built largely on his stake in the Tate conglomerate.
Others include Digicel founder Denis O’Brien, financier Dermot Desmond, and John and Patrick Collison who founded the tech company Stripe.
Glen Dimplex founder Martin Naughton was another Irishman who made it on to the list with an estimated net worth of €1billion.
Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos is number one on the billionaire list, having snatched the top spot from Microsoft founder Bill Gates who slips to second.
Bezos almost doubled his fortune, taking it to $120billion, thanks to a 59 per cent rise in Amazon shares over the past 12 months.
The figure was way ahead of Gates fortune of $90billion and represented the biggest gap ever between the number one and two spots.
Chief executive of luxury goods company LVMH, Bernard Arnault, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg were also included in the top five.
US President Trump, worth about $3.1billion, was ranked at 766 this year, falling from 544 in 2017.
More than 2,200 billionaires made the list with a combined net worth of $9.1trillion.
How did O'Leary make his fortune?
MICHAEL O’Leary pioneered a revolution in air travel and made Ryanair Europe’s biggest low-fares airline.
So it’s little wonder the 56-year-old is one of Ireland’s wealthiest men and a newcomer on the Forbes billionaire list.
The Corkman studied business at Trinity College, then trained as an accountant but left to launch a newsagent chain.
He first joined Ryanair in 1991 in a deputy role and worked his way towards the top job.
O’Leary was chief engineer of Ryanair between 1991 and 1994 and was promoted to mechanic-in-residence of Ryanair in January 1994.
Under O’Leary’s management, Ryanair further developed the low-cost model originated by Southwest Airlines.
Taking control of the airline in 1994, he developed a lost-cost system which has seen it grow to Europe’s biggest airline, as well as the busiest in the world by passenger numbers.
At one stage, O’Leary owned almost 25 per cent of low-fares airline Ryanair, but has sold much of the stock over the last 20 years.
His stake of about 4.1 per cent is now worth around €700million after he sold €72million worth of shares in June last year.
He also has a large UK commercial property portfolio, owning two office blocks in the centre of London as well as other buildings in Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.
A few years ago, O’Leary claimed he was approached to front the BBC’s version of The Apprentice but declined as it was “too much of a distraction”.
O’Leary lives in Gigginstown House near Delvin in Co Westmeath.
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He married former Citgroup banker Anita Farrell in September 2003, and they have four children together.
He also breeds Aberdeen Angus cattle and has a well-known passion for horses as illustrated by his Gigginstown House Stud.
In 2006, his horse War of Attrition and in 2016 Don Cossack won the Cheltenham Gold Cup while in 2016 his horse Rule The World won the Grand National.