The good news for Rocco Commisso, the Bergen County resident who is the founder and CEO of Mediacom: He’s still the richest resident of New Jersey — and he’s moved up five spots on the Forbes 400 listing of the country’s richest people.
The only bad news: He actually has a bit less money than he did last fall, when the 2021 Forbes 400 was released.
Don’t worry: He’ll still be able to make the mortgage.
Commisso, who founded New York-based Mediacom in 1995, is listed as being worth $7.7 billion. Last year, he was reported to be worth $8.4 billion.
Of course, since Mediacom is a private company and Commisso is a private person, there’s no telling how accurately the estimate is. This much is known: Earlier this year, Mediacom celebrated a remarkable feat — 100 consecutive positive quarters of growth.
Commisso is ranked No. 327 in the world. And he’s not the only one on these lists to be down.
According to Forbes, 2022 has been a tough year on the wealthiest.
As a group, the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth $4 trillion — $500 billion less than last year. The minimum net worth to make the Forbes 400 dropped for the first time since the Great Recession, down $200 million to $2.7 billion amid the postpandemic market selloff.
Commisso is one of three New Jersey residents on the U.S. list, followed by John Overdeck (No. 126 at $6.8 billion) and Peter Kellogg (No. 317 at $3.5 billion).
Here are the five richest people in the country:
- Elon Musk: $251 billion
- Jeff Bezos: $151 billion
- Bill Gates: $106 billion
- Larry Ellison: $100 billion
- Warren Buffett: $93 billion
And here’s a little bit more about the three Jerseyans, according to Forbes:
Commisso
- Immigrated to America from Italy in 1962 at age 12. His first job was playing the accordion during movie theater intermissions.
- Earned a full scholarship to Columbia University, which named its soccer stadium for him in 2013 in recognition of his donations to the school.
- He previously worked as chief financial officer at Cablevision Industries, which was acquired by Time Warner in 1995.
Overdeck
- Co-founder and co-chairman of Two Sigma, a quantitative investing powerhouse with $60 billion in assets under management.
- Has given $260 million through his charitable foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, which supports education programs and research.
- Was a math prodigy who won a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad at age 16.
Kellogg
- Joined brokerage house Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, where his father was a partner, in 1973 and took over several years later.
- Sold firm for $6.5 billion in cash and stock in 2000, then turned his attention to reinsurance outfit IAT, which he led as CEO until 2015 and still chairs.
- Has donated more than $4 million to the U.S. ski and snowboarding teams.
