New Jersey’s richest man is … Rocco Commisso?

Little-know media mogul from Bergen County again tops N.J. residents of the World’s Billionaires List by Forbes

Every year, we do a recap of the World’s Billionaires List by Forbes. And every year, we get the same response.

Who?

Rocco Commisso, a N.J. resident few seem to know – or know anything about – once again heads the list, with an estimated net worth of $7.8 billion.

Commisso lives in Bergen County but works in Chester, New York, where he is the founder and CEO of cable company Mediacom. He previously worked as CFO at Cablevision Industries, which was acquired by Time Warner in 1995.

His passion, however, is soccer. Commisso bought Italian Serie A soccer team Fiorentina in June 2019 for a reported price of between $150 million and $200 million.

And Columbia University, where he attended on full scholarship, named its soccer stadium for him in 2013 in recognition of his donations to the school.

Don’t be confused: Commisso wasn’t born to a life of privilege. His is a true Jersey story. Commisso immigrated to the U.S. from Italy in 1962 at age 12. And his first job was playing the accordion during movie theater intermissions.

Other notes from the list:

The other Jerseyan

Best we can tell, John Overdeck is the only other true N.J. resident to make the Top 500. He checks in at No. 352 overall, with an estimated worth of $6.8 billion.

Overdeck, who lives in Essex County, is cofounder of Two Sigma, a quantitative investing powerhouse with $60 billion in assets under management.

They don’t live here, but …

Those on list with especially strong ties to the state:

  • No. 3 Jeff Bezos ($114 billion): He obviously owns Amazon, the state’s biggest private employer. And he’s a Princeton grad;
  •  No. 89 David Tepper ($18.5 billion): Longtime N.J. resident is considered among the best hedge-fund leaders in history;
  • · No. 164 Donald Newhouse ($10.7 billion): Owner of The Star-Ledger/New Jersey Advance Media;
  • · No. 442 Josh Harris ($5.8 billion): Co-owner of the Devils and Prudential Center.

The $100 billion club

  • Bernard Arnault (fashion and retail): $221 billion
  • Elon Musk: $180 billion
  • Jeff Bezos: $114 billion
  • Larry Elison: $107 billion
  • Warren Buffet: $106 billion
  • Bill Gates: $106 billion

Please note: There are five members of the Walton (Wal-Mart) family in the top 200. Their combined worth is more than $200 billion

Notables

  • Mark Zuckerberg: He’s dropped to No. 16 with $64.4 billion.
  • George Soros: Some seem to feel has more money than anyone; he comes in at No. 365, with $67 billion.
  • Michael Milken (remember him?). He may have famously lost his hair but not his fortune. He comes in at No. 425 at $6 billion.

One last thing

These net worths are estimates. Their accuracies cannot be fully verified. Interestingly, some members of the list likely wish they could inflate their true number while others would choose to lower it.

This is the only thing you can really count on: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who doesn’t appear on the list, certainly appears to be the wealthiest person on the planet.