Meet Florida’s 51 billionaires. One of them has strong ties to Manatee

They are the members of the three comma club, a record 2,208 billionaires from 72 countries and territories recognized on Forbes magazine’s 32nd annual world billionaire’s list, which was released Tuesday.

Included are 51 who claim Florida as their residence, the same number as last year, as the lack of a state income tax continues to drive the wealthy to the Sunshine State.

Among the Floridians on the list: Kenneth Feld, the chairman of Palmetto-based Feld Entertainment who resides in Tampa.

The 69-year-old’s net worth is $2.5 billion and ranks 28th among Florida billionaires and No. 965 worldwide.

Feld Entertainment is the parent company for Disney on Ice and Monster Jam, among other shows, and grew out of the Ringling Bros. circus, which shut down in May 2017 because of slumping ticket sales.

According to Forbes, Feld’s worth was $2.5 billion for the second straight year, falling from $2.7 billion in 2016.

In addition to Feld, several of Florida’s 51 billionaires have strong ties to the Tampa Bay area:

▪ Tampa-based Edward DeBartolo Jr. (No. 887 worldwide overall at $2.7 billion) is the founder and CEO of DeBartolo Holdings and previously owned the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

▪ Clearwater’s Todd Christopher (No. 1,157 at $2.1 billion) is a high school dropout who sold Vogue International, a hair product company, to Johnson & Johnson for $3.3 billion.

▪ St. Petersburg’s Ronald Wanek (No. 1,157 at $2.1 billion) is the owner of Ashley Furniture.

▪ Clearwater’s Robert Duggan (No. 1,215 at $2 billion) who made his fortune in the biotech industry. He sold his biotech firm Pharmacyclics to AbbVie in 2015 for $21 billion.

▪ Lakeland’s Carol Jenkins Barnett (No. 1,561 at $1.5 billion) is the daughter of Publix Super Markets founder George Jenkins and an heir to the Florida-based fortune.

▪ St. Petersburg’s Thomas James (No. 1,867 at $1.2 billion) stepped down as chairman of Raymond James Financial – his father started the company in 1962 – after having served on the board for more than 40 years.

The richest billionaire in Florida is Thomas Peterffy of Palm Beach, who ranks No. 47 worldwide. He made his $20.3 billion fortune from a discount brokerage firm.

Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos secured the list’s top spot for the first time, becoming the only person to appear in the Forbes rankings with a 12-figure fortune. The 54-year-old is worth $112 billion.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who held the top spot 18 of the previous 23 years, slipped to No. 2 at $90 billion.

Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway, $84 billion), Bernard Arnault (LVHM, $72 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, $71 billion) round out the top five.

This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Meet Florida’s 51 billionaires. One of them has strong ties to Manatee."