Businessman Ronald Perelman has an estimated net worth of $16.8 billion in July 2019. He was born Ronald Owen Perelman on January 1, 1943 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
He attended The Haverford School and later the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in business and he graduated in 1964.
He earned his master’s degree in 1966. Perelman’s first business venture was a deal he took in 1961 while he was a freshman at Wharton. Together with his father, he bought the Esslinger Brewery for $800,000. Three years later, it was sold for a profit of $1 million. He is known for his ability to buy failing companies and later selling them off at a large profit.
He learned the buyout businesses from his father after attending board meetings while he was in elementary school. His first solo deal was in 1978 when he bought a stake at Cohen-Hatfield, a jewelry distributor. Seven years later, he sold the company to Sam Walton.
Today, Ronald Perelman’s investment interests also included grocery stores, camping equipment and comic books with his company, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Inc. He has stakes in the cosmetic giant Revlon, production house Deluxe Entertainment, lottery outfit Scientific Games, and Humvee maker AM General. Currently, he is locked in a legal dispute with fellow billionaire Ira Rennert.