5. Hiroshi Yamauchi
Company: Nintendo
Net Worth: $4.2 billion*
Japanese businessman Hiroshi Yamauchi was one of the reasons that Nintendo became so successful. He became the president in 1949, and he ran the tech conglomerate until 2002, when he was succeeded by Satoru Iwata.
Hiroshi Yamauchi @IGN / Youtube.com
Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a tiny hanafuda card-producer into a billion-dollar video game corporation, with games sold at Gamestop, Amazon, Walmart, and millions of other locations worldwide. Yamauchi, along with Shigeru Miyamoto, a renowned game designer, was responsible for creating some of Nintendo’s most popular products, including Donkey Kong, Mario, Wii, The Legend of Zelda, and more. Yamauchi is remembered for his transformation of the gaming industry from a niche sector into a global powerhouse.