| Net Worth: | $2 Billion |
Eamon Cleary Net Worth: Eamon Cleary was a New Zealand property developer and racehorse owner who had a net worth of $2 billion. Eamon Cleary was born August 28, 1960. Eamon Cleary amassed his wealth during record-high dairy prices and land values, which rapidly boosted Cleary’s wealth. The Irishman built his fortune converting cheap farmland in New Zealand into profitable dairy farm operations during the 1990s recession. He went on to establish businesses in New Zealand, eastern and western Europe, Argentina, Chile and the United States. Originally from Drumlane, Tullynahinera, Castleblayney, Though he normally shied away from publicity, he came to the attention of media for all the right reasons in October 2007 when his endowment a year earlier of a Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Otago—the oldest university in New Zealand—was praised by the Irish President, Mary McAleese. Very early in life, at the tender age of 11, Cleary left school in Ballybay to work on his father’s farm. Four years later he was apprenticed to a block layer and at only 17 years old he started his own building business. By the time he was in his twenties, in the early 1980s, Eamon Cleary had started his own pre-cast concrete and reinforcing steel company. He went on to develop a large agricultural supply business, which was sold in 1991. Cleary, who was only 52 years old, died at his stud farm in Kentucky, USA, following a six-month battle with cancer.