Three Chattanooga-area business leaders are among a dozen billionaires in Tennessee on Forbes magazine’s new list of the wealthiest people on the planet.
The richest residents in Southeast Tennessee have each built up businesses in key industries for the regional economy — carpets, soft drink bottling and senior housing. But Forbes estimates two of the three local billionaires are worth only about half as much as they were in the past.
Among the 2,640 billionaires around the world identified by Forbes, the 90-year-old founder of Life Care Centers of America in Cleveland, Tennessee, is the wealthiest in the Chattanooga area with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Forbes said Forrest Preston’s wealth has dropped from his peak estimated net worth of $2 billion in 2015 after the company agreed in 2016 to pay $145 million to settle a government lawsuit alleging the firm had over-billed federal healthcare programs.
Preston remains the sole owner and CEO of the nation’s biggest privately owned nursing home and assisted living business he founded in 1970. He has acquired major office buildings in Chattanooga, including the Tallan and Krystal buildings.
Forrest Preston of Life Care Centers of America / Contributed photoJeffrey Lorberbaum, the 68-year-old who lives in North Chattanooga and has helped grow the Calhoun, Georgia-based Mohawk Industries into the biggest floor covering manufacturer in the world with nearly $12 billion in annual sales, is estimated to be worth $1.1 billion by Forbes.