Mohawk CEO makes Forbes list of richest Americans

Mohawk Industries CEO Jeffrey Lorberbaum
Mohawk Industries CEO Jeffrey Lorberbaum

Mohawk Industries CEO Jeffrey Lorberbaum is among the richest Americans, according to Forbes annual listing of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

Forbes estimates that Lorberbaum, the 60-year-old Chattanooga businessman who built Mohawk Industries into the world's biggest floorcovering company, is worth $2.2 billion. Most of Lorberbaum's wealth comes from his nearly 15 percent stake in the tile and carpet manufacturing company he and his family built in Calhoun, Ga.

Top five richest Americans

1. Bill Gates - founder of Microsoft, worth $76 billion 2. Warren Buffett - CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, worth $62 billion 3. Larry Ellison - founder of Oracle, worth $47.5 billion 4. Jeff Bezos - founder of Amazon, worth $47 billion 5. Charles Koch - diversified businesses, worth $41 billion Source: Forbes 400 list for 2015

photo Jeff Loberbaum of Mohawk Carpets

Last year, Forbes estimated Lorberbaum's wealth at $1.9 billion, which placed him 1054 on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans.

After boosting his net worth by $300 million over the past year, Forbes ranked Lorberbaum as the 307th richest American in the 2015 list of the top 400 richest Americans released Tuesday. He was tied for the fifth richest person in Tennessee with Franklin Tenn., tobacco billionaire Brad Kelley.

The richest persons in Tennessee, according to Forbes, are HCA founder Thomas Frist Jr., worth an estimated $8.7 billion; Nashville businesswoman and Ingram Industries chairwoman Martha Ingram, worth an estimated $4.3 billion; FedEx CEO Fred Smith, worth an estimated $3.5 billion; and Pilot Flying J CEO (and brother of Gov. Bill Haslam) Jimmy Haslam, worth an estimated $2.8 billion.

Nine billionaires in Georgia were on the Forbes list, led by Atlanta publisher Anne Cox Chambers, worth $18 billion. McCallie School graduate Ted Turner, founder of CNN, is worth an estimated $2.2 billion, Forbes said.

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates retains the top spot on The Forbes 400 for the 22nd straight year, at $76 billion, down $5 billion from 2014. Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway which owns Shaw Industries in Dalton and Clayton Homes in Knoxville, is worth an estimated $62 billion.

The combined wealth of Forbes' 2015 ranking of the 400 richest people in America is $2.34 trillion, up from $2.29 trillion in 2014 and the highest ever.

The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member is $5.8 billion, the highest to date, up from $5.7 billion last year. Over the past year, the net worth of the richest Americans increased for 202 members and decreased for 119 members.

Forbes said the cost of admission to the 2015 list was the highest ever at $1.7 billion, up from $1.55 billion a year ago.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.

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