Providence Equity founder No. 306 on Forbes’ richest Americans list

PROVIDENCE EQUITY FOUNDER Jonathan Nelson ranked No. 306 on this year's Forbes 400:The Richest People In America. /
PROVIDENCE EQUITY FOUNDER Jonathan Nelson ranked No. 306 on this year's Forbes 400:The Richest People In America. /

NEW YORK – Jonathan Nelson, founder of Providence Equity, is one of two Rhode Islanders among America’s richest people, according to the 2010 list of Forbes 400: The Richest People in America.

“The price of admission onto our 29th Rich List is back to $1 billion. Who’s up? Gates, Buffett, Zuckerberg,” said Forbes.com about the ranking. Bill Gates took the top spot with $54 billion, Warren Buffet followed with $45 billion and Oracle chief Larry Ellison took the third spot at $27 billion. Christy Walton, widow of John Walton, is the highest-ranked woman on the list, taking the No. 4 spot with $24 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder of Facebook, came in at No. 35 with $6.9 billion for 2010, up from $2 billion in 2009 and $1.5 billion in 2008.

Nelson ranked No. 306 on the list, with a calculated wealth of $1.35 billion in August 2010, down from previous years. Forbes registered Nelson’s wealth at $1.4 billion in 2009 and $2 billion in 2008.

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Rhode Islander Hope Hill van Beuren, 76-year-old Campbell’s Soup heiress and Middletown resident, ranked No. 365 with $1.1 billion in inherited wealth. In 2009, the van Beuren fortune stood at $990 million and in 2008, $1.4 billion.

At 54, Nelson is considered a “self-made” billionaire whose source of wealth comes from leverage buyouts, according to the magazine.

Nelson founded his private investment firm Providence Equity in 1989 and currently is the CEO. He also serves as director of Bresnan Communications, Hulu, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Univision Communications and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network. Additionally, he serves on the Sony Corporation Supervisory Board.

“Nelson has spent most of his life in his hometown of Providence,” said Forbes, while noting that his firm “mostly buys and fixes up media and telecom outfits [and] now manages assets of $23 billion.”

According to Forbes, Nelson’s star investment was in VoiceStream in 1992 for $63 billion which later made $759 million when the company was sold in 2000. This year, his firm has invested in six companies, including Qiyi, a partnership with Baidu to create a Hulu of China, Cox’s AutoTrader.com, Virtual Radiologic and Study Group.

On a personal note, the magazine said Nelson enjoys sailing and extreme downhill skiing, and is a widower with three children. He received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, where he is now a trustee.

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