Bernie Ecclestone

Motor racing
Wealth: £2.5bn
Net National Income: £1,065bn
% of NNI: 0.22 %
Wealth: £2.5 billion

He may be nearly 77, but Bernie Ecclestone is as passionate about the future of Formula One motor racing as ever. He wants to expand the sport into Asia with new Fl races there. Before the 2007 season started he said:

I'm speaking to Singapore and in talks with South Korea with a view to staging a grand prix there very soon. An Indian Grand Prix will definitely happen, it's just a question of where.

The 2006 season showed a business in fine fettle with £2bn in broadcast and licensing revenues and a worldwide TV audience of approximately 580m. Abu Dhabi will host its first Fl race in 2009.

Ecclestone may no longer have financial control of Fl, but it is his vision and drive that keeps the show on the road, making huge amounts of money. It was in November 2005, that five years of wrangling over the future of Fl ended when eve, the private equity giant, bought Fl. Ecclestone is now a minority shareholder in the new company, Alpha Prema, that owns Fl but he remains as chief executive.

The November deal was a triumph for the Suffolk trawler skipper's son, who began racing in 1949. An accident two years later ended his driving career but he went into team management and eventually took over the whole of Fl. The modern sport is virtually Ecclestones creation, and he has made his fortune from the television rights and spin-offs from Fl being second only to football as an international spectator sport.

A bond issue in 1999, and the sale of 75% of the business a year later to Kirch netted Ecclestone £1.9bn. That money was transferred to Jersey-based trusts controlled by his wife, Slavica, 48, a Croatian model. He has some choice assets to enjoy including a new £75m, 85 metre yacht being built in Turkey, a £12m Falcon jet and his own hotel and chalet at Gstaad.

Despite this wealth, Ecclestone never carries a credit card and pays by cash. He is also a generous donor to charity, always anonymously, to the tune of around £50m a year. To his £1.9bn of earlier proceeds, we add at least £300m for his stake in Alpha Prema, and another £300m for other assets, taking Ecclestone to £2.5bn.