Who Is The Wealthiest Family In Wyoming?
A recent study conducted by FamilyMinded.com listed the fifty richest families in each state of the country.
Most people incorrectly guess that Christy Walton, the widow of John T. Walton (one of the son's of Walmart founder Sam Walton) was the wealthiest person in the Cowboy State with a net worth of approximately 5 billion dollars.
The correct answer is the Hansjörg Wyss, who has an estimated net worth of 6.1 billion dollars (at the date of this article). Wyss resides in Wilson, Wyoming. According to the FamilyMinded study:
The Wyss clan became billionaires when in 2012 patriarch Hansjoerg Wyss, a Swiss immigrant, sold his medical device manufacturer, Synthes, to Johnson & Johnson for $20.2 billion. Wyss still has interests in several biotech companies, but he’s dedicating his later years to philanthropic efforts.
His charitable foundations have assets valued at more than $2 billion, and in a 2018 op-ed in The New York Times, he pledged to donate $1 billion over the next decade to conservation causes.
The 85-year old Wyss was born in Bern, Switzerland. According to an article published by Forbes, Wyss is "among the most philanthropic people in the world". In 2013 he signed The Giving Pledge, agreeing to give away the majority of his fortune. The assets of his charitable foundations equal nearly two billion dollars.