Arizona’s richest resident is a member of the family that started U-Haul.
A dozen of the world’s 2,640 billionaires are Arizonans. They hold a combined $32.7 billion in wealth, according to the latest Forbes list.
Meanwhile, the median net worth of an American family was $121,760 in 2020, the latest data the Federal Reserve has available.
Get to know Arizona’s 12 billionaires and their net worths as of May 18, with additional information from Forbes:
- Mark Shoen, $4.9 billion
Mark Shoen, 72, is the son of the couple that started truck-rental company U-Haul, which is now headquartered in Phoenix. He owns about one-fifth of U-Haul’s parent company Amerco.
- E. Joe Shoen, $4.2 billion
Joe Shoen, 73, is another heir to the family that started U-Haul. He forced his dad into retirement in 1986 to take over the company, upsetting most of his 12 siblings. He also owns about one-fifth of Amerco and reportedly maintains a good relationship with Mark.
- Arturo Moreno, $4.1 billion
Arturo Moreno, 76, has owned the Los Angeles Angels baseball team since he bought it for $184 million in 2003, becoming the first Mexican American to own a major US sports team. He made his money through his billboard company Outdoor Systems, which he sold in 1999 for $8.7 billion.
- Bob Parsons, $3.4 billion
Bob Parsons, 72, founded web-hosting company GoDaddy, which is headquartered in Tempe. He sold a software firm for $64 million in 1994, three years before he started the company that became GoDaddy. He owns the Scottsdale National Golf Club.
- Bennett Dorrance, $3.1 billion
Bennett Dorrance, 77, is an heir to the family that started Campbell Soup. He is a founding partner of a real-estate development firm that has projects in Arizona dand other states, and he owns a private hangar in Scottsdale.
- Ernest Garcia II, $3 billion
Ernest Garcia II, 66, founded used-car company DriveTime. He is also the biggest shareholder in Carvana, a used-car retailer based in Tempe. Carvana was founded by his son Ernest Garcia III, who was on the Forbes billionaires list last year but dropped off this year.
- Stewart Horejsi, $2.6 billion
Stewart Horejsi, 85, started investing in Berkshire Hathaway in 1980—and it’s now the world’s most expensive stock. He has also invested millions into his own mutual fund.
- George Kurtz, $1.8 billion
George Kurtz, 52, is the CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which went public in 2019. Before CrowdStrike, he started a security tech firm that was acquired by McAfee in 2004.
- Peter Sperling, $1.6 billion
Peter Sperling, 63, is an heir to the family that started Apollo Education Group, which owns and operates the University of Phoenix. Sperling joined the company a decade after his father founded it and stepped down as chairman when it went private in 2017.
- Jerry Moyes, $1.5 billion
Jerry Moyes, 79, founded Swift Transportation with his dad in 1966. Then, the company consisted of one truck that transported goods between Arizona and California. After growing to a fleet of 20,000 trucks, Swift merged with Knight Transportation in 2017. Moyes also owned the Arizona Coyotes until the team filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
- Jahm Najafi, $1.3 billion
Jahm Najafi, 60, is a private equity investor and part owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team. His family immigrated to the US from Iran when he was a child. In 2003, his investment firm bought domain registrar Network Solutions for $100 million, and just four years later he sold it for $800 million.
- Ken Kendrick, $1 billion
Ken Kendrick, 79, is the largest shareholder of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. He made his money by founding software development company Datatel and investing in a community bank in Texas that now has $1.7 billion in assets.
Jessica Swarner Jessica Swarner is the community editor for The Copper Courier. She is an ASU alumna and previously worked at KTAR News 92.3 FM in Phoenix.
