2. Heinz Hermann Thiele
Company – Knorr-Bremse Group & Vossloh AG
2016 earnings – $7.5 billion
Wealth increase – 117.1%
If a saying “Doing business is a lot like a playing chess” is true, that makes our number two in the list of most successful entrepreneurs of 2016, a hell of a player since he managed to double his wealth in just a year. Seems like the years of experience, legal knowledge, and indigenous mind are finally paying back. For years he was the chairman of two successful companies, Knorr-Bremse and Vossloh, and that’s why this Munich industrialist is one of the world’s leading producers of railway braking systems as well as commercial vehicles and equipment. Although this 74-year announced his withdrawal from the current position, early in 2016, he is still in the business, at least when it comes to his other company Vossloh AG.
