Donald E. “Don” Friese rose from an orphanage in rural Pennsylvania to become a self-made billionaire. He joined C.R. Laurence in 1961 as a warehouse worker, bought full ownership by the 1990s, and grew it into the largest glazing‑supplies company in the U.S. He sold the business in 2015 for $1.3 billion while personally gifting more than $86 million in bonuses to employees and remains active philanthropically through the Friese Foundation. 

Donald M. “Bubba” Cathy is the younger son of Chick‑fil‑A founder S. Truett Cathy. Bubba serves as Executive Vice President of Chick‑fil‑A and leads the family’s iconic Dwarf House and Truett’s Grill concepts through STC Brands, the chain’s hospitality arm .

Don R. Hankey is a self-made billionaire and conservative financier. He founded the Hankey Group, including Westlake Financial Services, a top U.S. subprime auto lender, and Knight Specialty Insurance. His companies provided the $175 million bond in 2024 for Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud appeal. He extended high-risk loans to megadevelopers like Nile Niami—such as funding the troubled Bel-Air mansion “The One”—and now oversees $23 billion in diversified assets.

Dirk Edward Ziff is an American billionaire investor and media heir—the eldest son of William B. Ziff Jr., who sold the Ziff‑Davis publishing empire for $1.4 billion in 1994. Along with his brothers, Dirk formed Ziff Brothers Investments, spanning hedge funds, private equity, real estate, commodities, and seed‑stage finance. He later seeded Daniel Och’s Och‑Ziff Capital Management before dissolving the partnership in 2014 to invest independently.

Devin Finzer is the American entrepreneur who co‑founded OpenSea in December 2017, becoming the largest global marketplace for NFTs. A Brown University alumnus in computer science and mathematics, he previously built Claimdog (acquired by Credit Karma) and worked at Pinterest, Flipboard, and Google on product growth. OpenSea’s rapid rise made him one of the first NFT billionaires in 2022, though its valuation has since declined amid market turbulence and regulatory pressures.

Dennis R. Washington is a self‑made billionaire industrialist who founded The Washington Companies, a diversified conglomerate spanning heavy construction, mining, railroads, marine shipping, aviation, equipment, and environmental cleanup. From starting with a single bulldozer in Montana, he built a business empire that now includes Seaspan Marine and Montana Rail Link—and is rated one of Montana’s wealthiest residents. 

Sir Dennis Barry Gillings, CBE, PhD is a British-American statistician, entrepreneur, and healthcare innovator. In 1982, he co-founded Quintiles, which merged with IMS Health in 2016 to become IQVIA, the global leader in clinical research and healthcare data services. He took Quintiles public in 1994 and privatized it in 2003 before retiring as executive chairman in 2015. The UNC School of Public Health is named in his honor following a landmark donation.

Dean Solon is a self‑made billionaire and founder of Shoals Technologies Group, a leading provider of electrical balance-of-systems gear for solar farms. He took Shoals public in January 2021 and still owns about 40% of the company. Despite the IPO windfall, Solon remains hands‑on—recently launching Create Energy, a vertically integrated solar manufacturing venture aimed at reshaping the industry with U.S.-based production. 

Charles Dean Metropoulos is a Greek‑American billionaire investor and turnaround specialist. Founder and CEO of C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., he has revived iconic consumer brands like Hostess, Pabst Brewing, Bumble Bee Foods, and Pinnacle—all through disciplined buy-and-build value creation across 80+ companies and ~$12 billion of invested capital.  

David Zalik is the Canadian‑American entrepreneur who co‑founded GreenSky in 2006. After founding MicroTech at age 14 and launching several tech ventures, he built GreenSky into a fintech unicorn connecting banks, contractors, and homeowners in home‑improvement and healthcare financing. He remains a billionaire with over 50% ownership of the company. 

David Walentas is the self-made real estate developer behind Two Trees Management, the Brooklyn firm that transformed Dumbo and Williamsburg from industrial decline into high-end residential and creative districts. A University of Virginia alumnus, Walentas began with a small Manhattan partnership in 1968 and leveraged $12 million to acquire nearly 2 million sq ft in Dumbo, reshaping it through bold vision and rezoning advocacy.

David Tran is the Vietnamese‑born entrepreneur and founder of Huy Fong Foods, creator of the iconic Sriracha “Rooster Sauce.” After fleeing Vietnam in 1979 aboard the Huey Fong ship, he started the company in Los Angeles in 1980. With no advertising and relentless quality control, his Sriracha brand grew into a billion‑dollar business, stocked in U.S. supermarkets and cult‑favorite restaurants worldwide.

David Sun is a Taiwanese‑American tech entrepreneur and billionaire who co-founded Kingston Technology in 1987 with John Tu. Educated in Taiwan and emigrating to the U.S. in 1977, Sun built Kingston into the world’s largest independent memory-products company, recognized for its quality-first culture and employee ownership ethos. He serves as COO and is known for philanthropic contributions in education and healthcare.

David Steward is an American billionaire tech entrepreneur who founded World Wide Technology (WWT) in 1990 with minimal capital. A Central Missouri alumnus, he transformed WWT into one of the largest African-American–owned companies in the U.S., generating over $11 billion in annual revenues. Known for his faith-driven leadership and civic engagement, Steward also founded Telcobuy and chairs major nonprofit boards.

David M. Siegel is an American computer scientist turned investor who co-founded Two Sigma Investments in 2001 alongside John Overdeck. With a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and early roles at D. E. Shaw and Tudor, Siegel helped build Two Sigma into a quant trading powerhouse managing roughly $60 billion in assets. He now serves as co-chairman and leads the firm’s technology and philanthropy initiatives through the Siegel Family Endowment.

David E. Shaw is the Stanford‑trained computer scientist turned Wall Street quant and billionaire founder of D. E. Shaw & Co.. Launched in 1988 with $28 million, the firm pioneered algorithmic trading and grew into one of the world’s largest hedge funds—managing ~$65 billion in assets by 2025. Shaw stepped back from daily operations in 2001 to lead D. E. Shaw Research, advancing computational biochemistry and molecular-dynamics simulations.

David Rubenstein is an American lawyer, billionaire investor, and philanthropist who co-founded The Carlyle Group in 1987. From humble beginnings in Baltimore, he built Carlyle into a global private equity powerhouse managing over $426 billion in assets as of 2023. In 2024, he became principal owner of the MLB’s Baltimore Orioles and chairs numerous institutions including the Kennedy Center (until 2025), Council on Foreign Relations, and the National Gallery of Art.

David C. Paul is an American billionaire engineer-turned-entrepreneur who founded Globus Medical in 2003—a leader in spinal-implant and surgical robotics technologies. An immigrant from India with degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras and Temple University, he guided the company to IPO in 2012 and remains its controlling Executive Chairman. Paul holds over 200 patents and built his $1.4 billion fortune through robotics innovation. 

David Martínez Guzmán is a discreet billionaire investor and founder & managing partner of Fintech Advisory, a global advisory and debt investment firm based in New York and London. Known as one of the most influential Mexican financiers on Wall Street, Martínez led major restructurings of Argentina’s sovereign debt and controls sizable stakes in Telecom Argentina, Grupo Clarín, Grupo Televisa, and other Latin American assets. 

David Lichtenstein is a self-made real estate billionaire who founded The Lightstone Group in 1988. He began with a single multifamily unit and grew his firm into a diversified empire—owning 25,000 apartments and over 15 million sq ft of retail, industrial, hotel & life-sciences properties across 25+ states, with more than $9 billion in managed assets. He led major deals such as acquiring Prime Retail malls ($638 M) and Extended Stay Hotels ($8.1 B) and is active in civic service and board leadership across New York institutions.