9. Anthony Bamford & family

• Net Worth: $4.2 B                                                                 
• Source of Wealth: construction equipment, inherited
• Citizen: United Kingdom
• Age: 68

Sir Anthony Bamford's family-owned farm equipment brand is so ingrained in British culture that its name is generic: a "JCB" is a backhoe, just as a Kleenex is a tissue in the U.S. Thanks to a post-recession construction boom, J.C. Bamford Excavators posted revenues of more than $4.3 billion in 2012, up almost 40% year on year. The Bamford family fortune has climbed $2 billion in the past year. Now their firm is looking to Brazil and India for growth. Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, a Bamford friend and recipient of Bamford political donations, cut the ribbon at a new factory in 2012.