John Edson
Jackson, Wyoming
Drop Out, University of Washington
United States
leisure craft, Self Made
$1,400,000,000
1605
#1605 Billionaires 2019
#385 Forbes 400 2010
Over the course of selling two boat-building companies, John Edson built a fortune of more than $1 billion.An entrepreneur who loves the water, Edson first dipped his toe in business by selling used boats.He purchased the brand name "Bayliner" for $100 in 1955 and started a company to build affordable plywood motorboats.The business grew into a yacht-manufacturing powerhouse, and Edson flipped the firm to The Brunswick Corporation in 1986 for $425 million. Six years later, Edson bought another yacht maker, Westport Yards, which he sold in 2014 for an undisclosed amount.
John Edson worked a paper route and earned enough to build his first boat at age 13. After selling Bayliner, Edson took a few years to cruise the world aboard his 161-foot boat Evviva (Italian for "long live").
87
2
Add a review