Rene Benko

Rene Benko is the founder of Signa Holding, one of Europe's largest real estate and retail firms.As a high schooler, Benko worked as a local real estate developer's assistant and racked up so many absences from school that he couldn't graduate.At 22, he founded the company that has grown into Signa, which manages $16 billion-in-assets. Signa owns department stores, restaurants and real estate properties in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. In September 2018, Signa announced a 243-store joint venture that merging department store chains Karstadt and Galeria Kaufhaus.A month later, Benko jumped into the media industry, picking up stakes in Austria's two largest newspapers, Kronen Zeitung and Kurier.