Tor Peterson

The lone American among the billionaires at commodities trading giant Glencore, Peterson joined the firm in 1992 following a six year stint at Phibro-Salomon in New York as a commodities marketer. In 2002 Peterson succeeded current Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg as director of the coal and coke commodity department. After boarding school in Switzerland, Peterson attended Duke University, where he got his B.A. in political science and French in 1986. Peterson officially became a billionaire thanks to Glencore's May 2011 IPO. Despite its shares losing nearly 20% of their value since their public debut, the future is bright for Glencore. The firm announced plans to merge with mining colossus Xstrata in February 2012. The proposed all-stock merger would spawn a $90 billion mining and marketing behemoth.