The full article:Our last census of the world's wealthy last March found more than 1,000 billionaires throughout the world. While they're hardly household names themselves, their companies make products that are pretty hard to miss.
Take Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. If you liked building things as a child, there's a good chance you'll recognize his family's business.
Kristiansen's grandfather founded the Danish company Lego in 1932. At first, his grandfather crafted wood toys in a carpentry shop but in 1949 the company invented what would become its most famous product. At the time, the stackable plastic pieces with studs on top were called the Automatic Binding Brick. (See: "Forbes Faces: Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.")
Today, we simply call them Legos and the company is the world's sixth-largest toymaker by sales. The company's success led us to peg Kristiansen's net worth at $6.5 billion in March.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/12/billio ... =yahoobuzz
And a bit more info from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/people/2001/03/02 ... slego.html
Steve