The 10 Richest People in Iowa
In Iowa, finding a millionaire is not uncommon, but finding a billionaire is far more unusual. The population of Iowa is a little over two million, yet just two people in the state are now worth a billion dollars. First, there’s Dennis Albaugh, whose company, Albaugh LLC, made a killing on pesticides and proved that fertilizer might be termed “liquid gold.” The second is Harry Stine, who built the most prominent private seed firm in the United States and became very rich. Tag along for the 10 richest People in Iowa.
10. Chuck Grassley – $5 million
Iowa’s senior senator and the current vice president pro tempore of the United States Senate is Chuck Grassley. His political career began in the House of Representatives, where he spent eight years until his election to the Senate in 1980. As of January 3, 2019, Chuck is the senior Republican senator and the third in line to the presidency. The Vice President takes office after the Senate President and the Speaker of the House. Chuck entered politics in the 1950s and, from 1959 to 1975, represented a district in Butler County in the U.S. Congress. Between the years 1975 and 1981, he represented a Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was first elected to the Senate in 1980 and has subsequently been on the Finance, Agriculture, Nutrition, Forestry, and Budget Committees.
9. Joey Jordson – $5 million
Nathan Jonas Jordison, better known as Joey Jordison in the United States, is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. The American heavy metal band Slipknot, of which he is a member and drummer, has made him famous. Furthermore, he is well-known as the guitarist for the American Horror Punk band Murderdolls. Soon after the creation of Slipknot in 1995, he joined the band. He left in December 2013. Since he was eight years old, he has taken his drum sets on the road with him and performed.
On November 28, 1995, as he was working on a project titled The Pale Ones, Mark Anthony Cadavos contacted him and offered him the job. Joey was given the number one when Slipknot was finally created. Jordison left the band on December 12, 2013, citing “personal reasons” on the official website, despite having performed with the group on several occasions. While working on a remix of Marilyn Manson’s “The Fight Song,” he worked on several other projects. He also worked on the track “Tainted Love” by Marilyn Manson.
8. Shawn Johnson – $9 Million
According to Wealthy Persons, Shawn Johnson, an artistic gymnast, represents the United States. She has five Pan American Games medals. At the 2008 Olympics, she won the balance beam, team, all-around, and floor exercise events. Shawn won Season 8 of Dancing with the Stars in 2009. Johnson finished fourth overall, second on the floor, and first on the balance beam. Shawn was not picked for the national team when she was younger, but in 2005, her coach sent a video of her playing to the person in charge of determining national team lineups. Since 2007, she has routinely competed in American Cup competitions. Her effort in the 2007 Pan American Games resulted in six medals, five of which were gold and one silver. She competed against Samantha Peszek, Ivana Hong, Nastia Liukin, and Shyla Worley in 2007.
Alicia Sacramone and Shyla Worley were the competitors. Johnson participated in team and individual competitions in 2008, finishing second in both. She injured her knee while skiing in January 2010 and required surgery.). She left camp for a time and didn’t return until late that year, in November. After rejoining the US national team in February, she was named to the roster for the Pan American Games in October 2011. She won both the gold and silver medals in the uneven bars team event. Shawn opted to retire after sustaining a knee injury on June 3, 2012. Shawn and Mark Ballas won the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars in 2009. Her return was emphasized in Season 15’s all-star compilation. She’s been on several talk shows hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, and the Today show. Shawn’s published writings include Stories Behind the Smile, Winning Balance, and The Flip Side.
7. Corey Taylor – $10 million
Corey Taylor is a well-known singer and actor in the United States. Taylor is a talented musician who can fill in for practically any other musician. His presence is felt whether he is acting or not. Tylor’s abilities as a lyricist are evident in any form. He is also an actor and writer. He became the main singer and lyricist for Slipknot and Stone Sour bands. Tylor’s pals Shawn Graham, Joey Jordison, and Mick Thomson encouraged him to join their Slipknot band in Des Moines. He has left Stone Sour to pursue a solo career. He quit his job to concentrate on his band, Slipknot, which was a difficult choice. While he was absent, the band began working on an album.
On August 22, 1997, he and Slipknot entered the stage for the first time. His outfits and masks were as spectacular in practice as they were on stage. Taylor has been a Slipknot member since their second album’s publication, which allowed him to showcase his abilities as a producer and label head. He’s been the band’s frontman for a long time. Corey was also a part of the Stone Sour band in 1992. Stone Sour released their first demo CD in 1993, followed by another in 1995. With Corey Taylor’s help, the band has published several more albums. Taylor has also begun to feature as a guest musician on recordings for other bands such as Steel Panther and others. Taylor will make his acting debut as a part of the Fear Clinic cast on December 4, 2013.
6. Zach Johnson – $25 million
Zach Johnson has three PGA Tour victories. His wins include the 2013 BMW Championship, the 2014 Hyundai Tournament of Champions, and the 2015 Open Championship. Johnson is a member of the Professional Golfers’ Association of the United States. Zach Johnson first appeared on the professional golf tour in 1998. He participated in golf events on the Prairie Golf Tour, the Hooters Tour, and the Buy.com Tour in the years that followed. He was unbeaten on the Hooters Tour in 2001 and finished first in the previous three regular seasons. Johnson’s first PGA Tour win came in 2004 when he won the BellSouth Classic. He finished second and third in the 2006 WGC-Accenture Man Play Championship. Zach was chosen to participate for the United States on the Ryder Cup Team in 2006 and finished in a tie for sixth place.
5. Kurt Warner – $30 million
Unfortunately, not every high school or college athlete goes on to play professionally. Those who are unwavering in their quest of perfection flourish in professional sports’ pressure cooker. Kurt Warner is the kind of athlete who will not stop working until he reaches accomplishment. Kurt Warner’s mentality on the field can be summed up in a single term during his whole quarterbacking career: “man of steel.” There were various impediments between Kurt Warner and the calm waters he desired. When the Packers released him from training camp, he worked as a night stock clerk at Hy-Vee and as an assistant coach at Northern Iowa. When Kurt Warner was passed over by an NFL club in 1995, he chose to try out for the Arena Football League instead (AFL). He was offered the option to join the Iowa Barnstormers, which he gladly accepted.
His extraordinary talent eventually landed him 12th on the list of the top 20 Rena players of all time. To celebrate Warner, “Kurt Warner’s Arena Football Unleashed”(2000), a public-access video game based on the AFL, was published. Kurt signed a futures contract with the St. Louis Rams and joined the NFL Europe’s Amsterdam Admirals. Kurt Warner struggled severely in 1998, finishing the year with a 47.2 QB Rating while completing just 4 of 11 passes. After Trent Green tore his ACL in the preseason, the first domino to fall was Kurt Warner’s selection as the “Rams'” starting quarterback. Kurt Warner eventually smashed every passing record held by an NFL quarterback.
4. Ashton Kutcher – $220 Million
Ashton Kutcher was born on February 7, 1978, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to parents of Czech and German ancestry. The American-born artist has a diverse resume that includes credits for acting, comedy, voice acting, producing, modeling, and business. He was allegedly paid $800,000 each episode of “Two and a Half Men” from 2011 to 2015, making him the highest-paid actor on television. He began his career as a model in the late 1990s before obtaining a position on “That ’70s Show.”
Ashton has a reported net worth of over $220 million; his fortune might be considerably bigger if he didn’t care so much about encouraging technological innovation and compassion. Before he acquired his money, Ashton Kucher and his brother were raised in Iowa by their blue-collar parents. He dropped out of the University of Iowa’s biochemical engineering department and pledged to the Delta Chi fraternity to concentrate on his modeling career.
Although Ashton liked modelling for Calvin Klein and other designers and appearing in publications, he finally concluded that a career in Hollywood was more his pace. When Ashton arrived in Los Angeles in 1998, he was immediately cast in the Fox television series “That ’70s Show,” which helped his career and his bank account. Since then, Kutcher has appeared in or produced over 25 feature films and 30 television series.
He appeared in “Just Married,” “The Butterfly Effect,” “Dude, Where’s My Car?,” and “What Happens in Vegas” in minor parts. Ashton rose to prominence as a producer due to his work on the Punk’d season of MTV’s hidden camera show. His production company, Katalyst Films, creates fictional and documentary television shows. Ashton is now a wealthy businessman who invests in cutting-edge inventions and owns a restaurant chain.
3. Dennis Albaugh – $1.5 Billion
Dennis Albaugh, a businessman in the United States of America, is worth $1.5 billion. According to the most recent figures, Dennis Albaugh has more money than anybody else in Iowa. Dennis Albaugh, who grew up in Ankeny, Iowa, entered Des Moines Area Community College to major in agricultural business, despite his family’s strong urging. He worked as a fertilizer and seed salesman for seven years after graduating college, a career that carried him all over the country.
Albaugh left sales in 1979 to create his own fertilizer company, Albaugh, Inc. He took out a second mortgage on his house and began building a clientele. After a catastrophic first year, he barely earned a profit in the early 1980s. In the late 1980s, he began selling glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s pesticide Roundup. After the US patent expired, he bought chemical manufacturing facilities in Argentina and Brazil. His firm is expanding, and he is even purchasing farms in his state to put into production.
2. Marc Andreessen – $1.6 Billion
Marc Andreessen, an American software engineer and investor, is also a business owner. He was instrumental in founding the web browser Netscape, the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz, and the social networking platform Ning. He serves on the boards of many firms, including eBay, HP, and Facebook. As of September 2022, Marc Andreessen’s net worth exceeds $1.5 billion. After creating it from the bottom up, he sold Netscape to AOL in 1999 for $4.2 billion.
In 2007, Andreessen earned $1.6 billion from selling his “Loudcloud” hosting and software services company to Hewlett-Packard. He is an angel investor, having invested over $4 million in 45 different startups. In 2011, he received $150 million when he sold his business Ning to the digital lifestyle media firm Mode Media. Marc Andreessen is one of the world’s most successful businessmen and bankers.
1. Harry Stine – $7.9 Billion
According to Forbes, Harry Stine is a $7.5 billion American entrepreneur and businessman. Harry grew up in Dallas County, Iowa, and attended McPherson College. He was part of his family’s soybean cleaning company beginning in 1964. Stine established and owned the Stine Seed, a commercial empire. His seed company is the largest privately held seed company in the United States. Seed fields occupy 15,000 acres in rural Adel, Iowa. Stine started his work investigating soybean genetics in the 1960s. He was given a patent on his invention in the early 1990s and now makes millions of dollars in royalties each year. His organization does research and development in various fields, not only biotechnology and corn genetics. Stine is a generous donor to his alma mater, McPherson College, and the Mayo Clinic.
The state of Iowa may have contributed to Harry Stine’s riches. His economic empire owns 60% of all soybean cropland in the United States. FORBES values his firm at roughly $3 billion. Stine established Improved Variety Research, the country’s first private corporation dedicated to researching and developing new soybean varieties. He didn’t start marketing Stine Soybean Seeds until 1979. Since 1992, he has traded soft red winter wheat and maize. Harry is involved in the American Seed Trade Association and the American Society of Agronomy.
The innovative plant breeder was a young farmer at the time. Licensing Harry Stine’s maize and soybean genetics to corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta has resulted in massive revenues. Stine is the company’s founder and CEO and is especially interested in improving seed genetics to make them more productive and pesticide-resistant.
In Conclusion
The majority of Iowa’s wealthiest people, whose experiences are detailed in this story, have created their fortunes from the ground up. To expand their income, they have invested in various enterprises, either independently or in collaboration with their partners. Iowa’s top ten wealthiest people represent a cross-section of the state’s population.
