Well, fresh off our posts on the Top25 highest paid hedge fund managers of 2008, as well as our biggest losers of 2008, we've stumbled upon Forbes' annual Billionaire List. The list encompasses all industries; but, as you can imagine, there are a lot of big hedge fund names on this list. Without further ado, the list of alternative managers on Forbes' list:
| Rank | Billionaire | Firm | Net Worth (billions) |
| 29 | George Soros | Soros Fund Management | $11 |
| 43 | Carl Icahn | Icahn Associates | $9 |
| 55 | James Simons | Renaissance Technologies | $8 |
| 76 | John Paulson | Paulson & Co. | $6 |
| 87 | Steven Cohen | SAC Capital Advisors | $5.5 |
| 164 | Stanley Druckenmiller | Duquesne Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 164 | Bruce Kovner | Caxton Associates | $3.5 |
| 164 | Daniel Ziff | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 164 | Dirk Ziff | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 164 | Robert Ziff | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $3.5 |
| 205 | Henry Kravis | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | $3 |
| 205 | Sam Zell | Equity Group Investments | $3 |
| 224 | Paul Tudor Jones | Tudor Investment Corp. | $2.8 |
| 234 | John Arnold | Centaurus Energy Advisors | $2.7 |
| 246 | George Roberts | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | $2.6 |
| 261 | Ray Dalio | Bridgewater Associates | $2.5 |
| 261 | Stephen Schwartzman | The Blackstone Group | $2.5 |
| 296 | Philip Falcone | Harbinger Capital Management | $2.3 |
| 334 | Tom Gores | Platinum Equity | $2 |
| 334 | Edward Lampert | ESL Investments | $2 |
| 334 | Daniel Och | Och-Ziff Capital Management | $2 |
| 334 | T. Boone Pickens | BP Capital | $2 |
| 450 | David Shaw | D.E. Shaw Group | $1.6 |
| 468 | Louis Bacon | Moore Capital Management | $1.5 |
| 468 | Israel Englander | Millennium Partners | $1.5 |
| 468 | Kenneth Griffin | Citadel Investment Group | $1.5 |
| 522 | William Conway | The Carlyle Group | $1.4 |
| 522 | Daniel D'Aniello | The Carlyle Group | $1.4 |
| 522 | Thomas Lee | Lee Equity Partners | $1.4 |
| 522 | David Rubenstein | The Carlyle Group | $1.4 |
| 559 | Alec Gores | Gores Group | $1.3 |
| 559 | Raj Rajaratnam | Galleon Group | $1.3 |
| 559 | Julian Robertson | Tiger Management | $1.3 |
| 559 | Wilbur Ross | WL Ross & Co. | $1.3 |
| 601 | Stephen Mandel | Lone Pine Capital | $1.2 |
| 601 | David Tepper | Appaloosa Management | $1.2 |
| 647 | Leon Black | Apollo Management | $1.1 |
| 647 | John Henry | John W. Henry & Co. | $1.1 |
| 647 | Marc Lasry | Avenue Capital Management | $1.1 |
| 701 | David Bonderman | TPG | $1 |
| 701 | Leon Cooperman | Omega Advisors | $1 |
| 701 | James Dinan | York Capital | $1 |
| 701 | Glenn Dubin | Highbridge Capital Management | $1 |
| 701 | Theodore Forstmann | Forstmann Little | $1 |
| 701 | Henry Swicea | Highbridge Capital Management | $1 |
As we said, some very familiar names fill up that list. To get a better idea as to how well their specific hedge funds are doing, check out Alpha's hedge fund rankings. And, for a list of those with converse fortunes, check out the recent list of 2008 hedge fund closures. In all, there are 793 richest men in the world, led by the #1 ranked Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft). In terms of the investment industry, 45 billionaires made the list.
Source: Forbes
