Ilkka Herlin

Source of wealth: Elevators, escalators

67 years male Manufacturing 🇫🇮 FI

Net Worth

...

Earnings per second

...

The scale of their wealth

🏥

Health

The price of life

Let's compare Ilkka Herlin's fortune with the healthcare spending of a massive country

Ilkka Herlin could fund the entire healthcare system of DR Congo, with a population of over 105,800,000 people, for approximately 0.9 years.

But even if we compare their fortune with that of a rich country

On the other end, Ilkka Herlin could cover the healthcare spending of Luxembourg, considered the most heavily funded healthcare system in the world, for 0.4 years.

📚

Education

Buying the future

Let's also compare their fortune with education spending, first with a poor country

Ilkka Herlin could cover the total cost of Nigeria's education system, the most populous country in Africa with over 243,000,000 inhabitants, for 0.6 years.

And yes, we can also compare it with a rich country

But they couldn't just cover the cost of a poor country; Luxembourg is considered the country with the highest per capita investment in education in the world, and Ilkka Herlin could pay for it entirely for 0.8 years.

🔬

Research

The monopoly on progress

Coming full circle, we think it's also interesting to add another gigantic country

Ilkka Herlin could fully fund the state research budget of Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world with over 260,000,000 inhabitants, for 3.4 years.

And of course, the country that invests the most per capita worldwide

But even if we compare the total wealth of Ilkka Herlin with Israel, the country that invests the most per capita in research in the world, they could cover the total cost of the system for 0.1 years.

While billions of people struggle to access basic healthcare, education, and research, a single individual could fund entire national systems for centuries.

Gold

Everyday luxuries

Ilkka Herlin's fortune is equivalent to 14 tons of gold. It's hard to process, since we don't usually keep a handful of gold bars in our piggy banks.

A standard gold ring usually weighs between 4 and 7 grams. Let's say this one weighs 5 grams. It's usually 18 karats.

Based on today's gold price (excluding the jeweler's commission, shipping, or anything else), that ring would be worth $546.86.

Ilkka Herlin could buy 3,715,826 gold rings. That's a lot of fingers and way too many gifts!!

And if you're struggling to visualize that many rings, it would take 1 trucks to transport them. Although Ilkka Herlin will almost certainly have enough money left over to pay for the gas.

🚚

Biography

Ilkka Herlin is the great-grandson of famed Finnish business leader Harald Herlin, who invested in Kone Elevators in 1924.

After his father's death in 2003, Ilkka and his siblings discovered the will had been rewritten leaving most of the ownership in Kone to their brother Antti.

Angered that they had never been informed, the siblings battled for control. The dispute ended in 2005, with Kone being split in two.

Antti maintained control over the elevator business while his siblings were given stakes in Cargotec, producer of machinery for heavy duty ship cargo.

Niklas, one of the sibling, passed away in 2017. Three of the siblings are billionaires.