RESULTS FOR 2008
Ranking: 47=
Worth: £1,500m
Source of wealth: Industry

The movie Fishtales, starring Billy Zane and Kelly Brook, kept actor and film director David busy last year. The story of a single father falling for a mermaid premiered at Cannes. This year he played the role of Bambas, above, in The Bank Job. David, 39, doesn’t need to make movies for the money: he is a member of the Greek Leventis family. His late father was managing director of the Athens-based Leventis-David group, a family business that owns Coca-Cola bottling plants in 23 countries. Born in west Africa, David was educated at Stowe and Le Rosey in Switzerland. After a short stint in the British Army, he went on to graduate from the Royal College of Art film programme. In 1995 David founded the not-for-profit organisation Bios — ancient Greek for “life” — which works on marine conservation in Greece, organising underwater clean-ups. A qualified diving instructor, his biggest passion, after his cocker spaniels, is the sea. David is reckoned to be the majority shareholder in the family business and has set up other companies, including Independent Models, the largest modelling agency in the UK. The Leventis family’s holdings now range from manufacturing to shipping. The group also has a £10m-plus stake in Antisoma, a quoted biotech company. The Guardian, noting that David was bidding to take over Coventry City, the Championship football club, last December, put the family fortune at £4 billion. David ultimately pulled out of the Coventry deal, but not before the Financial Times called him a “Greek billionaire”. We are cautious in our assessment of the family fortune and settle for £1.5 billion. David has lavish homes in Los Angeles, London and on the Greek island of Spetses.

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