Meet billionaire millennial Anna Kasprzak, Ecco heiress and one of the world’s 8 richest people under 30
The young mother prefers riding horses competitively, but still runs the Ecco shoe company with her mother, Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak, and brother, André Kasprzak
Anna Kasprzak is one of the world’s richest billionaires under the age of 30, according to Forbes.
The 29-year-old’s US$1 billion fortune comes mostly from her partial ownership of Ecco, a shoe company based in Denmark that was started by her grandfather, Karl Toosbuy, in 1963.
Toosbuy was a shoemaker by trade and managed a shoe factory in Copenhagen by the time he was in his early 30s.
He wanted his own company, so in 1962 Karl and his wife, Birte, took out an ad in Jyllands-Posten, a newspaper in Denmark, asking, “Who wants us?” They were looking for some business partners.
By 1963, the company was fully established; they were able to hire 74 employees in the following year.
The company has since grown drastically – it expanded into the US market in 1994, when it was named Company of the Year.
Today, the Ecco company makes around US$1.46 billion in sales, according to Forbes.
Kasprzak is part-owner of the company – along with her mother Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak and brother André Kasprzak – but running the business isn't her full-time job.