H . Ty Warner is a famously reclusive American billionaire who created one of the biggest and most spectacular toy crazes of all time: Beanie Babies. He is the founder, CEO, and sole owner of Ty Inc. A college dropout and the son of a toy salesman, Warner founded his company in the mid-1980s. In 1993, he launched the first Beanie Babies, a line of small, under-stuffed, and affordable plush toys. He ingeniously created a speculative frenzy in the late 1990s by limiting the production of each character and strategically 'retiring' certain designs, which turned the cheap toys into highly sought-after collectibles with a booming secondary market.

At the peak of the craze, his company was reportedly generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual profit, all of which went to him as the sole owner. He has since astutely reinvested his massive toy fortune into a portfolio of luxury real estate, which now forms the bedrock of his wealth. His holdings include the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel in New York City and the exclusive San Ysidro Ranch resort in California. His career has also been marked by controversy, including a 2014 conviction for felony tax evasion, for which he was sentenced to probation.