Austen Cargill II Net Worth & Biography

Today’s career and success story is about the American rancher, businessman, and heir, Austen Stowell Cargill II, who according to a recent Forbes publication, owns an estimated net worth of 3 billion dollars. Mr. Cargill is a great-grandson of Cargill Incorporated’s founder, William W. Cargill. An alumnus of the University of Minnesota where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Cargill attended the Oregon State University to study for his doctorate. He was married and had two children, and now resides with his family in Livingston, Montana, in the United States. Things started going on for him in 1995 when he officially joined the Cargill Company as one of the board of directors. Shortly, he became the vice president of the company and maintained that role until 2001. He has also served on the board of GalaGen, a NASDAQ-traded company, from 1999 through 2002. Back to Cargill, a company known to hold interests in risk management, food production, cattle, crops, and commodity trading, had an estimated revenue of $134 billion as of the fiscal year 2012, making it one of the biggest privately held companies in the United States today. More details are available below.

Early Life=

As you might have guessed, Mr. Cargill is a member of the prominent and wealthy Cargill/MacMillan family. He was born Austen Stowell Cargill II in 1951. His great-grandfather, William Wallace Cargill, was an American investor and the founder of Cargill. Marianne Cargill Liebmann and James R. Cargill II are his siblings.

For his education, Cargill enrolled at the University of Minnesota for his bachelor’s degree. He also completed his master’s degree at the same institution before joining Oregon State University for his doctorate degree.

Professional Life

After graduating from the University as a marine biologist, Austen Cargill II joined the board of directors of his family’s business Cargill in 1995. After a year, he became the company’s vice president and worked in that capacity until 2001.

Austen also served as a board member of GalaGen, a company that traded on NASDAQ. GalaGen mainly sold dietary supplements to treat gastrointestinal diseases, and Austen worked there from 1999 to 2002 when it went bankrupt.

The company, Cargill Incorporated, is a privately held global food corporation founded in 1865, established in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. It is considered the largest privately held company in the United States in terms of revenue. If it were a public company, Cargill would rank number 15 on the Fortune 500 (as of 2015), ahead of AT&T and behind McKesson. The company has frequently been the subject of criticism related to finance, human rights, the environment, and other ethical considerations. Some of its major businesses are the production of food ingredients such as glucose syrup and starch, vegetable oils and fats for industrial use and application in processed foods, raising of livestock and production of feed, trading in energy, steel, and transport, and procuring, trading and distributing grain and other agricultural supplies, such as palm oil. The company also has a large financial services division, which helps it to manage financial risks in the commodity market.

In 2003, Cargill split off a percentage of its financial operations into the hedge fund Black River Asset Management, which holds around $10 billion of assets and liabilities. It owned 33.3 percent of the shares of The Mosaic Company, a business that is known to be one of the leading producers and marketers of potash crop nutrients and concentrated phosphate in the world. Cargill sold off its Mosaic holding in 2011. In 2018, Cargill reported earnings of $3.103 billion and revenues of $114.695 billion and boasted of employing more than 166,000 people in 66 countries. The Cargill Company, which is responsible for 25 percent of all US grain exports, also supplies about 22 percent of the United States domestic meat market. It is known to be the biggest importer of products from Argentina, and is the largest poultry producer in Thailand. It has been reported that all the eggs used in McDonald’s restaurants in the United States pass through Cargill’s plants. It is the United States’ only producer of Alberger process salt, which is used in the prepared food and fast-food industries.

To date, Cargill still remains a family-owned business. The majority of the company (over 90 percent) is still owned by the descendants of the founding Cargill and MacMillan families.

Personal Life

Mr. Cargill is divorced now. He has two children and lives in Livingston, Montana.

In 2001, he paid an undisclosed amount of money to acquire the North Ranch in Paradise Valley in Montana, close to Antelope Butte. Previously, the ranch was owned by the Church Universal and Triumphant.  The businessman also goes ruffed grouse hunting in South Dakota. He is also an avid golfer and likes to fish in his spare time.

Austen Cargill II Net Worth

Austen Cargill II has a net worth of $3 billion dollars. He is a businessman and heir to the Cargill fortune. He lives in Livingston in Montana with his family, and it’s known in the state that he is one of the richest people over there.

Most of Austen Cargill’s wealth has come from the Cargill Company, which is known for its success in the American business industry as well as on the international scene. The exact amount of money he takes home for his work isn’t known, but the fact that he has served on the company’s board of directors as well as held the position of vice president tells us that he must have been taking home huge paychecks during his time in those positions. Cargill, Inc. is one of the most successful privately-owned companies in the United States.