Van Andel and de Vos families

As the founding partners of the American multi-level marketing company, Amway, the success of Richard DeVos and his high school friend, Jay Van Andel, has made both of their families among the richest in the United States. At the time of DeVos’s death at the age of 92 in September 2018, Forbes estimated his family’s wealth at $5.4 billion. The same publication put the Van Andel family’s net worth at $6 billion in July 2015, eleven years after Jay passed away in 2004. After retiring from the day-to-day responsibilities of running the business in the 1990s, the company continued to be run by DeVos and Van Andel’s children and grandchildren, who call themselves the ‘G3.’ Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the founders went to the same high school and began their entrepreneurial careers together by selling a wide range of products door to door post WWII, which they both served in. These products included dietary supplements and home cleaning supplies, which would form the foundation of the Amway empire, founded in 1959. Richard and Jay each had four children, all of whom have held various positions within the company, which has become an international success story over the years. Richard’s son, Doug, and Jay’s son, Steve, currently serve as Co-chairmen. Before that, they were both Co-CEOs until the end of 2018. Their predecessor in that role was Doug’s older brother, Dick, who is married to the current United States Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Members of both families have either served in positions of political influence or been campaigners and donors for Republican party candidates over a long period of time. In addition, the DeVos family, beginning with Richard, has owned several professional sports franchises, including the Orlando Magic in the NBA, which Richard bought for $85 million in 1991.