Schmieding is the founder and president of Arthrex, a closely held surgical device maker that has develops orthopedic products and procedures for shoulders, knees and other joints. The Naples, Florida-based has annual revenue of about $2.5 billion and has offices in Asia, Canada, Dubai, Europe and the Americas.
Reinhold Schmieding's net worth of $8.50B can buy ...
... and is equivalent to ...
Schmieding is credited with all of closely held Arthrex based on his status as the company's sole founder and comments in his autobiography that he avoided taking venture capital or other financial investors. Arthrex exports to more than 100 countries, according to its website.
It had estimated annual revenue of $2.5 billion in 2018 and is valued using the average enterprise value-to-sales multiples of two peer companies: Smith & Nephew and ConMed. Arthrex doesn't disclose its financials. A Jan. 8, 2018 report in the Naples Daily News said the company had annual revenue of $2.25 billion. The revenue estimate was updated and Stryker was removed from the peer group on Feb. 13, 2020 and this led to a fall in the net worth calculation of about $500 million.
Lisa Gardiner, a spokesperson for Arthrex, didn't respond to requests for comment on Bloomberg's net worth valuation.
Reinhold Schmieding was born in Michigan to German parents who moved to the U.S. six months before he was born. He graduated from Michigan State University in 1977 before moving to Germany to work as a salesman for medical device supplier Richards Medical, according to a 2015 press release on Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida.
He started Arthrex in Munich in 1981, focusing on supplying local surgeons with orthopedic devices specializing in shoulder, knee, hip and small joint surgery. Two decades later he moved the company's headquarters to Naples, Florida. The company has developed more than 10,000 products and surgical procedures.
The billionaire lives in Florida and Munich and has two children, according to a 2012 article in the Naples Daily News.