Michele Ferrero

Michele Ferrero took the hazelnut paste his father had sold in post-war Alba, reformulated it and launched it as Nutella in 1964, then built Kinder and Ferrero Rocher on the same idea of stretching scarce chocolate with local Piedmont hazelnuts. He ran the company privately for decades, never listed it, and at his death in 2015 was the richest person in Italy.