Arthrex 'Sultan' on Forbes list

Welcome to the club, Reinhold Schmieding.

The Naples entrepreneur who founded and grew Arthrex to $1.3 billion in annual revenues recently joined the Forbes 400 list of richest people in America. With an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, Schmieding ranks as the 222nd richest person in the nation.

This is Schmieding's first appearance on the list, but Forbes wasn't kind to the reclusive entrepreneur who reportedly cancelled an interview with the magazine at the last minute without explanation.

In an unflattering profile titled “The Secretive Sultan of Sports Medicine,” Forbes focused on Schmieding's reputation among associates, rivals and former employees as a hard-charging, litigious competitor who maintains North Korean-style secrecy. (Schmieding couldn't be reached for comment on the Forbes story, which is also posted on the magazine's website.)

It's a shame because Schmieding has such a great story to tell, and his arrival on the Forbes 400 list should have been a golden opportunity to show off his accomplishments. The self-made entrepreneur built Arthrex from scratch into a giant in the field of surgical devices, outwitting some of the better-funded giants of the medical-device industry. Instead, he's allowed rivals and others to tell his story for him.

Schmieding joins other Gulf Coast residents on the list of America's richest, including Shahid Khan (Naples, $3.8 billion), Richard Schulze (Bonita Springs, $2.7 billion), Edward DeBartolo Jr. (Tampa, $2.6 billion), and Tom Golisano (Naples, $1.9 billion).