Issad Rebrab joins the Forbes Billionaires list this year thanks to his thriving $3.5 billion (sales) food business, Cevital, a producer of sugar, vegetable oil and margarine. An accountant by training, one of his clients talked him into investing in the client's metal company in 1971. By 1995 Rebrab had expanded into food, founding Cevital three years later. His five children work at the company. His success is unusual in a country with socialist policies hostile to entrepreneurs and he is Algeria's first-ever billionaire. "Today we [entrepreneurs] are accepted, but not encouraged," he said in a French TV interview. He is the son of militants who fought for Algeria's independence from France.