Theodor Paul "Theo" Albrecht (28 March 1922 – 24 July 2010) was a
German entrepreneur, who in 2010 was ranked by
Forbes as the
31st richest person in the world, with a
net worth of $16.7 billion. He owned and was the
CEO of the
Aldi Nord discount supermarket chain. In the US he owned the
Trader Joe's specialty grocery store chain. His brother
Karl Albrecht owned the Aldi Süd discount supermarket chain. The two chains originally were a single family enterprise until a friendly division of assets in 1960. Aldi Süd operates the Aldi groceries in the United States. So Aldi and
Trader Joe's, while owned by the brothers, have separate and distinct ownership and operations.