When you walk into a store to purchase some furniture, odds are you're not thinking about the person behind the curtain who actually owns the store. Most of us are just looking for a good deal on a sofa, so the name Ingvar Kamprad doesn't readily ring any bells. Kamprad is the founder of IKEA and is worth an estimated $31-billion.

IKEA is one of the world's largest home furnishing retail chains, and with store locations all over the globe, the 7th wealthiest person in the world - according to Forbes magazine - continues to add onto the already stacked amount. Despite being associated with a pro-Nazi group, Kamprad still managed to earn a reputation as a kind and gentle humanitarian.

Ingvar Feodor Kamprad was born March 30, 1926 in Ljungby, Sweden. Even as a young boy, his business sense was evident. He would ride his bicycle around town selling matches to the boys in the neighborhood. He understood supply and demand before he understood basic grammar.

He would purchase matches in bulk, realizing it was much cheaper this way, and make a large profit selling them individually. Since Ingvar sold his goods for a low price, they always sold out quickly, and he would soon expand into other areas. In school, he began selling pens and pencils. He also sold decorations for Christmas trees and fish.

Kamprad, despite being the constant salesman, was also an excellent student. His father was extremely proud of his son's commitment to an education, and thus rewarded him handsomely when Ingvar was 17-years-old. Kamprad would use this money to open a small furniture store.

Eventually, this store would become the first in a long line of IKEA stores. IKEA is an acronym of his name, Ingvar Kamprad, plus the family farm he grew up on, Elmtaryd, and the village he was born in, Agunnaryd. Kampard suffered from minor dyslexia and had trouble remembering the stock-keeping unit numbers, thus he began to give his furniture Swedish-sounding names.

IKEA would eventually branch out and become a worldwide name. The store offers quality-made furnishings at a price most people can afford. To keep up with this image, Ingvar only flies in economy class and drives a 15-year-old Volvo. However, he still owns some very lavish properties - properties that he doesn't want his customer base to know about. He owns an upscale villa in Switzerland, a country estate in Sweden, a vineyard in Provence in France, and a host of luxury cars.

Ingvar Kamprad is one of the 10 richest people in the world, however, if it is true that he owns the entire IKEA Company - a rumor which he and his family denies - that would make him the richest man in the world, hands down. Kamprad is 82-years-old, but that doesn't seem to slow him down a bit. He's been known to pop up in an IKEA store to grab a cheap meal or even shop for his own furniture. Kamprad is a very private person for the most part, but has worked with writers to put out biographies pertaining to the furniture business.