Richard Montanez Net Worth, Age, Height, Wealth (Updated 2022)

Richard Montanez is sixty-two years old Mexican businessman, author, leadership instructor and motivational speaker. As of the recent report of March 2023, he has a net worth of $15 million.

He is well known for claiming to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, famous for his visionary leadership ability and to develop new systems and products. He is the Current sitting CEO of the Onelite Foundation and serving as the Executive Vice President of multinational sales and promotion for the North American division of Pepsico. In 2015, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference elected him as the organization’1st Latino member. In addition, he influenced Taco Bell and KFC in marketing initiatives.

He is also an author and has written many books, including his world best-selling Flamin’Hot and A Boy, A Burrito, and A Cokiee, which are based on his personal life experience and on the true story of one man’s rise from janitor to the top executive.

Let’s look deep into his career that how a janitor and labor became such a millionaire and uncover the facts which made him the richest personality.

How Did Richard Montanez Become Rich?

Richard was born on August 15, 1958, and grew up in a California migrant labor camp. He left high school and worked as a laborer until getting a job as a janitor for Frito-Lay. He and his nine siblings lived in a one-bedroom apartment with their family before moving to a 700 square foot 4 bedrooms home.

According to Richard he and his wife invented the spicy sensation in their own kitchen. The hidden story behind the invention of Hot Cheetos goes like this: When he was working with Frito-Lay as a janitor, one day the machine broke in the assembly line and caused some Cheetos to not get dusted with the bright orange cheese powder. Richard took some of them home and put chili powder on them. When he tasted them, he noticed another spicier taste of Cheetos and he took them into the market.

Soon he found Mexican street snacks Elote. The company executive showed love to his newly invented snacks and welcomed him with the core of his heart. He presented his product to the Latino market and provided samples in plastic bags. Six months later, from his newly invented spicy Cheetos, he launched his product to the market of Los Angeles and was approved for a national released in 1992. With the passage of time, the Flamin’Hot Cheetos became the first priority of spicy snacks lovers and reached all over the world.

After getting recognized all over the world as a creator of the newly spicier version of Cheetos, he started to write books on his own life experience and from till to date he has compiled two world best-selling books, Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive and A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie.

Both these books are listed in the world’s best-selling, over 2000 copies were sold and his creative writing skills became a milestone to generate $0.1 million to his net worth.

What Is Richard Montanez Net Worth?

As of the recent report of March 2023, Richard Montanez has a net worth of $15 million.

He is a successful businessman and the owner of the company Flamin’Hot Cheetos. Mostly his primary source of income depends on his well-known snacks company. It is estimated that he has earned more than $20 million through his Flamin’Hot Cheetos.

Along with this, he is working with different multination companies and brands. As a vice president in PepsiCo, brand ambassador in Elote and as a member of the board of directors in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As to the magazine’s report, he got paid more than $90,000 per year.

Apart from these, he is an author, motivational speaker and leadership instructor. He has written more than two world best-selling books, has done more than 30 conferences around the globe on motivation and hosted more than 20 seminars on leadership skills. He has collected a handsome worth of $1 million from these.

In addition, he is a visiting professor in different universities, he teaches leadership skills and new marketing techniques to MBA students and got paid per lecture from institutions. Which ultimately helped him to boost his net worth into such an extensive and greater.

How Richard Montanez Spends His Money?

Richard Montanez is living a luxurious and lavish life along with his wife Judy Montanez in the deluxe house, at Rancho, Cucamonga. He married his wife Judy after two years of a relationship. The couple is blessed with three sons and five grandchildren. The house, where do they live, has an estimated cost of $1 million.

In practical life, he runs a welfare foundation with the name OneLight Foundation. Every year, his foundation feeds thousands of poor families and sends millions of dollars of food across the country. In several areas, his welfare foundation supplies new shoes for needy children.

Recently he announced his scholarship program Richard Montanez Scholarship, which is ready to welcome the needy and poor students. It will help the needy and intelligent students to complete their education under the umbrella of this helping hand program.

He has a practice of spending money on new and reliable cars and he has made a good collection of vehicles in his garage. He owns Porche 911, which has a cost of $114,000, BMW i8 with an estimated worth of $147,500, Audi A4 with the cost of $39,100 and Toyota Supra which puts a figure on $43,190.

Interesting Facts

• Richard has dropped out of high school, and he never completed his school degree nor his college degree.
• He has worked a series of low-paying jobs, including slaughtering chickens and gardening.
• He held a speech at a special United Nations event in 2004.
• He has been invited several times by the White House for speech.
• He has never completed his high school degree, though now he teaches leadership to MBA students in different universities throughout the United States.
• He has been recognized as one of the most influential Hispanic leaders in the world.