Paul Merage (born 1943) is an American billionaire businessman who co-founded Chef America Inc., the company that popularized the microwavable frozen snack Hot Pockets. In 2015, his net worth was estimated at $1.8 billion. Biography Merage was born in Iran in 1943 to a Jewish family, the son of Katherine and Andre Merage. He has four siblings: Louise, Camron, David, and Lin. His father ran an import/export business in France before he was forced to flee back to Iran prior to World War II. He attended Alborz High School in Tehran. In 1961, at the age of 17, he immigrated to the United States to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in economics and an M.B.A. After college, he worked for nine years in a succession of increasing responsibilities in product management at General Foods (now Kraft Heinz Company), Hunt Wesson and Specialty Foods where he was director of new products. In 1977, he Founded Chef America, Inc. with his younger brother David. Initially, Paul Merage had to obtain three Mortgages on his home to fund the business. When the company ran out of initial funding the brothers also had to borrow money from their parents. Chef America started by selling frozen Belgian waffles - then largely unfamiliar in the United States - to restaurants as they were difficult to cook. In 1977, the company had $12 million in sales and was the largest mass-producer of frozen Belgian waffles in the US. In 1983, he noticed that as more women entered the work force there was a newly emerging need for a hot meal or snack that children could easily prepare themselves when returning from school. This demographic trend coincided with the development of microwave oven for home use. Even though in 1983 microwave ovens did not have widespread distribution in US households, Merage correctly predicted that Microwave oven usage would continue to grow exponentially. Merage developed the concept of a quick two-minute microwaveable meal which was all enclosed in a crust for ease of handling, using nothing more than a paper towel. He named it “Hot Pockets”, and promoted it as the “Hot Meal without a Big Deal’. He personally led the effort to formulate this product and after two years of testing and experimentation he developed and patented a unique process which resulted in a product with tasty fillings and a crispy crust.