Stuck in a traffic jam in his bulletproof BMW, the richest man in Turkey wears a satisfied grin. Since 2000, Husnu M. Ozyegin has spent more than $50 million of his money, building 36 primary schools and girls’ dormitories in the poorest parts of Turkey. Next to the Turkish government, Ozyegin is the biggest individual supporter of schools in the country. “If I can have an impact on one million Turkish people in the next 10 years, I will be happy,” he says in his gruff, cigarette-scarred voice.

The global wealth boom has created a new breed of billionaire in once-poor countries like Turkey, India, Mexico and Russia. Propelled by their rising economies, robust currencies and competitive companies, they have ridden a surge in local stock markets that have reached previously untouchable heights in a five-year timeframe. Now, a number of them are using their wealth to bolster their standing and push for social changes.

For these emerging economies, where loose regulation, opaque privatization processes and monopolistic business practices abound, this extraordinary and uneven creation of wealth rivals in many ways the great American fortunes made at the turn of the 20th century.

While such countries have long been accustomed to vast disparities between a tiny class of the wealthy elite and the impoverished masses, the new elite shares some characteristics with counterparts in the United States. And just as Rockefellers, Carnegies and Morgans once used philanthropy to smooth the rough edges of their cutthroat business reputations, local billionaires in emerging markets are trying to do the same.

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