To see who the world's wealthiest women are at any one time is even more fascinating because the list of the world's wealthiest people is still primarily dominated by men. Some of the richest women in the world in 2022 will be familiar to you, but many others will come as a surprise. This shows that most of the world's wealth is not concentrated in the most prominent sectors. The wealth of these women floored us, and we're sure you will be, too, when you see the complete list.
You'll notice a pattern as you look through the list of the richest women in the world. Many of the women in this study inherited their early wealth from their families' previous business enterprises or their husbands' business ventures. However, everyone can make money. These women were able to rise to the top because they could use, invest, and increase their fortune in several businesses.
Many of them have become the most influential figures in their respective fields as the CEOs or chairman of their firms. In addition, the majority of the women on this list have a strong sense of social responsibility, regularly donating billions of dollars to charitable organizations worldwide.
Now that the list for 2022 has been out, we can see just how much power these women have. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the wealthiest person on this list has a net worth of less than $20 billion. It is time to examine the richest women of 2022 and how they made their money.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers
L'Oréal founder Eugene Schueller was the father of Bettencourt Meyers' mother, Liliane Bettencourt, who passed away in 2017. During the quarantine period, customers reduced their appetite for the $33.6 billion (2020 sales) company's revenues by 6% 2020. Despite this, the stock gained 38 percent because of a resurgence in demand for cosmetics, particularly in the skincare category. She has been on the board of L'Oreal's parent company since 1997 when she joined the company as a consultant.
Alice Walton
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the eldest daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, surpassed her as the richest woman globally. However, Sam Walton's daughter still made $7.4 billion, thanks to Walmart's stock jumping more than 5 percent since March 2020. Online sales jumped 69 percent in the first half of the year thanks to the retailer's Amazon Prime-like membership program, which offers free delivery.
MacKenzie Scott
After his marriage to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos ended in 2019, Scott Bezos became the most prominent philanthropist of the epidemic, providing $5.8 billion in grants to 500 nonprofit groups around the United States, supporting issues like racial fairness, LGBTQ+ rights, and public health. Newlywed science instructor Dan Jewett has agreed to help her fulfill her goal of giving up a portion of her wealth in 2019.
Julia Koch
At her birth on April 12, 1962, Julia Koch was known as Julia Flesher Koch. He died in 2019 as the sixth richest person in America, which meant that his three children and his wife received his fortune. $53 billion in 2020, making her the wealthiest woman.
Widow of David Koch (who died in 2019) and mother of the Koch family, Julia Koch, will have a net worth of $53 billion in 2020 when she and her children own 42 percent of the family business. Last year, Koch Industries became the most significant private firm in the United States in revenue. As a director of the $115 billion (2019 sales) company, David's older brother Charles is chairman and owns a 42 percent share.
She has, however, done a great deal of philanthropic work in the past with her husband, the most of which was contributing money to deserving organizations. Standford Children's Hospital and Mount Sinai Medical Center received almost $10 million from the pair.
Miriam Adelson
As of January, Adelson owned 56% of casino operator Las Vegas Sands, which she inherited from her late husband Sheldon Adelson, who passed away in January at 87. As a result of nationwide lockdowns, the firm suffered a $985 million loss in the second quarter of 2020. Reopening in June 2020, the casinos lost $1.69 billion in the year, compared to the $2.7 billion profit they made the year before that. Since Macao is a considerably larger market, Las Vegas Sands stated in March that it would sell its Vegas hotels for $6.25 billion to concentrate on Asia.
Jacqueline Mars
Having been born on October 10, 1939, Mars went on to earn a degree in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, which she had attended until 1961. Because she is a descendant of the Mars clan, she is the heir apparent to the Martian throne. As a result, she and her two brothers own a majority stake in the company that her parents started. Currently, her net worth is believed to be over $23.5 billion, making her the 18th richest American in 2019.
M&''''Ms and Skittles are only two of the many products made by the $40 billion (in sales) candy, pet care, and food corporation owned by Jacqueline Mars and her brother John. In 1911, Jacqueline and John's grandpa, Frank C. Mars, established the company. Three years after acquiring a minority investment in KIND North America, Mars Incorporated purchased the snack bar company for an unknown sum in November 2020.
As a Food Product Group President, she retired in 2001 despite her parents owning the company. The couple had three children together, all of whom were born in 1961. Her first marriage to Harold Hank Vogel was in 1986. However, they were divorced within eight years of each other.
Yang Huiyan
Chinese real estate developer Country Garden Holdings is owned by Yang Huiyan, who holds 58 percent of the company. Since 2007, her father, the company's founder, has been passing ownership of the company to her. The epidemic led to a 14% drop in stock prices. Bright Scholar Education Holdings, a U.S.-listed education company, is chaired by Yang's company. China-born artist Huiyan was born at Shunde in Guangdong Province in 1981. As a result, she is now the 24th richest person in China and the youngest Asian billionaire. In addition, Yang Guoqiang, the chairman and founder of Country Garden Group, raised her as a businesswoman. Her net worth was estimated at $21.2 billion as of June 2019. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Art/Science from Ohio State University. According to reports, Chen Chong, the man she married in 2006, has no children or plans to have any.
Susanne Klatten
Klatten was born in Bad Homburg, Germany, on April 28, 1962. She worked at the advertising firm Young &'''' Rubicam from 1981 to 1983. The University of Buckingham, where she studied marketing, provided her with business experience in London. She received around 50.1 percent of Altana's stock after her father's death.
AFTER THE PANDEMIC'S INITIAL DIP IN AUTO SALES, the BMW heir's fortune increased by $10.9 billion. Since mid-March 2020, the German carmaker's stock price has risen by more than 93%, reporting about $119 billion in revenues. Her mother, Johanna Quandt, was married to Herbert Quandt, who led BMW to success in the luxury vehicle industry, and she inherited her 19.1 percent ownership in the company. Her grandfather's Altana AG, which she owns a majority stake in, was transformed into world-class specialty chemicals firm by Klatten, an investor with an MBA.
Fan Hongwei
Chen Jianhua, chairman of Hengli's Holding Company and a billionaire, is married to Fan Jianhua. Wujiang, China, is where the family resides. A self-made lady, Fan has a lot of expertise in her field, which helped her establish the company.
She was also rated as the 29th richest person in China and the 266th richest person globally by Forbes magazine. As a result of her mother's example, her daughter desires to be just like her mother. Furthermore, with a net worth of $22.1 billion, she has made the top 20 richest women in 2022.
Iris Fontbona
Iris, born in 1942, is the wealthiest person in Chile, Latin America's fifth-richest country and the world's 91st-richest person. Upon the passing of her spouse in 2005, she inherited a massive sum of money. She has given $3.9 million to the annual Chilean Telethon for her charitable work, which aids children with physical limitations.
In addition, she made a charitable donation of $5.5 million. In addition, her son runs the business that she inherited from her late husband. However, in the view of her employees, her judgments on the company's future bear more significant weight.
Laurene Powell Jobs
On November 6, 1963, Powell was born in West Milford, New Jersey, United States. Emerson Collective, the company she founded for investments and philanthropic endeavors, is named after her. In addition, she married Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO and co-founder, in 1991.
Also, in 2011, when Steve died, he left his wife a total of $11.1 billion and $38.5 million in shares of The Walt Disney Company and Apple Inc., respectively. Clinton won the 2016 presidential election with the help of Powell's $2 million donations, and he later helped raise $4 million for her. She also contributed $600,000 to Joe Biden's reelection campaign in 2020.
Zhong Huijuan
Zhong, a self-made woman from Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, was born in April 1961. Jiangsu Normal University graduated her in 1982 with a degree in Chemistry. She resigned from her teaching position in 1995 to help her husband run the business he founded. A portion of the company's revenue was then reinvested until 2019, at which point the company raised $1 billion through an IPO.
Currently, she owns more than 75% of the corporation, putting her net worth at roughly $18.9 billion. Sun Piaoyang, her husband and the CEO of Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, is also a multi-billionaire. Sun Yuan, the couple's daughter, was born due to their union.
Zhou Qunfei
Chinese actor Zhou Xiangxiang was born in 1970. Lens Technology is the world's largest touchscreen manufacturer. On the heels of being named the world's wealthiest self-made woman in 2018, her net worth was projected to be around $10 billion in 2010. She had aspired to be a fashion designer, but she subsequently changed her mind and started her own business in 1993, when she was only 22 years old.
Finally, in 2003, after overcoming numerous obstacles, she founded Lens Technology, a successful company. Then there's the fact that she married and later divorced her old factory boss, but she had a daughter with him.
Gina Rinehart
On February 9, 1954, Gina was born in Perth, Western Australia, to a father and a mother. Hancock Prospecting was Lang Hancock's company, and he was the parent she grew up with. However, his business was in dire straits when he passed away in 1992, and it was on the edge of bankruptcy. Unfortunately, Gina took over the firm after his death and dedicated her all to the company, resulting in $870 million in revenue in 2011.
With a net worth of $29.17 billion, she was ranked as the richest woman in 2012. She was also the wealthiest Australian at the time. In addition, in 2013 and 2014, she was ranked as the 16th and 27th most powerful woman globally, according to Forbes.
Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken
Charlene was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on June 30, 1954. She is Freddy Heineken's daughter, a prominent Dutch businessman. Heineken was the world's second-largest brewer in 2016, after SABMiller. Charlene is married to British financier Michel de Carvalho. In addition, she has five children with him, and they live in London with their parents.
In 2019, she had a net worth of approximately €12 billion, making her the wealthiest person in the United Kingdom. She had no desire to work for her father's company and preferred a more spartan existence. While this may have seemed like a good idea, her father's abrupt death meant that she was thrust into a position of responsibility.
Abigail Johnson
Johnson was born on December 19, 1961, and graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Business Administration. Throughout 2014 and 2016, she served as CEO and Chairman of her father's company, Fidelity Investments. It's worth noting that she has 24.5 percent ownership in the same corporation. Before being named CEO, she had to hold various positions within the organization.
Then there's the fact that since 2014, she has been one of the world's 100 most powerful women. She was ranked fifth in 2018 and seventh in 2017 and 2019, respectively, on the world's most powerful women list.
