Years ago, women from Hong Kong and China used to dominate the list of the richest self-made female billionaires, but due to the ongoing turmoil in Chinese market for many years now, self-made women from Europe and the United States are back on top of the list of females who built their own fortunes. The richest of them was Rafaela Aponte-Diamant of Switzerland, as of June 2. She along with her husband are the founder of a shipping company MSC. They created this company in 1970 and both own a 50 percent stake in it. Their expanding business has given Aponte-Diamant a net worth of more than $28 billion. According to Forbes, she is also the seventh richest woman in the world and its 49th richest person overall.
The world's second richest self-made woman who is also the richest American - is Diane Hendricks of building supplier ABC Supply. She co-founded the company with her husband and after his death in 2007, she has taken over and moved on to the role of chairwoman. Third on the list is also an American, Judy Love of Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, who after her husband's death in March oversees their empire of gas stations and convenience stores. Russian Tatyana Bakalchuck, who founded e-commerce retailer Wildberries in 2004, comes in the list on rank 4.
Among the Chinese women who could defend their standing
among the world's richest is Wu Yajun of Long for Properties, the world's sixth
richest self-made woman and 236th richest person. Her company's worth decreased
in the Chinese property crash, due to which she moved down the list which in
the long run led to her stepping down as chair in October 2022. Wu made her
fortune by cofounding the Hong Kong-listed real estate company with her
then-husband and after their divorce went on to head the company by herself.
Self-made women in the U.S. and China alike, are likely to
have co-founded a company with their husbands, a male relative or a male
mentor. To find a counterexample, we have to dig a little deeper than the top
8 of self-made women in the U.S. and in the world. Meg Whitman, the former CEO
of Ebay, Hewlett-Packard and Quibi and current United States ambassador to
Kenya, has a cumulative wealth of $3 billion. This makes her America's 11th
richest self-made woman. Forbes gives her a self-made score of 6 out of 10 as
she did not build a business. Internationally, there is Zhou Qunfei, the
world's ninth richest self-made women. The Hunan native founded touch screen
maker Lens Technologies in the early days of the smartphone transition and
supplied screens for the first iPhone. While Forbes has not yet introduced
self-made scores for those outside the U.S., Zhou would score a 10 out of 10,
as she started out as a migrant worker from a rural family, who overcame the
early death of a parent and dropping out of high school.
Meanwhile, Zhou's Chinese peers ranked just above her for
wealth, Zhong Huijuan of Hansoh Pharmaceutical and Wang Laichun of Luxshare
Precision, stand for two opposing trends among Chinese self-made billionaires. An
example of the professionals who have benefitted from the recent biotechnology
boom in China is Huijuan. Others self-made women in the sector who are not yet
among the world's richest, but whose fortunes are growing, are Jian Jun of
filler and facial implant maker Imeik Technology ($5.3 billion net worth), Fan
Daidi of collagen and skin care producer Giant Biogene Holding ($2.9 billion
net worth) and Zhao Yan of Bloomage Biotechnology ($4.5 billion net worth),
whose company makes the anti-aging ingredient hyaluronic acid.
Laichun, who made her fortune producing electronics
connectors for Apple and others, is still a part of the top 8 richest self-made
women in 2023, but her contemporaries from the electronics and mobile phone
industries like Zhou or Lam Wai-ying of Biel Crystal - both screen suppliers -
exited the list.
Infographic by: Statista
