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The Richest Women In The World 2015
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It was yet another record year for women on the new FORBES list of the World’s Billionaires. Of a total 1,826 billionaires, 197 are women, up from 172 in 2014. That’s a nice gain, but women still account for just a small percentage of the list — 11% of the total.
Christy Walton, who inherited a stake in retailer Wal-Mart, retains the title of world’s richest woman. The widow of John Walton has held that spot for five out of the past six years. FORBES pegs her net worth at $41.7 billion, up from $36.7 billion a year ago.
Liliane Bettencourt, the principal heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune, is the second richest woman, the same rank she held a year ago. Bettencourt, 92, is worth an estimated $40.1 billion; she’s not involved in running the company her father founded. Her grandson Jean-Victor Meyers replaced her on the board in 2012. A trial of ten people who allegedly stole hundreds of millions of euros from Bettencourt began in January.
The third richest woman is Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton and sister-in-law to Christy Walton. She’s used some of her $39.4 billion fortune to purchase art, and in 2011 opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
One newcomer to the ranks of the richest women is Maria Franca Fissolo, the widow of Italian candy-and-Nutella tycoon Michele Ferrero, who died in February. Fissolo and her son Giovanni Ferrero, the Chief Executive of Ferrero Group, the sweets company, are inheriting one of the world’s largest candy fortunes, encompassing Kinder chocolates, Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Tic Tac mints, among other brands. FORBES estimates that Fissolo and her son are worth $23.4 billion. She is the fifth richest woman on the list.
The sixth richest women is a notable name in Silicon Valley and education circles: Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Worth an estimated $19.5 billion, she is focused on social reform through a group she started called the Emerson Collective and, through College Track, helping students finish college.
Many of the women among the billionaires ranks inherited their wealth from either their husbands or their fathers. Just 29 of the 197 women are self-made billionaires. One newcomer in that subset is Elizabeth Holmes, who, at 31, is also the youngest self-made billionaire in the world. She dropped out of Stanford with an idea for a better blood testing company that uses just a drop of blood. Theranos was valued by investors in 2014 at $9 billion, and she owns half the company, giving her a $4.5 billion net worth.
Follow me on Twitter at @KerryDolan
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Inside The 2015 Forbes Billionaires List: Facts And Figures
By Kerry A. Dolan and Luisa Kroll
Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the ranks of the world’s wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded yet again. For our 29th annual guide to the globe’s richest, we found a record 1,826 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago. The total includes 290 newcomers, 71 of whom hail from China. Youth are on the rise: A record 46 among the ranks are under age 40. One earthward note:The average net worth of list members came in at $3.86 billion, down $60 million from 2014.
Bill Gates is once again the richest person on the planet, a title he’s held for 16 of the past 21 years. His fortune grew $3.2 billion since last year to $79.2 billion, despite a gift of $1.5 billion in Microsoft MSFT +0.3% shares to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in November 2014. Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico comes in again at No. 2 while revered American investor Warren Buffett took back the No. 3 spot from Spain’s Amancio Ortega (now No. 4); not even the largest IPO in history was enough to beat the Oracle of Omaha this year. Buffett was the list’s biggest gainer, up $14.5 billion to $72.7 billion, thanks to Berkshire Hathaway’s rising share price. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg moves up 5 spots to number 16, his first time ranked among the world’s 20 richest. Ma and three other Chinese are among the the biggest gainers and appear among the 50 richest on the list.
Zuckerberg is also the leader in a youth revolution that has minted 46 billionaires under the age of 40. The youngest billionaire on the planet is Evan Spiegel, 24, co-founder of photo- messaging app Snapchat. California, driven by Silicon Valley tech companies, has spawned 23 new billionaires, including cofounders of car-hailing service Uber cofounders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, and their first employee Ryan Graves. Elizabeth Holmes, who runs blood-testing firm Theranos, debuts on the global list as the youngest self-made woman at age 31. The state now has 131 individuals with 10-figure net worths, more than any other country besides China and the U.S.
The year’s biggest loser in dollar terms is Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, whose fortune dropped to $14.7 billion from $25 billion last year, propelled downward by a weaker Nigerian currency and shrinking demand for cement, his largest asset. He still retains the title of Africa’s richest man. The country that was lost the most ground by far was Russia, which now has 88 billionaires down from 111, less than not just the U.S. and China but now also Germany and India.
One hundred thirty-eight people from the 2014 list dropped out of the ranks altogether including fashion designer Michael Kors, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Zulily’s Mark Vadon and many Russians. Guatemala has a billionaire for the first time, and Iceland returns to the ranks after a five-year absence, the result of a comeback by Thor Bjorgolfsson, who’s now the only billionaire in Iceland’s history.
There’s no doubt that entrepreneurship is thriving globally. Fully 1,191 members of the list are self-made billionaires, while just 230 inherited their wealth. Another 405 inherited at least a portion but are still working to increase their fortunes.
Our estimates show a snapshot of wealth on Feb. 13, when we locked in stock prices and exchange rates from around the world. If a stock market wasn’t open on that day, we used the stock price from the previous trading day.
WEALTH EDITORS: Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan
DEPUTY EDITORS: Keren Blankfeld and Abram Brown
COUNTRY EDITORS: Graham Button, Russell Flannery, Naazneen Karmali, John Koppisch,Tatiana Serafin, Nathan Vardi
WEALTH TEAM: Dan Alexander, Elena Berezanskaya, Liyan Chen, Maggie Chen, Agustino Fontevecchia, Elaine Mao, Alex Morrell, Andrea Murphy, Chase Peterson-Withorn, Natalie Robehmed, Katia Savchuk
REPORTERS: Forbes Czech Republic, Forbes Indonesia, Forbes Kazakhstan, Forbes Korea, Forbes Mexico, Forbes Poland, Forbes Romania, Forbes Russia, Forbes Ukraine, Anderson Antunes, Nilgun Cavdar, Kerry Close, Christopher Helman, Andrea Hlinka, Max Jedeur-Palmgren, Arooba Khan, Zina Moukheiber, Carl O’Donnell, Rebecca Spalding, Chloe Sorvino, Ozer Turan, Tom Van Riper
RESEARCH: Susan Radlauer
ADDITIONAL EDITING: Susan Adams, Dan Bigman
PHOTO RESEARCH: Merrilee Barton, Kristine Gentile Smith, Michele Hadlow, Meredith Nicholson, Gail Toivanen,
DATABASE: Dmitri Slavinsky, Ken Barney, Kaushal Shah, Rebeca Solorzano
DESIGNERS: Uyen Cao, Nina Gould, Kai Hecker
PRODUCT: Audrea Soong, Katheryn Thayer
PRODUCER: Kate Pierce
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Forbes Africa, Yuri Aksyonov, Megha Bahree, Steven Bertoni, Erin Carlyle, Jean Chen, Grace Chung, Daniel Fisher, Lisa H. Hata, Ellen Huet, Neerja Pawha Jetley, Sean Kilachand, Ryan Mac, Ernesto Linares Mascaro, Nikolai Mazurin, Joann Muller, Johannes Musial, Suzanne Nam, Lan Anh Nguyen, Mfonobong Nsehe, Clare O’Connor, Robert Olsen, Parmy Olson, Anuradha Raghunathan, Saritha Rai, Ken Rapoza, Lucinda Schmidt, Heng Shao, Brian Solomon, Deborah Steinborn, Jessica Tan, Tim Treadgold, Kate Vinton, Cherish Xiong, Natalia Zaderey
VIDEO: Cara Cosentino, Gregory Anderssen, Kelly Appleton, Meghan Christensen, Dikente Dike, Brian Petchers, Tom Pierson, Will Sanderson, Kirsten Taggart
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Orbis by Bureau van Dijk, Privco, Real Capital Analytics, and the dozens of other sources listed below who helped us with our reporting and valuations:
Victor Anthony, Topeka Capital Markets; Eric Anton, HFF; Nicholas Barnes, Chestertons; Yolande Barnes, Savills World Research; Nadia Binesh, BBI Argentina; Ron Buss, Buss Shelger Associates; Paul Collins, CBRE Hotels; Brian Coyne, National Alliance; Karl Danielsson; Gerry Donnelly, First Energy Capital; Doug Dean, Dean Dorton Allen Ford; Tony Harris, Boat International Media; Jeff Donnelly, Wells Fargo; Marc Elliott, Investec; Euromonitor; Liang Feng, Morningstar; Dave Heger, Edward Jones; Randy Giveans, Jefferies; Robert Grindle, Deutsche Bank; Matt Hegerty, Daily Racing Form; Lars Hevreng, Sveriges Enskilda Bank; Matthias Holzhey, UBS AG; Kevin Imboden, Real Capital Analytics; Tom King, CMRE; John Kernan, Cowen and Company; Mark Landy, Summer Street Research Partner; Toby Langley, Gaetjens Langley; Simon Leopold, Raymond James; Dan Lesser, LW Hospitality Advisors; Kristofer Lijleberg, Carnegie; Jess Lubert, Wells Fargo Securities; Mike Matson, Needham & Company; Jack McCabe, McCabe Research & Consulting; Rob McMillan, Silicon Valley Bank; Jeff Menashe, Demeter; Todd Mitchell, Brean Capital; Ross Moore, CBRE Limited; Ian Myles, Macquarie; Rick Nelson, Stephens Group; Claudia Norrgren, VesselsValue; George Notter, Jeffries; Renaissance Capital; Jack Russo, Edward Jones; Zafer Rüzgar, Independent Research GmbH; Patrick Scholes, SunTrust; Keith Schoonmaker, Morningstar; Simeon Siegel, Nomura Securities; Peter Slatin, Slatin Group; Luca Solca, Exane BNP Paribas; Brian Sponheimer, Gabelli; Richard Stuber, Nomura Securities; Mark Suarez, Euro Pacific Capital Markets; Paul Swinand, Morningstar; Matthew Tarpley, Cushman & Wakefield; Yen Voo, Nomura; David Wang, Morningstar; Till Wäscher, Institute for Media and Communication Policy; Kwame Webb, Morningstar; Rene Weber, Von Tobel; Steven M. Wieczynski, Stiefel; Jeff Windau, Edward Jones; Merle Wood , Merle Wood and Associates; Amy Young, Macquarie Research; Peter Zalewski, Condo Vultures.
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