Richest Women of the World

The world of business is largely male dominated and fighting to the top is no easy task. However, there are a few women who, with inherited fortunes Christy Walton and conquered the path to glory like Gina Rinehart, have made a niche for themselves. Here are the richest women in the world.

1. Christy Walton

Age: 56
Country: United States
Net worth: $24.5 Billion
Company: Walmart
Currently: Philanthropist

Christy Walton inherited a fortune of $15.7 billion in 2005 after the death of John T. Walton, one of the sons of the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton. She is considered to be the richest women alive, the sixth richest in the United States and the 10th richest person in the world. A large bulk of her calculated net worth of $26.5 billion comes from her shares in Wal-Mart and First Solar, a solar panel maker in which her husband invested. According to the amount she gives as a percentage of her wealth, she has been ranked the highest female philanthropist and 2002-2006, Walton contributed billions from her then $16.3 billion net worth to charity.

2. Liliane Bettencourt

Age: 89 
Country: France
Net worth: $23.5 billion
Notable company: L’Oreal
Currently: Principal shareholder, L’Oreal

Liliane Bettencourt is the richest woman in Europe, second richest women in the world and second richest person in France (behind Bernard Arnault). She is the only child of Eugene Schueller, founder of the cosmetic giant, L’Oreal. Liliane, who had a close bond with her father, joined his company at the age of 15 as an apprentice, mixing cosmetics and labeling bottles of shampoo. In 1950, she married French politician André Bettencourt and in 1957, she inherited the L'Oréal fortune when her father died. She has always been in news ranging from a high-level French political scandal regarding tax evasion to a sensational family scandal involving a long political battle with her only daughter and heir, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyer.

3. Alice Walton

Age: 61 
Country: United States
Net worth: $20.9 Billion
Notable Company: Walmart
Currently: Board member, Amon Carter Museum

Alice is another heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune and is the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton. She is the tenth richest American, the riches goes to the original Bentonville store founded by her father with his brother James in 1962. Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, has sales over $405 billion today and employs more than 2.1 million people. Alice Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank engaged in corporate finance, public and structured finance in 1988, which she closed down in the late 1990s. Her primary philanthropic efforts are done as a board member of the Walton Family Foundation. Currently she is on the board of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas and is a member of the Trustees' Council of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

4. Iris Fontbona

Age: N/A 
Country: Chile
Net worth: $19.2 billion
Notable company: Antofagasta
Current position: Owner, Antofagasta

Second wife of Antonio Andrónico Luksic Abaroa, a Chilean billionaire who heads one of the world’s biggest and most influential copper-mining concerns, Fontbona become one of the richest in the world after his death.  Her business empire, Antofagasta, is the 30th-biggest company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Iris Fontbona and family hold shares in Quinenco, a consumer packaging and beverage maker, and Plava Laguna, a chain of Croatian beach resorts. Her son Jean Paul is the Chairman of Antofagasta, of shares of which have more than doubled in the past 12 months.

5. Gina Rinehart

Age: 57 
Country: Australia
Net worth: $18 Billion-$20 Billion
Notable company: Hancock Prospecting
Currently: Chairman & Director, Hancock Prospecting

Unlike the aforementioned successful business women, success was not just gifted to Gina Rinehart, rather she earned it. She went all the way to making his dad’s struggling mining concern, Hancock Prospecting, one of the greatest in the industry with an eye toward expansion and profit. She was ranked the wealthiest person in Australia by both Forbes Asia and Business Review Weekly in 2011. Rinehart growth was quite amazing that in 2007, her wealth amounted to $1 billion which more than doubled to $2.4 billion next year and in spite of the global economic slowdown, she was reported to be having assets worth $9 billion, which once again doubled to $18 in 2012.

6. Susanne Klatten

Age: 48 
Country: Germany
Net worth: $14.6 billion
Notable companies: BMW; Altana
Currently: Supervisory board, BMW

Susanne Klatten  is the richest woman in Germany and the 44th richest person in the world. Upon her father Herbert Quandt’s death, Klatten inherited partial ownership of renowned carmaker BMW and 50.1 percent stake in pharmaceutical and chemicals manufacturer Altana, which she now wholly owns. She has been named in a sex-tape scandal in 2008 and a blackmail plot, of which the accused named Helg Sgarbi pleaded guilty in court. Since 2005, she has been a member of the University Council of the Technical University of Munich and is one of the major donors of the centre-right political party the Christian Democratic Union.

7. Birgit Rausing

Age: 87 
Country: Switzerland
Net worth: $14 billion
Notable company: Tetra Pak
Current position: Owner, Tetra Laval

Birgit Rausing inherited the food-packaging giant Tetra Laval when her husband Gad Rausing died in 2000, making her one of the richest women in the world. The company was founded in 1944 by Gad’s dad which revolutionized the packaging of liquids such as juices and milk. Tetra Laval employs more than 31,000 people in 165 countries today. All her three children are on Tetra Laval's board. While her son Jorn is the head of mergers and acquisitions, son Finn is the chairman of the board of the Swedish R.R. Institute of Applied Economics and daughter Kirsten is a horse breeder in the U.K.

8.  Jacqueline Mars

Age: 71 
Country: United States
Net worth: $13.8 billion
Notable company: Mars, Inc.
Current position: Vice president, Mars, Inc.

Jacqueline Mars is the granddaughter of Frank C. Mars, Founders of the American candy company Mars Incorporated. The company has bunch of brands like Snickers, Pedigree, M&M and Milky Way which are quite famous across the globe. She is the fourth richest American woman and has been ranked the 52nd richest person in the world and the 26th richest person in America by Forbes. The combined sales of all the business undertakings of the company exceed $30 billion and her shares in the company is said to be more than $10 billion. She is the public face of the Mars business group.

9. Anne Cox Chambers

Age: 92 
Country: United States
Net worth: $13.4 Billion
Notable company: Cox Enterprises
Currently: Owner, Cox Enterprises

92 year old, Anne Cox Chambers’ is the daughter of James M. Cox, the founder of Cox Enterprises. Today, the media empire has a vast range of business undertakings includes Cox Communications cable company, 15 TV stations, 17 daily newspapers, 86 radio stations, Manheim Auctions (cars) and AutoTrader.com. The family has a history of political activism as James Cox had served as U.S. representative and governor of Ohio before being the Democratic nominee for president and Anne too followed his path and was named ambassador to Belgium in 1977 by the then President Jimmy Carter. Cox-Chambers is the 20^th richest person in the United States and 53^rd richest person in the world.

10. Savitri Jindal

Age: 61 
Country: India
Net worth: $13.2 Billion

Notable company: O.P. Jindal Group
Currently: Chair, O.P. Jindal Group

Savitri Jindal is the wealthiest woman in India and the world's 56th richest person. This Indian steel baroness is the non-executive chairperson of O.P. Jindal Group and is the member of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. She also had served as a Minister of Power in the Government of Haryana until 2010. She become the chairperson of the company upon the death of her husband, O. P. Jindal, in a helicopter crash in 2005. In actual practice, it’s her four sons, Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen who run the businesses. Jindal Steel & Power is the biggest asset of the Jindal family, which is run by the youngest son Naveen, a member of parliament.

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