A total of 2,781 billionaires with a net worth of more than $1 billion are on the 2024 Forbes Global Billionaires list, of which 13.3% (369) are women. In terms of further breakdown, the wealth of the 269 women on the list is inherited (including 69 inherited businesses), and only 100 are self-made, including entrepreneurs (such as Spanx founder Sarah Blakeley, Bloomage founder Zhao Yan), entertainers (such as Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna), co-founders (such as Fan Hongwei of Hengli Group, Jiang Peiqi of Panda Fast Food), and professional managers (such as Cheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of Facebook).
At just 3.6 percent, the number of people on the list is almost four times as high as it was a decade ago, and 15 new women have joined the ranks of self-made billionaires this year, including pop singer Taylor Swift ($1.1 billion) and semiconductor company AMD CEO Lisa Su ($1.3 billion).
From the perspective of country distribution, 30 are American citizens, and the top 10 occupy 3 seats, while China's self-made women are still the most on the list, reaching 43, of which 4 are among the top 10, namely Zhong Huijuan (Hansen), Wang Laichun (Luxshare Precision), Zhou Qunfei (Lens Technology), and Wu Yajun (Longfor Group).
The world's 10 richest self-made women have a combined wealth of US$114.7 billion (about 831.2 billion yuan), of which 3 have a net worth of more than US$10 billion. In third place is Judy Loew and her family, with a net worth of $10.2 billion.
In the mid-'60s, Judy Loew and her husband Tom Loew (who died in 2023) rented an abandoned gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma, with $5,000 borrowed from their parents, and then began building a convenience store next to the gas station. After 60 years of development, Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores operates more than 640 locations in 42 states. According to Forbes' 2023 list of the largest non-listed companies in the United States, it ranks 9th with $26.5 billion in revenue.
As a homegrown business, Love's has a close relationship with NBA team Oklahoma City Thunder. Since the relocation of Seattle SuperSonics in '08, the two sides have established a partnership. In 2019, he not only signed a multi-year contract for jersey advertising sponsorship, but also owned the naming rights to the Chesapeake Energy Arena, the home of the Thunder.
Diane Hendrix, who is second on the list, is worth $20.9 billion, making her the richest self-made woman in the United States. She was born in 1947 in Osceo, Wisconsin, to a family of dairy farmers and eight sisters. She gave birth to her first child at the age of 17, but became a single mother three years later. Then she met a roofing contractor named Ken Hendricks. The two got married and started their own business together, and in 1982 they founded ABC Supply in the city of Bellote, which mainly sells decorative materials and works on building decorations. By the end of the 90s, the company's sales had exceeded $1 billion.
Unfortunately, there are unforeseen circumstances, Ken accidentally fell to his death in 07, and at that time it was in the downward phase of the U.S. real estate market, the company's sales fell by 7%, and experienced the closure of stores for the first time. Fortunately, Diane withstood the pressure and took advantage of the low price to buy rival Bradco and building materials distributor L&W Supply.
As one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing, siding and windows in the United States, ABC Supply's revenue in 2022 reached $18.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%, ranking 21st on the Forbes 2023 list of America's largest private companies.
79-year-old Rafaela Aponte-Diamant (Rafaela Aponte-Diamant) is the world's richest self-made woman for the second consecutive year, with a net worth of 33.1 billion US dollars (about 240 billion yuan), ranking 48th on the overall list, the seventh richest woman in the world, and the only self-made woman among the top ten richest women.
She is the co-founder and co-owner of the world's largest shipping company, MSC, and holds a 50% stake with her husband, Gianluigi Aponte. In 1970, the two men used a loan of $200,000 to buy their first boat and set up the company.
After half a century of development, MSC has become the world's largest shipping company. As of April 5, the number of container ships in operation reached 808, with a total capacity of 5,769,100 TEUs (TEUs), accounting for 19.68% of the global market, ahead of Maersk, CMA CGM, and COSCO Shipping Group.
It is worth mentioning that in 1988 the couple also expanded their business into the cruise sector. Today, MSC Cruises is the third largest luxury cruise line in the world. The decoration of the company's cruise ships was carried out by Rafaela Aponte herself.