Who is the Richest Woman in the World in 2019?

Women are making great strides in the world of business so much so that they’re also moving up the ranks of the world’s richest people. While those at the top of the Forbes Billionaires List inherited their money, plenty of the world’s richest women are completely self-made. Others used their financial savvy to turn the silver spoon into an entire set of silver cutlery. So, who is the richest woman in the world in 2019? And who are the women giving her a run for her money? All figures are given in US dollars and were up-to-date as of January 10, 2019.

Getty Images

1 / 20

20. Sandra Ortega Mera: $6.1 billion

Sandra Ortega Mera is the daughter of Zara co-founder Amancio Ortega, one of the world’s richest people. She inherited her wealth from her mother, Rosalía Mera, who co-founded Zara’s parent company Inditex. She has a degree in psychology from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and works for the non-profit her mother started to provide vocational training for people with disabilities.

Getty Images

2 / 20

19. Eva Gonda de Rivera: $6.5 billion

Eva Gonda de Rivera met her husband Eugenio Garza Laguera at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her father-in-law was the university’s founder. Her husband was a business man who served on the boards of several companies, including beverage corporation Femsa, which operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world. Upon his death, Eva and their children inherited his stake in Femsa.

Getty Images

3 / 20

18. Ann Walton Kroenke: $6.5 billion

Ann Walton Kroenke is the daughter of Bud Walton, who co-founded Walmart with his brother Sam. She inherited Walmart stock from her father after his death in 1995. She qualified as a registered nurse, one of the highest paying jobs for women, and owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets NBA and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

Getty Images

4 / 20

17. Savitri Jindal: $6.7 billion

Savitri Jindal chairs the Jindal Group, a manufacturing conglomerate founded by her late husband, O.P. Jindal. The mother of nine took the position after her husband died in a helicopter crash in 2005. She is also a politician and has served as a cabinet minister in the government of India’s Haryana state. You might be surprised by the richest countries in the world right now.

Getty Images

5 / 20

16. Carrie Perrodo: $6.9 billion

Carrie Perrodo started her career as a model and then founded a Hong Kong modelling agency, Carrie’s Models, which she later sold. Most of her wealth, however, comes from oil company Perenco, founded by her late husband Hubert Perrodo. She inherited the company upon his death in 2006.

Getty Images

6 / 20

15. Christy Walton: $7.2 billion

Christy Walton married into one of the world’s richest families when she got hitched to John T. Walton, one of the children of Walmart co-founder Sam Walton. She inherited her fortune when her husband died in a plane crash in 2005. The couple’s son Lukas inherited most of John's wealth, though.

Pixabay

7 / 20

14. Pauline MacMillan Keinath: $7.2 billion

Pauline MacMillan Keinath’s great-grandfather was William W. Cargill, who founded what would become the largest privately held company in the United States, Cargill. She owns an estimated 12% stake in the company, which is still mostly in family hands.

Pixabay

8 / 20

13. Massimiliana Landini Aleotti: $7.8 billion

Massimiliana Landini Aleotti and her children inherited Italian pharmaceutical company Menarini when her husband, Alberto Aleotti, died in 2014. Her late husband had worked with the company since 1964 and then bought it in the 1990s, building it up into one of the leading companies of its kind in Italy. The company is run by the couple’s children, Lucia and Alberto Giovanni.

Getty Images

9 / 20

12. Wu Yajun: $8.9 billion

Wu Yajun qualified as an engineer before switching careers to become a journalist. She followed one of the main career strategies for young women by networking wisely and building up contacts in government and business. Then she and her husband, Cai Kui, founded a real estate company that would become Longfor Properties, a company that she still chairs. She was China’s richest woman until her divorce in 2012.

Pixabay

10 / 20

11. Blair Parry-Okeden: $9 billion

Blair Parry-Okeden is the daughter of Susan Cox Anthony and granddaughter of James M. Cox, who founded media company Cox Enterprises. Upon her mother’s death, she inherited a 25% stake in the company. She lives in Australia and is the author of a children’s book.

Getty Images

11 / 20

10. Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken: $13.8 billion

Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken is the daughter of Freddy Heineken of Dutch beer fame. She has a law degree from Leiden University and owns 23% of the brewing company, where she also serves as executive director. She lives in the United Kingdom, one of the countries with the most billionaires.

Unsplash

12 / 20

9. Iris Fontbona: $14.6 billion

Iris Fontbona was 18 when she married Chilean businessman Andrónico Luksic Abaroa. Upon his death, she and their three children inherited his wealth and his business holdings. They built upon this wealth and now control some of the world’s largest mining, shipping and brewing companies, among others. She is one of the world’s billionaires who are single.

Getty Images

13 / 20

8. Abigail Johnson: $14.7 billion

The granddaughter of Fidelity Investments founder Edward Johnson II, Abigail Johnson comes from one of the world’s richest families. She is the company’s chairperson, CEO and president and also chairs Fidelity International. She has a degree in art history from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an MBA from Harvard.

Getty Images

14 / 20

7. Gina Rinehart: $14.9 billion

Gina Rinehart is Australia’s richest person and chairs Hancock Prospecting, the mining company she inherited from her father Lang Hancock. She built the company up into a powerhouse, expanded into agriculture – becoming the third largest cattle producer in Australia – and became a billionaire in the process. Her daughter Ginia is one of the world’s richest people under 35.

Getty Images

15 / 20

6. Laurene Powell Jobs: $18.1 billion

Laurene Powell Jobs inherited most of her money from her late husband, Apple’s Steve Jobs. She has bachelor’s degrees in political science and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and did her MBA at Stanford University, where she met her future husband. She is a businesswoman in her own right, a noted philanthropist and lives in Palo Alto, one of the best places for tech startups.

Getty Images

16 / 20

5. Yang Huiyan: $18.6 billion

Owning a 57% stake in real estate development company Country Garden Holdings, Yang Huiyan is the richest woman in Asia. Her father, Yang Guoqiang – also known as Yeung Kwok Keung – transferred most of these shares to her in 2007. She has a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and chairs education company Bright Scholar Education Holdings.

Getty Images

17 / 20

4. Susanne Klatten: $20.8 billion

Susanne Klatten is Germany’s richest woman, having inherited most of her wealth when her father left her his 50.1% stake in pharmaceuticals company Altana and 12.5% in BMW. She has a degree in business finance as well as an MBA and has extensive business experience. These days part of her wealth comes from her stakes in other companies, including the wind turbine manufacturer Nordex.

Getty Images

18 / 20

3. Jacqueline Mars: $23.9 billion

Jacqueline Mars is the granddaughter of Frank C. Mars, who founded the world-famous candy company. It’s estimated that she owns about a third of the company, where she used to work for almost 20 years despite having a degree in anthropology. She retired in 2001 but still sits on the boards of directors and advisory councils for several organizations.

Getty Images

19 / 20

2. Alice Walton: $44.6 billion

Alice Walton was the world’s richest woman in 2018. Her father was Sam Walton, co-founder of Walmart. With a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance, she started her career as an equity analyst and money manager before founding her own investment bank. These days she’s more known for her work as art curator and founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Getty Images

20 / 20

1. Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers: $45.2 billion

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers moved from second richest woman in the world in 2018 to the richest at the beginning of January 2019. She is the granddaughter of Eugene Schueller, who founded cosmetics giant L’Oréal, and it’s the value of her shares in this company that has made her the richest woman in the world.

However, her place at the top might soon be challenged by a complete outlier. As The Guardian reports, MacKenzie Bezos, wife of the world’s richest person Jeff Bezos, may benefit from one of the most expensive celebrity divorces of all time and become the richest woman in the world.