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Adam Zagoria
By Kerry A. Dolan and Andrea Murphy, Forbes Staff
Pizza. Packaging. Pop music. The country’s most successful women have found dozens of ways to prosper. Nearly three-fourths of the 100 women on the list started or confounded a company, while 22 are chief executives or co-chief executives. A healthy stock market helped push the combined fortunes of members of Forbes’ tenth annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women to a record $154 billion, up nearly 25% from last year. The minimum to qualify rose to $300 million, up from $225 million last year, the highest since Forbes started tracking the top 100 in 2020. Seventy-three members are richer than they were in 2023, while just ten saw their fortunes fall.
The billionaire Diane Hendricks keeps the top spot for seventh year in a row, with the record $20.9 billion net worth, an increase from $15 billion in the previous year. She is the owner of roofing and building distribution company ABC Supply, which she co-founded along with the help of her partner Ken (d. 2007.) around 1982. Hendricks is the chairperson of the company since 2007, and under her direction, revenues have soared between $2.6 billion, to $20.4 billion.
Hendricks is the most profitable gainer this year in dollars terms, increasing $5.9 billion over the previous year, helped by a 10% rise in the ABC Supply’s revenue for 2023. In terms of percentage the largest gains are made by Elizabeth Uihlein, her fortune is up 81% to $6.7 billion. Uihlein along with her husband Richard established the packaging supply company Uline in the year 1980. The increase in her wealth can be attributed to Forbes providing more details about the revenue of the privately owned firm (estimated as $8 billion in 2023) and an increase in the value of Uline based on stronger market conditions.
Eleven new names have joined the group of newcomers. The most prominent newcomer is the singer Katy Perry who is estimated to be worth $350 million, largely because of the sale in September 2023 of her music catalogue. Fawn Weaver who is the owner of the most rapidly growing whiskey company within American time, Uncle Nearest, makes her debut, along with the money management expert Joan Payden who established her company Payden & Rygel in 1983 and continues to be the company’s CEO until 92.
Record-breaking 31 billionaires listed on the list this year, a rise from 24 in the previous year and includes three newcomers.
Barbara Banke co-founded alongside her husband, who died in the past Jess Jackson of Jackson Family Wines, which is known for its Kendall-Jackson and La Crema wines- is valued at $2.6 billion. Semiconductor investor and entrepreneur Susan Ocampo has a reported $2.5 billion in wealth, with the bulk being derived from a stake of 21% in the publicly-traded semiconductor company Macom Technology Solutions. The shares of storage and server producer Supermicro have risen by more than 400% in the past year, which has increased co-founder Sara Liu‘s estimated net worth to $1 billion.
The other four that moved to the top of the 10 figures are Taylor Swift, who became billionaire in the fall of 2023 due to the profits earned from her Eras tour as well as the value the music catalogue after taking into account additional tour dates as well as a greater value for her music catalogue, Forbes now estimates Swift’s fortune to be $1.3 billion to $200 million more than it was in the fall. Sheila Johnson, who cofounded the cable television company BET Networks, in the year 1979 along with the ex of her husband Robert Johnson, and who has become a billionaire thanks in part, to the increasing value of her stakes with basketball’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals; Lisa Su, the chief executive officer of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, whose increased in the wake of excitement over the possibility of generative AI and Michelle Zatlyn, cofounder of cybersecurity company Cloudflare which is another company whose shares soared over the last year.
The oldest on the list at 97 are Alice Schwartz,who was the co-founder of the diagnostic and research firm Bio-Rad Laboratories in the year 1952. The newest is Kylie Jenner, 26.
California continues to be the home to the largest number of members on the list. Thirty-nine women are residents of California the Golden State home, including former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Alphabet’s president Ruth Porat,up from 38 in the previous year. Eleven of them live in Texas among them SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell and Advanced Micro Devices’ the company’sLisa Su. A newcomer Mary Callahan Erdoes is JP Morgan’s CEO. Chase’s wealth management company is among nine of the group who reside within New York.
Where The Self-Made Women Live
While nearly three quarters of the list saw their fortunes grow year over year, 10 members saw their fortunes drop. The fortune of Whitney Wolfe Herd , founder of female-focused dating app Bumble, is down by $120 million to $400 million, after shares of Bumble fell by more than a third in the past year. She stepped down as CEO in January but remains chairman. Also down this year is Doris Fisher , cofounder of clothing retailer Gap. She donated most of her art collection, which accounted for a significant portion of her fortune, to the Fisher Art Foundation.
Eleven people from the list last year were dropped and included Anne Wojcicki co-founder and the CEO of 23andMe. The shares of the direct-to-consumer gene testing company dropped 95% from the high in 2021, and the company was in danger of being removed from the market. The company’s CEO in April Wojcicki declared that she is contemplating taking the company private. Producer Shonda Rhimes is the person behind popular TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal as well as the streaming show Bridgerton who was valued at $250,000 last year was not able to meet the $300 million threshold for the list this year.
Techniques: To compile net worths, we evaluated individual assets and shares in publicly traded companies by using the prices of stocks from May 3 2024. We evaluated private companies by consulting outside experts and comparing them to public companies. To be considered for the list, women must be able to make significant wealth in the U.S. and/or be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Although none of them has inherited their wealth, a few were able to climb higher and overcome many obstacles in order to rise into the ranks. To determine how far some have gotten they are awarded an individual score of 6 (hired by hand) up to a score of 10 (rags-to-riches businesswoman). We attempted to check the scores for all list entries. Some were cooperative, some weren’t. Ages are as of May 28, 2024. For more information, including details on the self-made scores, see forbes.com/self-made-women.
