Billionaires
Meet Rafaela AponteDiamant, The World’s Richest Self-Made Woman With a net worth of $28.6 billion as of June 2023, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant is the world’s wealthiest self-made woman, according to Forbes’ 2023 Billionaires list. Here’s a glance into the life of the richest of the world’s 96 self-made women billionaires. ship bought was named after Rafaela.
Yasmine Sabri
With the acquisition of the line Monterey in 1988, they expanded into cruises.
Brand: Cartier Egyptian actress Yasmine Sabri was named the latest ambassador for French luxury jeweler Cartier and its Panthère de Cartier collection in 2020. The film Into The Wild featured Sabri as part of a community of muses, including the Italian model Mariacarla Boscono, actresses Annabelle Wallis, Ella Balinska, and Chang Chen, and singer Karen Mok. Sabri started her acting career in 2013 when she appeared in the Egyptian program “Khatawat El Shaytan.” She later joined the cast of TV series “Gabel El Helal” (2014), then “Tariqi” (2015).
Today, MSC has 675 offices across 155 countries with 150,000 employees. MSC’s shipping line sails on over 260 trade routes, calling at more than 520 ports. The privately-owned company also operates in holiday cruises (MSC Cruises), inland logistics (Medlog), and port operations (Terminal Investment Limited). She has two children with Gianluigi— Alexa and Diego. Diego serves as group president of the family business.
Mona Zaki
BY JAMILA GANDHI ; PHOTO BY FRANK PERRY / AFP
Brand: L’Oréal Paris In February 2021, French personal care company L’Oréal Paris announced that Mona Zaki was its new spokesperson for MENA and would appear in ads for the brand’s range of beauty, skincare, and hair care products. Zaki, who has also been a UNICEF ambassador since 2017, has won multiple awards, including the Faten Hamama Award of Excellence during the 42nd Edition of the Cairo International Film Festival and Murex D’Or 2017. She is known for her roles in female empowerment productions, including Dam El Ghazal (2005), Ehky Ya Sharhazad (2009), and Taht El Wesaya (2023). F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M
Rafaela Aponte-Diamant’s fortune is attributed to her 50% stake in the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) Group, the world’s largest shipping line. The other half is owned by her husband, Gianluigi. The 78-year-old is the world’s 43rd richest person as per Forbes’ 2023 Billionaires ranking. The Swiss entrepreneur first met Gianluigi on a trip to the Italian island of Capri in the 1960s, when Gianluigi was a ship captain. The duo entered the shipping industry together in 1970 when they purchased a ship with a $200,000 loan. Their second
Rafaela now focuses on the cruise ships’ interiors and serves on the board of the MSC Foundation. The Swiss couple both hold Italian citizenship yet reside in Geneva, Switzerland. The Aponte family established the MSC Foundation in 2018 to lead and coordinate conservation and humanitarian commitments globally. As of 2022, the MSC Foundation’s total donations had touched $12.9 million. In December 2022, MSC purchased Bolloré Africa Logistics, the African transport and logistics arm of the Bolloré Group, for $6 billion. JULY 2023
11 LEADERBOARD
in designs by Maria Grazia Chiuri for its ready-to-wear line. Jammal, who grew up in Lebanon, began her career in advertising in her mid-teens before making her foray into acting. Her feature debut came in 2010 in Olivier Assayas’ Golden Globe-winning “Carlos,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She is best known for her role in Netflix’s Paranormal or Ma Waraa Al-Tabi’a (2020) and Shahid’s Pan-Arab series Al Thaman (2023). Jammal was also the former face of Chanel in the Middle East.
