America’s Richest Self-Made Women

AMERICA’S RICHEST

These entrepreneurs and executives have created or run some of the nation’s most successful businesses, ranging from almonds to aerospace.

Emma Grede

Sandra Bullock A rout in the U.S. stock market this spring pushed down the combined net worth of America ’ s richest self-made women to $111 billion, a 6% drop from last year, and lowered the admission cutoff to $215 million, down from $225 million a year ago. Thirty-eight of the 100 on this list are worth less than in 2021, but 51 are wealthier, including seven newcomers and seven who return to the ranks after having previously fallen off. Among the notable new faces: movie star Sandra Bullock and recurring Shark Tank judge Emma Grede. Fifty are featured here. For the full ranking, please go to forbes.com/self-made-women.

Edited by Kerry A. Dolan and Chase Peterson-Withorn

SELF-MADE WOMEN

1. DIANE HENDRICKS

$12.2 billion

SOURCE: Building supplies AGE: 75 • RESIDENCE: Afton, WI SELF-MADE SCORE: Hendricks has benefited from a pandemic-inspired residential housing boom. Her fortune has grown by more than $1 billion this past year, thanks to record sales at ABC Supply, the wholesale building supplies distributor she cofounded with her husband (d. 2017). Its sales hit nearly $15 billion, up from $12.1 billion in 2020.

2. JUDY FAULKNER

$6.7 billion

SOURCE: Health IT AGE: 78 • RESIDENCE: Madison, WI SELF-MADE SCORE: Her medical records company, Epic Systems, booked $3.8 billion in 2021 revenue, up 13% from 2020. The Verona, Wisconsin–based business rolled out a Covid-19 vaccine passport tool now available to 106 million patients who use its MyChart software. Faulkner owns 47% of the business she founded in her basement in 1979. Known for being tightlipped, the company finally joined Twitter last year using the @EpicShares handle.

3. JUDY LOVE

$5.2 billion

SOURCE: Retail & gas stations AGE: 84 • RESIDENCE: Oklahoma City SELF-MADE SCORE: Expansion continues at Love ’ s Travel Stops & Country Stores, which Judy and her husband, Tom, founded in 1964. The $25.5 billion (est. sales) company, now run by two of their sons, opened 38 new locations in 2021 and 18 in the first five months of 2022. Judy is a director of the Love Family Fund, the family ’ s charitable foundation.

4. JOHNELLE HUNT

$4.3 billion

SOURCE: Trucking AGE: 90 • RESIDENCE: Fayetteville, AR SELF-MADE SCORE: Hunt rang in her 90th birthday this year at an Arkansas Razorbacks basketball game, where the state ’ s richest woman was treated to cake and cheers during halftime. The matriarch of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, which she cofounded in 1961 with her late husband, has plenty to celebrate. Strong demand for freight transport pushed revenue up 26% last year, to a record $12.2 billion. She is the largest shareholder, with a 17% stake.

4. MARIAN ILITCH

$4.3 billion

SOURCE: Little Caesars AGE: 89 • RESIDENCE: Bingham Farms, MI SELF-MADE SCORE: Another record year for Little Caesars, the pizza chain Ilitch cofounded with her husband, Mike (d. 2017), in 1959; systemwide sales reached $4.8 billion in 2021, per Technomic, up from $4.5 billion. Ilitch’ s Detroit Red Wings missed the NHL playoffs for the sixth straight season after having qualified 25 years in a row. She and her son Chris, who runs Ilitch Holdings, are partnering with billionaire developer Stephen Ross as lead donors of a $250 million University of Michigan research-and-education center in Detroit.

6. THAI LEE

$4.1 billion

SOURCE: IT provider AGE: 63 • RESIDENCE: Austin, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: IT provider SHI International, which she cofounded in 1989 and runs as CEO, posted record sales of $12.3 billion in 2021, up 10% from 2020, which was another record year. Demand for IT security solutions as well as support for expanding remote and hybrid working models were key drivers of growth.

Eren Ozmen

7. GAIL MILLER

$4 billion

SOURCE: Car dealerships AGE: 78 • RESIDENCE: Salt Lake City SELF-MADE SCORE: Starting with one Toyota dealership in 1979, Miller and her husband, Larry (d. 2009), built the Larry H. Miller Group into five dozen car dealerships in the western U.S. In late 2021 she sold the dealerships to Georgiabased Asbury Automotive Group for nearly $3.5 billion. This followed the group ’ s almost $1.7 billion sale of the NBA’ s Utah Jazz to Utah billionaire Ryan Smith in 2020.

7. LYNDA RESNICK

$4 billion

SOURCE: Agriculture AGE: 79 • RESIDENCE: Beverly Hills, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: The marketing chief and co-owner of agricultural giant Wonderful Co. presides over a $5 billion (sales) operation that grows and sells pistachios, almonds, pomegranates and mandarin oranges from 54,630 hectares of orchards in Texas, Mexico and California ’ s Central Valley. The California Institute of Technology broke ground on its 7,385-square-meter Resnick Sustainability Center, funded by a $750 million pledge from the Resnicks, in May.

9. MEG WHITMAN

$3.1 billion

SOURCE: eBay AGE: 65 • RESIDENCE: Palo Alto, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: This longtime Silicon Valley executive— Whitman ran eBay for a decade and oversaw Hewlett-Packard’ s split into HP Inc. and HPE, and the bulk of her wealth comes from stakes in these companies—was nominated by U.S. President Joe Biden in December 2021 to be the U.S. ambassador to Kenya. The Republican, who donated $500,000 to Biden ’ s presidential campaign, is awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation.

10. EREN OZMEN

$2.6 billion

SOURCE: Aerospace AGE: 63 • RESIDENCE: Reno, NV SELF-MADE SCORE: Sierra Space, which Ozmen and her husband spun off from their aerospace-anddefense company, Sierra Nevada, raised $1.4 billion at a $4.5 billion valuation in November. That transaction helped boost her fortune by $1.2 billion. The Turkish immigrant, who came to the U.S. in 1981, put herself through business school at the University of Nevada, Reno by cleaning an office building and selling baklava.

10. OPRAH WINFREY

$2.6 billion

SOURCE: Television shows AGE: 68 • RESIDENCE: Montecito, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: The former TV talk show host owns just 5% of OWN, the cable channel she started in 2011. She swapped the rest of her stake in 2020 for shares in Discovery, which merged with Warner Media in April. Winfrey invested in both shapewear company Spanx and the maternity services firm Maven Clinic last year.

12. PEGGY CHERNG

$2.4 billion

SOURCE: Fast food AGE: 74 • RESIDENCE: Las Vegas SELF-MADE SCORE: A McDonnell Douglas and 3M veteran, she quit to help her husband, Andrew, open the first Panda Express restaurant in 1983. The two still run the $4.5 billion (2021 U.S. revenue) fast casual chain as co-CEOs, overseeing its 2,400 outposts. The active real estate investors—who own houses, apartments and an office park in Pasadena, California, and Hawaii, among others—joined a consortium last fall to buy the Cosmopolitan resort in Las Vegas for $5.65 billion.

12. DORIS FISHER

$2.4 billion

SOURCE: Gap AGE: 90 • RESIDENCE: San Francisco SELF-MADE SCORE: The Gap cofounder listed the Bay Area estate she shared with her husband, Don (d. 2009), for three decades for $100 million in 2021. The couple borrowed $63,000 to open the first Gap store in 1969. Fisher remains an honorary lifetime director of the $16.7 billion (fiscal year 2021 revenue) apparel company, whose brands include Old Navy, Athleta and Banana Republic.

14. ALICE SCHWARTZ

$2.3 billion

SOURCE: Biotech AGE: 95 • RESIDENCE: El Cerrito, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: A cofounder of Bio-Rad Laboratories with her husband, David (d. 2012), Schwartz stepped down from the company ’ s board of directors in April after 55 years. During the pandemic, the biotech firm behind 10,000 life science research and clinical diagnostics products launched a Covid-19 wastewater testing kit to aid in community detection of the virus.

15. JAYSHREE ULLAL

$1.9 billion

SOURCE: Computer networking AGE: 61 • RESIDENCE: Saratoga, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: Ullal spent 15 years at Cisco before taking over as CEO of cloud networking company Arista in 2008. She took Arista public in 2014; shares are up nearly 700% since. She also sits on the board of cloud computing firm Snowflake, which went public in the fall of 2020.

16. KIM KARDASHIAN

$1.8 billion

SOURCE: Cosmetics, shapewear, reality TV AGE: 41 • RESIDENCE: Hidden Hills, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: She ’ s been making headlines for finalizing her divorce from rapper Kanye West, dating comedian Pete Davidson and claiming that it “ seems like nobody wants to work these days. ” She ’ s been getting richer, meanwhile, from her shapewear line, Skims, which raised $240 million in January from firms led by the likes of billionaires Stephen Mandel and Josh Kushner, doubling its valuation to $3.2 billion in less than a year. She owns an estimated 35% of the business.

Kim Kardashian

17. ELAINE WYNN

$1.7 billion

SOURCE: Casinos, hotels AGE: 80 • RESIDENCE: Las Vegas SELF-MADE SCORE: The Queen of Las Vegas cofounded Wynn Resorts with her ex-husband, Steve Wynn, in 2002. After he resigned in 2018 amid sexual assault and rape allegations (which he denied), Elaine reshaped the board, testified in front of regulators and fought for the company to keep its gaming license. She is the largest individual shareholder at 8%; serves as chair of Communities in Schools, which in February got a $133.5 million gift from MacKenzie Scott; and is an avid art collector.

18. SHERYL SANDBERG

$1.6 billion

SOURCE: Facebook AGE: 52 • RESIDENCE: Menlo Park, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg credited his longtime chief operating officer with being the key factor behind the social media outfit’ s fast growth. “I think she has a very good combination of IQ and EQ, ” Zuckerberg said in a March podcast. A month later, the Wall Street Journal

Novak Djokovic Priyanka Chopra

Vera Wang Volodymyr Zelensky

published a story reporting that Sandberg pressured U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail in 2018 to drop a negative story about her then-boyfriend, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick (she is now engaged to TV producer Tom Bernthal); Meta denied the report. An upcoming HBO series about the company and its scandals will star British actress Claire Foy as Sandberg.

19. SAFRA CATZ

$1.5 billion

SOURCE: Software AGE: 60 • RESIDENCE: Redwood City, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: Oracle ’ s Israel-born CEO is credited with spearheading the software firm ’ s aggressive acquisition strategy, including leading last December ’ s $28.5 billion all-cash offer to buy medical records company Cerner. The deal has been pushed back several times because only 10% of Cerner shareholders have signed on. Catz was appointed to President Biden ’ s Homeland Security advisory council in March.

19. JENNY JUST

$1.5 billion

SOURCE: Fintech AGE: 54 • RESIDENCE: Winnetka, IL SELF-MADE SCORE: Just and her husband, Matt Hulsizer, have made a fortune from an early investment in Apex Fintech Solutions, which handles the back-end trading and technology for other fintechs, such as SoFi and eToro. The company ’ s $4.7 billion SPAC merger deal was scrapped in December, but Forbes still pegs its value at about $3 billion. The pair ’ s Chicagobased investment firm, Peak6, recently took a stake in the U.K. ’ s Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.

21. WEILI DAI

$1.4 billion

SOURCE: Semiconductors AGE: 60 • RESIDENCE: Las Vegas SELF-MADE SCORE: Dai and her husband, Sehat Sutardja, were forced out of semiconductor company Marvell Technology, which they founded, in 2016 over an investigation into accounting issues; no evidence of fraud was found. In 2018, she cofounded artificial intelligence startup MeetKai, which is now building its own VRpowered metaverse. The couple own seven residences at the Trump Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and a luxury condo building nearby.

Sara Blakely

21. RIHANNA

$1.4 billion

SOURCE: Music, cosmetics AGE: 34 • RESIDENCE: Los Angeles SELF-MADE SCORE: Barbados ’ first billionaire was named a National Hero on November 30, the same day the island nation became a republic. She followed that with a win for her Savage X Fenty lingerie company in January, when the brand raised $125 million; it is now reportedly weighing a $3 billion (est. valuation) IPO. The pop star–turned–cosmetics mogul, most of whose fortune stems from her estimated 50% stake in Fenty Beauty, gave birth in May to her first child.

23. SARA BLAKELY

$1.1 billion

SOURCE: Spanx AGE: 51 • RESIDENCE: Atlanta SELF-MADE SCORE: The Spanx founder is a billionaire yet again after selling a majority of her 21-yearold shapewear line to private equity giant Blackstone in November. Oprah Winfrey (No. 10) and Whitney Wolfe Herd (No. 33) jumped in as investors at the close of the deal, which valued Spanx at $1.2 billion. Blakely, who is still CEO and holds a “ significant equity stake, ” celebrated the sale by giving all Spanx employees (an estimated 350) first-class plane tickets to anywhere in the world and $10,000 in spending money.

24. NEERJA SETHI

$1 billion

SOURCE: IT consulting, outsourcing AGE: 67 • RESIDENCE: Fisher Island, FL SELF-MADE SCORE: Sethi and husband Bharat Desai cofounded IT services firm Syntel in their Troy, Michigan, apartment using $2,000 in savings. They sold it to French IT firm Atos SE for $3.4 billion in 2018. Both immigrants, they met in the U.S. while working for IT firm Tata Consultancy Services.

25. TORY BURCH

$900 million

SOURCE: Fashion AGE: 55 • RESIDENCE: New York City SELF-MADE SCORE: Burch’ s namesake lifestyle brand—founded in 2004 and known for its preppy clothing, shoes and accessories—bounced back from the pandemic in 2021, with revenue hitting an estimated $1.7 billion, up from $1.2 billion the prior year. She owns an estimated 28% of the company, whose CEO is her husband, Pierre-Yves Roussel. It officially opened its new flagship store in New York’ s SoHo neighborhood in August 2021.

25. ANNE DINNING

$900 million

SOURCE: Hedge funds AGE: 59 • RESIDENCE: New York City SELF-MADE SCORE: Dinning is a member of quantitative hedge fund D.E. Shaw ’ s six-person executive committee. She joined in 1990, after earning a Ph.D. in computer science from NYU, and started off building algorithms to forecast Japanese stocks. The firm now has roughly $60 billion in assets. Dinning sits on the boards of the Robin Hood Foundation, Code.org, Math for America and Partners in Health.

27. CLAIRE HUGHES JOHNSON

$870 million

SOURCE: Payments software AGE: 49 • RESIDENCE: Milton, MA SELF-MADE SCORE: Hughes Johnson spent six years as chief operating officer of payments giant Stripe, now the second-most-valuable venturebacked startup in the U.S., worth $95 billion. She stepped into an advisory role in April 2021 and is investing in tech startups including CoinTracker and Coda. This year she joined the boards of marketing software firm HubSpot and self-driving technology company Aurora.

28. APRIL ANTHONY

$790 million

SOURCE: Health care AGE: 55 • RESIDENCE: Dallas SELF-MADE SCORE: The Texan got her start as controller of a distressed home health care company in the early 1990s. She turned the firm around and ended up buying it. She then founded Encompass Home Health & Hospice in 1998, selling it in 2015 to publicly traded HealthSouth (now Encompass Health) for $750 million. She stayed on as CEO until June 2021. Encompass is now suing her for trade secrets theft and violating her noncompete agreement, alleging she encouraged Encompass executives to join a competing venture owned by a private equity firm associated with her. She disputes the claims.

29. SHEILA JOHNSON

$780 million

SOURCE: Cable television AGE: 73 • RESIDENCE: The Plains, VA SELF-MADE SCORE: Johnson cofounded Black Entertainment Television, sold it to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001 and has since poured the proceeds into high-end resorts and sports teams. She has stakes in the WNBA’ s Washington Mystics, the NBA’ s Washington Wizards and the NHL’ s Washington Capitals. Her Salamander Hotels & Resorts owns or operates six properties, including Aspen Meadows ski resort, which it began running in May. A month earlier, Best Buy billionaire Richard Schulze picked Johnson to run his 120-hectare Aurora resort in Anguilla.

30. ROBYN JONES

$770 million

SOURCE: Insurance AGE: 59 • RESIDENCE: Fort Worth, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: Jones is cofounder and vice chair of Goosehead Insurance, which she started in 2003. Her husband, Mark, joined a year later. The insurance firm opened nearly 700 franchise locations in 2021—an increase of almost 50%—but net income fell by 56%, to $8.3 million, on sales of $151 million. In 2021, the Joneses bought 51,000 hectares of timberland, which they dubbed Flathead Ridge Ranch, in Montana, where they have a home.

30. MARISSA MAYER

$770 million

SOURCE: Google, Yahoo AGE: 47 • RESIDENCE: Palo Alto, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: One of Google ’ s earliest employees, Mayer left in 2012 to become CEO of Yahoo. She stepped down in 2017 when Verizon acquired the internet company. Now she ’ s focusing on her startup, Sunshine, which launched in 2020 and plans to offer subscriptions for a suite of productivity apps, starting with a contacts list app now in beta. Mayer demolished three townhomes next to her Palo Alto residence earlier this year to make room for a pool and an additional housing unit.

32. SUSAN WOJCICKI

$765 million

SOURCE: Google AGE: 53 • RESIDENCE: Los Altos, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: The 16th employee to join Google, Wojcicki has served as CEO of YouTube since 2014. The popular video platform— which generated nearly $29 billion in revenue in 2021, a 46% increase from the prior year—is bringing Wojcicki into contact with lawmakers and policy officials. She met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in April over concerns about Spanish-language misinformation videos, and with USAID administrator Samantha Power to discuss efforts to quell disinformation and support independent media. Her sister is Anne Wojcicki (No. 87).

33. WHITNEY WOLFE HERD

$740 million

SOURCE: Dating app AGE: 32 • RESIDENCE: Austin, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: Wolfe Herd’ s reign as the world’ s youngest self-made female billionaire lasted just 10 months. Shares of Bumble, the dating app she cofounded and runs, have plunged nearly 65% from their February 2021 initial public offering, despite 24% revenue growth in the first quarter this year. Wolfe Herd launched Bumble in 2014 with financing from Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev; he sold his stake to Blackstone Group in 2019, following a Forbes investigation into Badoo, a dating company he founded.

34. NANCY ZIMMERMAN

$725 million

SOURCE: Hedge funds AGE: 58 • RESIDENCE: Boston SELF-MADE SCORE: Zimmerman is the cofounder of Bracebridge Capital, the Boston-based hedge fund firm that manages $12 billion in net assets for endowments including Yale and other institutional and high-networth investors. She sits on the board of nonprofit Social Finance and has helped fund Covid-19 research at the Ragon Institute of MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital), MIT and Harvard.

35. MICHELLE ZATLYN

$700 million

SOURCE: Cybersecurity AGE: 42 • RESIDENCE: San Francisco SELF-MADE SCORE: Shares of San Francisco–based Cloudflare, the internet infrastructure and security company Zatlyn cofounded in 2009, have slid nearly 70% since their November peak, deflating her once-ten-figure fortune. But the future still looks bright for Cloudflare ’ s president and chief operating officer. In December, the board proposed massive performance-based stock options for her and CEO Matthew Prince that could be worth more than $3 billion each if they fully vest. Shareholders are set to vote on the awards in early June.

36. KIT CRAWFORD

$680 million

SOURCE: Clif Bar AGE: 63 • RESIDENCE: St. Helena, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: Owners of Clif Bar & Company, Crawford and her husband, Gary Erickson, walked away from a $120 million offer for the business in 2000 and continued to run

it as co-CEOs until 2020. They still own 80% of the energy bar outfit, which Forbes values at $1.7 billion, but spend most of their time on their Clif Family Winery in Napa Valley, as well as on White Road Investments, which puts money into sustainable and active lifestyle brands.

37. LISA SU

$665 million

SOURCE: Semiconductors AGE: 53 • RESIDENCE: Austin, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: CEO of semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices since 2014, Su is credited with helping lead one of the tech industry ’ s

greatest turnarounds, driving shares up nearly 30-fold during her tenure. In February, AMD closed its $49 billion acquisition of adaptable computing powerhouse Xilinx. AMD posted blowout first-quarter earnings amid a long-lasting chip shortage. MIT announced in April that it would rename Building 12, the home of MIT.nano, after Su, the first alumna to make a gift for a building that will bear her name.

38. ANASTASIA SOARE

$660 million

SOURCE: Cosmetics AGE: 64 • RESIDENCE: Beverly Hills, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: The Romanian immigrant made her early fortune selling “brow-shaping ” products through her makeup company, Anastasia Beverly Hills. Soare remains CEO of the $230 million (est. sales) firm; her daughter, Claudia, is president. Her net worth is down almost $100 million this year as Fitch Ratings has repeatedly warned that the company ’ s capital structure—with $681 million in debt and lagging growth—is unsustainable.

39. JANICE BRYANT HOWROYD

$630 million

SOURCE: Staffing AGE: 69 • RESIDENCE: Las Vegas SELF-MADE SCORE: Revenue at Howroyd’ s staffing firm, ActOne, has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels thanks to a growing number of job openings. The North Carolina native founded ActOne in 1978 with $1,500, a fax machine and a phone. She has written multiple books detailing her entrepreneurial success.

40. GWYNNE SHOTWELL

$620 million

SOURCE: SpaceX AGE: 58 • RESIDENCE: Jonesboro, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: Lisa Su

While Elon Musk bids on Twitter and sends Tesla ’ s stock into convulsions, Shotwell calls the shots as president and chief operating officer of another Musk venture, SpaceX. Last fall, it launched the first completely private mission to orbit Earth, paid for by billionaire Jared Isaacman, and in April launched the first private mission to the international space station for customer Axiom Space. In December, it raised $337 million, bringing its valuation to over $100 billion.

41. THERESIA GOUW

$600 million

SOURCE: Venture capital AGE: 50 • RESIDENCE: Palo Alto, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: Acrew Capital, the venture capital firm she cofounded in 2019, has backed companies like Discord and Coinbase and has more than $1 billion under management, including a fund specifically focused on diversity. In April, she and the firm donated more than $1 million to Fisk University, a historically Black college. Born in Indonesia, she was the first female partner at Silicon Valley powerhouse Accel Partners, best known for its investment in Facebook.

41. KYLIE JENNER

$600 million

SOURCE: Cosmetics AGE: 24 • RESIDENCE: Hidden Hills, CA SELF-MADE SCORE: Her Kylie Cosmetics relaunched with “ clean and vegan ” formulas last summer, pushing up sales, but the business—hit by the pandemic and a break with her former manufacturer—is still likely smaller than it was when Jenner sold 51% to beauty giant Coty in early 2020 at a $1.2 billion valuation. Jenner, who owns an estimated 44.1% of Kylie Cosmetics and continues to lead its creative direction.

41. MARY WEST

$600 million

SOURCE: Telemarketing AGE: 76 • RESIDENCE: San Diego SELF-MADE SCORE: West and her husband, Gary, cashed out of their telemarketing firm 16 years ago. Through their charitable foundation, they have supported a variety of health care causes, including for aging seniors. Civica Rx, a generic drug company cofounded by the foundation, announced in March that it will begin manufacturing insulin by 2024, aiming to sell it for no more than $30 per vial.

44. MARTINE ROTHBLATT

$580 million

SOURCE: Pharmaceuticals AGE: 67 • RESIDENCE: Satellite Beach, FL SELF-MADE SCORE: A unit of United Therapeutics, which Rothblatt heads as CEO, grew a heart in a genetically altered pig that was successfully transplanted into a patient in January; the patient died two months later, possibly due to a pig virus. Rothblatt started the biotech in the mid-1990s to find a cure for her daughter ’ s rare blood disease (her daughter is now 38 years old). Prior to that she founded satellite radio company Sirius XM.

44. KENDRA SCOTT

$580 million

SOURCE: Jewelry AGE: 48 • RESIDENCE: Austin, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: Scott started her namesake jewelry business in 2002 after she was unable to find color gemstone jewelry she could afford. She pledged $13 million in March to the Women ’ s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at the University of Texas, Austin; she helped set up the institute, which supports women-led startups, in 2019.

44. CARYN SEIDMAN-BECKER

$580 million

SOURCE: Airport security AGE: 49 • RESIDENCE: New York City SELF-MADE SCORE: Seidman-Becker is cofounder and CEO of Clear Secure, which uses biometric data to help people speed through security lines at airports and sports stadiums. She took the company public in June 2021 at a $4.5 billion valuation. Despite doubling user enrollment to 12 million, shares have fallen nearly 30% since its IPO. She joined Home Depot’ s board in March.

47. MADONNA

$575 million

SOURCE: Music AGE: 63 • RESIDENCE: New York City SELF-MADE SCORE: Last year the 1980s icon resigned with her longtime musical home, Warner Music Group, keeping her recording catalog and song publishing rights under the same roof that housed them when the star was only just learning how to vogue. With digital artist Beeple, she auctioned three controversial NFTs that graphically depict a nude, digital Madonna giving birth to butterflies, centipedes and a tree; two of them sold for a combined $482,000. Proceeds are set to go to nonprofits that help support women and children.

48. TAYLOR SWIFT

$570 million

SOURCE: Music AGE: 32 • RESIDENCE: Nashville, TN SELF-MADE SCORE: Swift made history in 2021 by notching four No. 1 albums in less than 16 months. She managed the feat by re-recording two of her early albums as Red (Taylor ’ s Version) and Fearless (Taylor ’ s Version) in defiance of her former label, which owns the originals. Swift has the rights to these new master recordings, allowing her to rebuild her catalog. The singer-songwriter still owns publishing rights to her early work, worth an estimated $200 million.

49. KATHLEEN HILDRETH

$560 million

SOURCE: Airplane maintenance AGE: 60 • RESIDENCE: Aubrey, TX SELF-MADE SCORE: Army veteran Hildreth—a West Point grad and service-disabled former helicopter pilot —cofounded defense contractor M1 Support Services in 2003 and helps run the company. It maintains military fighter jets such as F-15s and training jets like the T-38. Revenue declined to about $950 million in 2021 from $1.1 billion the prior year. She serves on the board of the Wounded Warrior Project.

Gwynne Shotwell

50. JAMIE KERN LIMA

$550 million

SOURCE: Cosmetics AGE: 44 • RESIDENCE: Los Angeles SELF-MADE SCORE: The former IT Cosmetics co-CEO founded and sold the beauty brand to L’Oréal in a $1.2 billion deal in 2016. She has invested some of the proceeds, which totaled at least $400 million, into such startups as Dutch Bros. coffee and The Duckhorn Portfolio, both of which have since gone public. Her 2021 memoir, Believe IT, was a New York Times bestseller for nine weeks.

METHODOLOGY: To compile net worths, we valued individual assets including stakes in public companies using stock prices from May 13, 2022. We valued private companies by consulting with outside experts and conservatively comparing them with public companies. To be eligible for the list, women have to have substantially made their own fortunes in the U.S. and/or be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. While none inherited their wealth, some climbed farther and overcame more obstacles to get into the ranks. To measure just how far some have come, women are given a self-made score of 6 (hired hand) to 10 (rags-to-riches entrepreneur). We attempted to vet numbers with all list entrants. Some cooperated; others didn’t. Ages are as of June 14, 2022. For the full list, including details on the self-made scores, see forbes.com/self-made-women.

THOUGHTS ON

On Investing

“Never accept conventional wisdom when it comes to finance. If others keep failing, why do you want to follow them?”

—Ziad K. Abdelnour

“Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?”

—Luke 19:23

“Just as the boom accelerated the rate of growth, so the crash enormously advanced the rate of discovery. ”

—John Kenneth Galbraith

“No finance, no romance. ”

—Lyle Lovett

“The haves enjoyed a perfect view of the market; the have-nots never saw the market at all. ”

—Michael Lewis

“The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide. ”

—P.G. Wodehouse

“Money amplifies our tendency to overreact, to swing from exuberance when things are going well to deep depression when they go wrong. ”

—Niall Ferguson

Long-Term Optimist

January, 2015

Some seven years ago, billionaire property tycoon Edwin Leong faced a situation similar to what he finds in his hometown of Hong Kong today. The territory then was facing one of its many periods of uncertainty due to street protests. Yet Leong believed in Hong Kong ’ s long-term prospects and continued to invest in property, often at bargain prices. Smart move—his net worth has gone from $2.9 billion in 2015 to this year ’ s $4.4 billion. In an article in the April/May edition, Leong retains his optimism for Hong Kong, despite the impact of Covid-19, social unrest, and simmering trade and other disputes between the U.S. and China. For his Tai Hung Fai company, he is making a major pivot in its property strategy to expand into residential projects, rather than his traditional focus on retail and commercial holdings.

“Residential developments have a lot of demand in the market, so

we are confident in what we are doing, ” Leong says.

He also takes the long view on this sector. “Obviously, right now, we didn ’t have much success because we are newcomers, ” Leong says. “It’ s a learning experience for us. ”

SOURCES: GOODREADS.COM; GOOGLE BOOKS; FLASH BOYS BY MICHAEL LEWIS; BARTLEBY.COM. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. ”

—Benjamin Franklin

“Every new invention that has changed and enlarged our mode of life has been accompanied by some new development in construction. The history of construction (including structural art and structural science, architecture and engineering) is the history of human progress, of what we call civilization. ”

—From the Oct. 15, 1928 Issue of Forbes

FINAL THOUGHT

“For as long as there has been a stock market, some people whose stocks went down instead of up have accused Wall Street of robbing them. ” —Malcolm Forbes