Women from China and Hong Kong used to dominated the list of the richest self-made female billionaires, but with the Chinese market in turmoil in many areas, self-made women from Europe and the U.S. are back on top of the list of females who built their own fortunes.
As of June 2, the richest of them was Rafaela Aponte-Diamant of Switzerland. She founded shipping company MSC with her husband in 1970 and they both own a 50 percent stake in it. Their expanding business has given Aponte-Diamant a net worth of more than $28 billion. She is also the seventh richest woman in the world and its 49th richest person overall, according to Forbes.
The richest American – and the world’s second richest self-made woman – is Diane Hendricks of building supplier ABC Supply. She co-founded the company with her husband and since his death in 2007 has taken over and moved on to a role as chairwoman.
Third on the list is another American, Judy Love of Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, who after her husband’s death in March oversees their empire of gas stations and convenience stores.
Russian Tatyana Bakalchuck, who founded e-commerce retailer Wildberries in 2004, comes in rank 4.
Among the Chinese women who could defend their standing among the world’s richest is Wu Yajun of Longfor Properties, the world’s sixth richest self-made woman and 236th richest person. She moved down the list as her company’s worth decreased in the Chinese property crash, which eventually led to her stepping down as chair in October 2022. Wu made her fortune by cofounding the Hong Kong-listed real estate company with her then-husband and after their divorce went on to chair the company by herself.
In the U.S. and China alike, self-made women are likely to have co-founded a company with their husbands, a male relative or a male mentor.
To find a counter-example, one has to dig a little deeper than the top 8 of self-made women in the U.S. and in the world. Meg Whitman, the former CEO of Ebay, Hewlett-Packard and Quibi and current United States ambassador to Kenya, has amassed a wealth of $3 billion. This makes her America’s 11th richest self-made women. Forbes gives her a self-made score of 6 out of 10 as she didn’t build a business.
Internationally, there is Zhou Qunfei, the world’s ninth richest self-made women. The Hunan native founded touch screen maker Lens Technologies in the early days of the smartphone transition and supplied screens for the first iPhone. While Forbes has not yet introduced self-made scores for those outside the U.S., Zhou would score a 10 out of 10, as the started out as a migrant worker from a rural family, who overcame the early death of a parent and dropping out of high school.
Meanwhile, Zhou’s Chinese peers ranked just above her for wealth, Zhong Huijuan of Hansoh Pharmaceutical and Wang Laichun of Luxshare Precision, stand for two opposing trends among Chinese self-made billionaires. Zhong is an example of the professionals who have profited from the recent biotechnology boom in China. Wang, on the other hand, made her fortune producing electronics connectors for Apple and others and remains among the top 8 richest self-made women in 2023 while having watched her contemporaries from the electronics and mobile phone industries like Zhou Qunfei or Lam Wai-ying of Biel Crystal – both screen suppliers – exit the top 8.
Other self-made women in the Chinese biotechnology sector whose fortunes could grow more in the future are Jian Jun of filler and facial implant maker Imeik Technology ($5.3 billion net worth), Fan Daidi of collagen and skin care producer Giant Biogene Holding ($2.9 billion net worth) and Zhao Yan of Bloomage Biotechnology ($4.5 billion net worth), whose company makes the anti-aging ingredient hyaluronic acid.
