Five Women That Made It To Forbes’ Top 40 Riche$t People On The Planet In 2015

Five Women That Made It To Forbes’ Top 40 Riche$t People On The Planet In 2015

Forbes 29^th issue of the World’s Billionaires List came out on March 2^nd, 2015. Albeit, the drop in oil prices and the weakening of Euro, the number of Billionaires in the world grew by 290 people, majority of whom coming from China. 188 people that made it to last year’s list dropped out of the 2015’s list, with Russia taking the heaviest toll; the country had 111 Billionaires in 2014, and now only has 88 Billionaires.

Russia also has less Billionaires than not only the U.S. and China, but also Germany and India. Guatemala now has its first Billionaire, as Iceland makes a comeback to the list after a 5-year absence. The title for Africa’s richest man still goes to Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote. Although he is also 2015’s biggest loser in dollar terms given his fortune dropped from $25 billion last year to $14.7 billion in 2015.

The number of youths (under the age of 40) that made it into the Billionaires club also grew by 46, with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg leading the pack with the highest worth. The youngest billionaire is Evan Spiegel, aged 24, the co-founder of Snapchat.

According to Forbes, Planet Earth now has 1,826 Billionaires who are jointly worth $7.05 trillion compared to 2014’s 1,536 Billionaires worth $6.4 trillion. The average net worth of a member of the Forbes 2015 Billionaires Club is $3.86 billion, down from $60 million in the year 2014.

So today, Innov8tiv takes a look at just how many women made it to the Forbes’ Top 40 Riche$t People On The Planet In 2015. The following are the women that featured:

[divider]#1[/divider]Christy Walton – $40.7B: Coming in at position 8 in the Billionaires Club ranking and position 1 among the women. She has held the title of Planet Earth’s richest woman for the last six years.

Christy married into the Walton family who later became the richest family on Earth.

She inherited her wealth from her husband John Walton, who served as a Green Beret and a war medic in Vietnam before passing away after an airplane crash in 2005. Christy Walton has risen to become the wealthiest of the Waltons, because of the investments made by her late husband in solar panel.

[divider]#2[/divider]Liliane Bettencourt $41.1B: Coming in at position 10 and 2^nd place in the richest women category, Liliane Bettencourt became more prosperous in 2014 after buying an additional 8% stake in Nestle.

That investment increased her and her family’s L’Oreal stock to 33%. Her father Eugene Schuller founded L’Oreal back in 1907. She has not been involved in the running affairs of the company for a number of years now; following a legal battle with her daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers proved that she is unfit to run the company back in 2011. Liliane who suffers from dementia, has since been replaced on the Board of Directors by her grandson Jean-Victor Meyers (25yrs) from 2012.

[divider]#3[/divider]Alice Walton $39.4B: Alice Walton is the heir of the retailer Wal-Mart established by her father Sam in 1962. She is the 3^rd richest woman and the 11^th richest person on the Planet.

She is said to have a soft spot for curating art that led her to establishing the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in her hometown, Bentonville, Ark in 2011. Last year, she bought New Jersey home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and she has since moved it to the museum’s campus. Also in her collection includes works from the likes of Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and Georgia O’Keefee. Other pieces at the museum came from her personal collections and are said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.#

[divider]#4[/divider]Jacqueline Mars $26.6B: Jacqueline Mars owns the candy maker Mars ($33B) together with her two brothers, John and Forrest Jr. She is the 4^th richest woman and 2^nd richest person on the Planet.

Jacqueline and her siblings are on the Mars’ Board of Directors but do not take part in the day-to-day running of the company. The company was founded by their grandfather Frank in 1911, in Tacoma, Washington. It is said that their grandfather began running the business from his kitchen and was later joined by their father Forrest Sr. in 1929, when the company invented the malt-flavored nougat.[divider]#5[/divider]Maria Franca Fissolo $23.4B: Maria is the 5^th richest woman and the 32^nd richest person on the planet. She is the widow of Michele Ferrero, founder of the Ferrero Group, and one of the leading companies in sweets making industry. The company’s most iconic product is the Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread, Tic-Tac mints, and the Kinder chocolates. Her husband passed away in February, 2014.

[divider]End[/divider]One consistent thing about all the Billionaire Club members is that they are mostly entrepreneurs. 1,191 members in the list are self-made billionaires, 230 inherited their wealth and 405 have inherited their wealth and have partly contributed to its growth.

You can read more this on the Forbes website by following this link.