By Haddon Libby
Forbes just released its list of the 100 wealthiest self-made women.
The minimum wealth required to make this list increased by $75 million to $300 million. Women billionaires rose to 31, nearly 30% more than last year. Women on the list are a mix of entrepreneurs, entertainers and executives.
With a net worth of $21 billion, Diane Hendricks (77) heads the list. She earned her fortune by starting ABC Supply in Wisconsin with her late husband, Ken Hendricks in 1982. The couple have humble origins with Diane selling custom homes for a living while her husband was a roofer. Based in Wisconsin, ABC supply has $20.4 billion in annual revenues from its 900 locations that wholesale roofing, siding and windows. Hendricks wealth has exploded from $3.5 billion ten years ago to the current $21 billion level.
With $11.6 billion, Judy Love (86) ranks second. Love co-founded the Love’s Travel Shops & Country Stores company in 1964 with her late husband, Tom Love. Starting with one gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma, the couple borrowed $5,000 from his parents to begin their business. Today the company has 640 stores in 42 states with annual revenues of $24 billion.
Judy Faulkner (80) is third with $7.5 billion. She founded Epic Systems, a medical records software provider in 1979. With clients like John Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic, Epic manages the medical records of 250 million people. Faulkner, a computer programmer, founded the company in her Wisconsin basement.
At $6.8 billion is Thai Lee (65), the co-founder of SHI International. SHI provides IT to companies to 15,000 businesses. She and her now ex-husband bought the business in 1989 for just under $1 million. Born in Thailand to South Korean parents, her 60% share is the source of her wealth.
The third Wisconsonite is the fifth wealthiest with a net worth of $6.7 billion – Elizabeth Uihlein (78). With husband Dick Uihlein, she started Uline is their basement. Uline is the largest distributor of shipping, packaging and industrial supplies. Dick Uihlein’s great-grandfather started Schlitz Beer.
The youngest women on the list is Kylie Jenner (26) with $710 million which places her in 47th place. Most of her net worth comes from her cosmetics line. She sold 51% of the business to Coty in 2020 for $600 million.
Lucy Guo (29) is the second youngest on the list at $500 million. Guo’s fortune comes from Scale AI, a company she co-founded in 2016 and left in 2018 that is valued at $13.8 billion. Her current business is Passes, a Web3 platform that works on things like NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
The third youngest is also the most well-known. At 34, Taylor Swift comes in 24th with a net worth of $1.3 billion. In addition to music royalties and touring income, Swift owns $125 million in real estate.
The oldest women is Alice Schwartz (97). Schwartz is 18th on the list at $2.1 billion with her net worth come Bio-Rad Laboratories which she co-founded with her late husband in 1952. The company was a pioneer is pharmaceutical manufacturing and lab research. She met her husband while both attended UC-Berkeley for biochemistry degrees.
The wealthiest women living in California is Lynda Resnick (81) with $5.6 billion. Resnick owns the Wonderful Company with her husband. Wonderful is one of the largest farming operations in the United States with more acreage in Central California where almonds and pistachios are the primary crops. The couple started with an orange grove in 1978. Their farms in California use as much water as all of Los Angeles.
For more on Forbes Self-Made Women’s List, visit www.Forbes.com.
Haddon Libby is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Winslow Drake Investment Management, a Fiduciary RIA firm. For more information on our services, please visit www.WinslowDrake.com.
