Talking about the richest persons in the world, it includes both men and women but we seldom hear about the richest widow in the world. Due to a massive increase in the number of women appearing in the charts of 2014’s billionaire list, it became considerable to categorize those women who have made their fortunes by inheriting from their husbands. So we highlight a list of top ten richest widows of the world in 2014.
10. Lily Safra
Net worth: $1.2 billion
Country: Brazil
Lily Safra , daughter of Wolf White Watkins and wife of Safra, a prominent Brazilian banker and founder of Republic National Bank of New York is by profession a philanthropist. She attained tenth rank of one of the richest women after four marriages. She has got the ownership of world’s second most expensive house ‘Villa Leopolda’.
9. Jacqueline Desmarais
Net worth: $5.1 billion
Country: Canada
Jacqueline Desmarais is the widow of Paul Desmarais who built the montreal-based power corp, a publicly-traded financial services behemoth. After his death, jacquiline with her four children attained massive wealth in inheritance taking her to ninth rank in the list of richest widows of 2014.
8.Gayle Cook
Net worth: $5.8 billion
Country: United States
Gayle Cook is the owner of Cook Group, a medical device company she cofounded with her husband William Cook in 1963. After his husband’s death, she took his place and inherited his stake in 2011. She is now reaching the eighth rank in 2014’s wealthiest women
7. Margarita Louis Dreyfus
Net worth: $8.1 billion
Country: Switzerland
Margarita Dreyfus, with her estimated net worth after the death of his husband Leopold Louis Dreyfus occupies the seventh rank among the richest widows of the world. She owns the Louis Dreyfus Group after her husband’s death. Also she is preparing her three children to join their multinational trading group.
6. Elaine Marshall
Net worth: $8.8 billion
Country: United States
Elaine Marshall is the wife of E. Pierce Marshall and the daughter in law of the deceased J. Howard Marshall. Her wealth derives from Koch Industries after the death of her husband. It is now that she has become one of the nine members on Koch Industries board.
5. Johanna Quandt
Net worth: $12.8 billion
Country: Germany
Johanna Quandt is the widow of industrialist Herbert Quandt who resurrected BMW from bankruptcy. After her husband’s death in 1982, she became a major shareholder in BMW. She still owns 16.7% of BMW along with the fifth rank in the list.
4. Laurene Powell Jobs
Net Worth: $14 billion
Country: United States
She is the widow of Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc. After the death of Steve Jobs she got control over Steven P. Jobs Trust which owns around 130 to 140 million shares as the largest shareholder in The Walt Disney Company. As of 2014, she is the fourth richest widow in the world.
3. Gina Rinehart
Net Worth: $17.7 billion.
Country: Australia
Gina Rinehart is the Chairman of Hancock Prospecting Group and also a mining heiress. She is the daughter of Lang Hancock and wife of Frank Rinehart. After her father’s death she took over all assets and also became the largest shareholder in Fairfax Media.
2. Liliane Bettencourt
Net worth: $34.5 billion
Country: France
Liliane Bettencourt, the only child of Louise Madeleine Berthe, the founder of L’oreal, one of the World’s largest cosmetic companies. Being one of the major shareholders of L’oreal , she has attained the second rank in the list of wealthiest widows.
1.Christy Walton
Net Worth: $36.7 billion
Country: United States
Christy Walton is the widow of John Walton, one of the sons of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. After John’s death in 2005, she inherited her wealth which he earned not only from their large shares in Walmart but also from the First Solar in which John invested.
Interesting list Nida.
Thanks for sharing 🙂