The Hindu Business Line : Power girls

"It's not just their 10-figure fortunes that make us envious. Some of these women are famous; some wield enormous power; some have fascinating careers. Some have all three."

The latest Forbes list of billionaires includes quite a few women and the Harry Potter sensation (Joanne) J.K. Rowling is a new entrant with a net worth of $1 billion. A graduate from the University of Exeter, she was once a single mother of three living on "welfare in a coldwater flat in Edinburgh, Scotland", and is the only billionaire author on the list, points out the Forbes article.

Though Rowling is only ranked way below at 891 on the richie-rich list, 84-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, with an inherited fortune in the cosmetics major L'Oreal, is No. 12, with a net worth of $20.7 billion.

Daughter of L'Oreal founder Eugene Schueller, Liliane has held onto a controlling stake in L'Oreal for over 40 years. Her Bettencourt Schueller Foundation supports medical, cultural and humanitarian endeavours in France and developing countries.

The article on the women billionaires begins thus: "Imagine for a moment what it would be like to be a billionaire. No more picking up after the kids, doing dishes, worrying about how much a dress costs or pinching pennies to save for an amazing vacation. For, these women that dream is a reality. But it's not just their 10-figure fortunes that make us envious. Some of these women are famous; some wield enormous power; some have fascinating careers. Some have all three."

But for the awareness on the mammoth work done by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, which has been bolstered by more mega bucks from Warren Buffet, No. 2 on the Forbes list, it would have been tempting to claim that rich women tend to use their money more for charity. For instance, apart from Lilian's Foundation, Oprah Winfrey ($1.5 billion) has recently opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. And Helen Walton ($16.4 billion), daughter of Sam Walton of the retail giant Wal-Mart, who began her retail career in 1940 as a clerk for J.C. Penney with a monthly salary of $75, started the Walton Family Foundation.

The Walton women hog the billionaire's list with 52-year-old Christy Walton (and family) being in the No. 26 slot with a net worth of $16.7 billion. She is the daughter-in-law of Sam Walton; her husband John Walton died in an air crash in 2005. Alice Walton, another daughter of Sam Walton, also has a net worth of $16.6 billion and "raises horses on her Texas ranch".

In the No. 42 slot is Abigail Johnson ($13 billion), who along with family, controls Fidelity Investments, America's largest mutual fund company. She runs the employer services division.

Susanne Klatten, at the No. 68 slot with a net worth of $9.6 billion, trained as an economist and inherited chunks of shares in BMW and chemical manufacturer Altana. She is "in line for a nice windfall: Altana sold its pharmaceutical division for $6 billion, of which she will pocket about half", says the article.

Charline de Carvalho ($7.2 billion) inherited 25 per cent stake in the Dutch brewer Heineken five years ago from her late father. A mother of five, she enjoys photography, music and architecture, and is also a member of St Moritz's elite Corviglia Ski Club.

The `stylish sisters' Esther (No. 137) and Alicia Koplowitz (No. 158) are members of Spanish nobility and inherited their family's construction firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. The duo took over management in 1989, but Esther bought out Alicia's stake in 1997. Alicia is currently working on launching one of Spain's first hedge funds.

Also in the list are Anne Cox and Barbara Cox, daughters of James M. Cox, the newspaper reporter who bought the Dayton Evening News for $26,000 in 1898, and Meg Whitman, the self-made billionaire of Ebay.

She led her "company through Internet bubble and bust; today her company owns comparison-pricing site Shopping.com, Web-phone outfit Skype, stake in online classifieds business Craigslist." Meg has donated $30 million to her alma mater Princeton to build Whitman College, which opens next year.

Perhaps the most colourful woman on the Forbes list is the 66-year-old `merry widow' Heidi Horten (No. 264; $3.4 billion). She inherited her late husband's fortune (department stores) in 1987 and "now divides her time between four homes and the 315-ft mega-yacht Carinthia VII. She "apparently met Helmut Horten, founder of the eponymous German department store chain, in a hotel bar in 1959 when she was 19 years old. Despite a 30-year age difference, they wed seven years later. In 1987 he died and left her an estimated $1 billion fortune."

Life Desk