With International Women's Day approaching, we shine the spotlight on ten of the most powerful women around the world and how they made their fortune
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED ON FEBRUARY 26, 2020
1. Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, L’Oreal
Net worth: US$54.7 B
The richest woman in the world (at the time of writing), Françoise Bettencourt Meyers ranks 13 on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list. The heiress, who is the granddaughter of L’Oreal’s founder Eugène Schueller, inherited the beauty empire when her mother Liliane Bettencourt passed on in 2017. She is the chairwoman of the family’s holding company Tethys SAS, which owns 33 per cent of L’Oreal’s stock. Bettencourt-Meyers is also passionate about philanthropy and is the president of the family’s Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which funds and encourages scientific research, humanitarian causes and the arts in France. Together with L'Oreal, the foundation donated US$226 million to repair Notre Dame cathedral following the April 2019 fire.