World's Richest Moms

by Heather Struck

Sunday, May 9, 2010provided by

Only 70 mothers in the world have billion-dollar fortunes, and just eight of these built their
own.

Margaret C. Whitman, better known as Meg, has had a storied career. A graduate of Princeton
and Harvard Business School, she worked at Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG - News) before
moving to California with her husband, a neurosurgeon who now works at Stanford Hospital.
After successful stints at consulting firm Bain & Co.,
Disney (NYSE: DIS - News) and Hasbro (NYSE:
HAS - News), she joined eBay (NasdaqGS: EBAY - More from Forbes.com:
News), then a small tech firm with 30 employees, as
chief executive. In 2004 she debuted on Forbes' • In Pictures: World's Richest
World's Billionaires List. Moms

It was her own mother, Whitman writes in a book • Lessons from Our Mothers
published by Random House this January, titled The
Power of Many, who gave her "a bias toward action." • Eight Great 'Experience Gifts' for
In an interview with ForbesWoman earlier this year, Mom
Whitman discussed the relationship, explaining that
her mother, who eventually learned Mandarin and
visited China 80 times, had taught her that "you don't
have to be perfect to be a leader, but you can't be timid."

Now that bias is leaning toward the governor's mansion, as Whitman campaigns to replace
Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. During her campaign she has highlighted
her mother's adventurous spirit in driving Meg and her two siblings from their home in Long
Island on camping trips to California. Today she
includes her husband and her two sons as influences
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in her love of the West Coast. They are sporty
California residents, according to her campaign
• Money Squeeze Hits 'Sandwich
website, and as such are reasons she is so dedicated to
Generation'
the economically ailing state. "If we let California
fail, we all fail," she says. "And we love California
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too much to let it fail. We have to work together to
make it the place of our dreams again."
• 5 Common Money Mistakes to
Avoid
For Whitman, motherhood was not a deterrent to her
success, but an aid, lending what she now says is
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inspiration and support during her current political
endeavors.
That makes her somewhat unusual. Whitman is one of just 70 billionaire moms in the world, and
one of only eight mothers to have created her own billion-dollar fortune. (By contrast, there are
555 self-made billionaires who are fathers). The rest inherited fortunes from fathers or late
husbands, including the world's richest woman and mom, Christy Walton, whose husband John,
son of the founder of Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT - News), died in 2005 when his private
plane crashed in Wyoming.

Some other enterprising moms include Zara's Rosalia Mera, whose two kids apparently watched
her make dressing gowns, just before she and her now-ex husband Amancio Ortega launched the
Spanish clothing line. The Gap (NYSE: GPS - News)'s Doris Fisher and Benetton's Guiliana
Benetton also started clothing companies that went global and made their families among the
richest in the world.

Joanne (JK) Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book franchise, has told the story of her
difficult days in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she had moved with her first child after a painful
divorce to be near her sister. Rowling now has two more children with her current husband. The
advance from the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which she wrote in
cafes in Edinburgh, paid rent on the meager flat she shared with her first child while they were
subsisting on welfare.

Those who inherit opportunity often use it to continue their own ambitious climb. Abigail
Johnson, with her father, controls Fidelity Investments. The mutual fund company, the largest in
the U.S., was founded by her grandfather. She was promoted to chairman of the board of fixed
income and asset allocation funds last year, and is believed by some to be her father's chosen
successor. She has raised two children with her husband.

Asia's richest woman, Savitri Jindal, the widowed matriarch of OP Jindal Group, a steel and
power conglomerate in India, has nine children, more than any woman on the list. While she is
non-executive chairman, her four sons have divvied up the business and each run their own
independent units. In the meantime she keeps herself busy with politics, having been re-elected
in the assembly elections in her home state of Haryana last year.

But being a billionaire mom--or for that matter, the child of a billionaire mom--isn't always easy.

Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune, and her daughter have reportedly
been off speaking terms as a result of Bettencourt's patronage of a younger companion, an artist
her daughter alleges accepted more than a billion dollars in gifts from the heiress. The
relationship between Bettencourt and her 56-year-old daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, is
reflected in an unhappy light amid a legal complaint filed by Bettencourt-Meyers, who is
dubious of her mother's judgment in spending her wealth. Liliane denies all, but has still been
ordered to undergo psychological testing before a July trial.

A similarly unfortunate rift happened when Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chief executive of the
Minnesota-based hospitality company Carlson Cos., relieved her son from his role as chief
operating officer in 2007. Curtis Nelson, who reportedly used controlled substances and was
arrested at least once for drunk driving, was terminated for "explosive," "inconsistent" behavior,
derailing the trajectory he may have expected to follow to head the company himself.

The World's Richest Moms

There are 70 billionaire moms in the world, and only eight of those women--including Meg
Whitman and J.K. Rowling--earned their own way to vast riches. But none of those self-starters
are among the world's 10 richest moms, a group that is dominated by widows and daughters of
the very rich.

Christy Walton

$22.5 billion

U.S.

55. Widowed, 1 child

Became a billionaire in 2005 when her late husband John, second son of
Wal-Mart Stores founder Sam Walton, died when his ultralight aircraft
L. Matthew Bowler crashed. She is the richest of the Waltons thanks to John's early bet on
alternative energy firm First Solar.

Liliane Bettencourt

$20 billion

France

87. Widowed, 1 child

Makeup heiress inherited fortune from her father, the founder of cosmetic
giant L'Oreal. Europe's richest mom is not on speaking terms with her
Francois only daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyer. Daughter claims Francoise-
Durand/Getty Images Marie Banier, 61, a well-known photographer, writer and painter Liliane
befriended, took advantage of her mother, who became a widow in 2007.
Last year Bettencourt-Meyers petitioned courts to investigate reported
$1.4 billion worth of cash and gifts that her mother allegedly gave Banier. Liliane denies all; has
been ordered to undergo psychological testing before a July trial.

Birgit Rausing

$13 billion

Raymond
Delalande/Newscom
Sweden

86. Widowed, 3 children

She and her three children inherited packaging giant Tetra Laval after her husband Gad Rausing
died in 2000. The firm revolutionized the storing of liquids, such as juices and milk, by
developing lightweight packaging that preserves the nutritional value and taste of products.
Birgit is retired in Switzerland. Leaves family business to her children, all three of whom sit on
board; Jorn, the youngest, also heads company's mergers and acquisitions division.

Savitri Jindal

$12.2 billion

India

60. Widowed, 9 children

Nonexecutive chair of the O.P. Jindal Group, a steel and power

conglomerate founded by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal, in 1952.
The Hindu Photo Took over as group head after he died in a helicopter crash in 2005. In his
Archives lifetime the patriarch had handed down operations to their 4 sons,
Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen, who today run independent units.
Savitri was re-elected in the assembly elections in Haryana, her home
state.

Abigail Johnson

$11.5 billion

U.S.

48. Married, 2 children

With her father she controls Fidelity Investments, America's largest

mutual fund company, founded by her grandfather. She earned an MBA at
Courtesy of Fidelity Harvard and joined the family business in 1988. Abby got to run her first
Investments diversified fund at age 28. Now she runs personal and workplace investing
division; believed by some to be father's chosen successor.

Click here to see the full list of The World's Richest Moms

Additional reporting by Cristina von Zeppelin.

Copyrighted, Forbes.com. All rights reserved.

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