These self-made women have been paving the path for entrepreneurs in every industry for many decades.
Known as “the woman who built Beijing,”(China)
Zhang Xin, born in 1965, is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman, having primarily earned her fortune in the real estate industry. With her husband Pan Shiyi, she is the co-founder and CEO of SOHO China.
Zhang Xin started as a factory worker and later graduating from Cambridge University with a master's in economic development.
Before launching her company SOHO China, Zhang Xin worked for Goldman Sachs.
Zhang Xin has since amassed a $3.5 billion fortune.
Founder of Biocon, an Indian biopharma company. (India)
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (born 23 March 1953) is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur.
She launched Biocon out of a rented shed and grew it into India's largest listed biopharma firm in terms of revenue.
Her company went public in 2004, and the company was the second in India, reaching $1 billion on the first trading day.
According to Forbes, Karin Mazumdar-Shaw is India's wealthiest self-made woman, and her net worth is an estimated $4.1 billion.
founder of ActOne Group, the first African-American female-led company to bring in more than $1 billion in annual revenue
Janice Bryant Howroyd (born September 1, 1952) is an entrepreneur, educator, ambassador, businesswoman, author, and mentor.
She is the founder & CEO of The ActOne Group, the largest privately held, minority-woman-owned personnel company founded in the U.S.
Howroyd started from very humble beginnings. She launched her company with just $1,500 in 1976. She is listed in Forbes' 2020 America's Richest Self-Made Women.
The famous Oprah Winfrey is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist.
Oprah Gail Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for 25 years.
Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a single teenage mother
he was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Winfrey has won many accolades throughout her career which includes 18 Daytime Emmy Awards,
The singer-songwriter, who started as part of Destiny’s Child in the mid-1990s
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, born September 4, 1981, in Houston, Texas.
Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.
Beyoncé is one of the world's best-selling recording artists, having sold 118 million records worldwide. She is the first artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 with their first six solo studio albums
Arianna Huffington launched The Huffington Post in 2005.
Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (born on July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist, and businesswoman.
She is a co-founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the author of fifteen books.
She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.
In 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million, and made Huffington the President and Editor-in-chief
Founder of her namesake company, Tory Burch, a fashion company
Tory Burch (née Robinson; born June 17, 1966) is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist.
Tory Burch is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand.
She was listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2020.
Burch is also a philanthropist who launched the Tory Burch Foundation to support women entrepreneurs.
The inventor of Spanx undergarments for women and men.
Sara Treleaven Blakely (born February 27, 1971) is an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
She is the founder of Spanx, an American intimate apparel company with pants & leggings, founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 2012, Blakely was named in Time magazine's "Time 100" annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world
In 2014, she was listed as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
Sara Blakely also has a foundation to help women worldwide.
Rihanna is the youngest woman on this list.
Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, fashion designer, and businesswoman.
With sales of over 250 million records worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Forbes ranked her among the top ten highest-paid celebrities in 2012 and 2014; as of 2019, she is the wealthiest female musician, with an estimated net worth of $600 million.
Google’s first marketing manager & CEO of YouTube
Susan Diane Wojcicki, (born July 5, 1968) is has been in the tech industry for over 20 years.
Susan was involved in the founding of Google and became Google's first marketing manager in 1999. She later led the company's online advertising business and was put in charge of Google's original video service. After observing the success of YouTube, Wojcicki proposed the acquisition of YouTube by Google in 2006, and has served as CEO of YouTube since 2014
Entrepreneur, Podcaster & Short Video Producer
Frederik Van Lierde is a Belgian Entrepreneur living in Switzerland, founder of Push.ai LLC, which includes the AI-based eCommerce platforms Masha.ai and Deals.Today.
🎙️ host of the We The Business Podcast and active in some local organisations.