1 #1 Cher Wang
Cher ranks so
highly on this list as she is perhaps arguably the most successful female
entrepreneur in the world. Her wealth is primarily of her own making rather
than being down to working for a large firm or being born wealthy.
She spent many
years manufacturing cell phones for other people which earned her a tidy
fortune, it wasn’t until she set-up her own company HTC, that her wealth really
took off. She has an estimated worth of $6.8 billion, her HTC smartphones have quickly
gain notoriety and in 2010, accounted for 20% of the smartphone market.
You may not have
heard of her, but she’s undoubtedly influential and her income is entirely down
to her own wits rather than any other factor, that’s why Cher Wang deserves the
number one spot on this list of the top ten most influential women
entrepreneurs.
#2 Oprah
Winfrey
No list of the
top women entrepreneurs would be complete without Oprah.
Worth an
estimated $2.7 billion, it’s no wonder she can afford to hand out free cars to
her audience members, her fortune has been largely down to creating television
that women love to watch. And not just being content with appearing on the TV,
she has gone on to excel in many other forms of media. As for being
influential, she has had president Obama on her show twice, amongst many other
world-famous people and has donated 100s of millions to make this world a
better place.
#3 Angela
Merkel
Great
responsibility rests on these ladies shoulders as leader of Europe’s most
powerful and richest economy, Germany. Her influence and persuasion skills are
likely to affect millions of Europeans and billions of others around the world.
The global economy effectively is in her hands. Agela Merkel is Germany’s first
female leader and her decisions are highly likely to impact the history of
Germany.
#4 IndraNooyi
Born in
Calcutta, India, IndraNooyi is one of the most powerful women in business
having held executive positions in many of the world’s top companies.She is
currently Chairwoman and CEO of Pepsico which is the second largest food and
drink company on the planet. She has not only excelled in business but also in
academia, earning degrees in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as well as an
MBA in management in her native India, she then went on to earn a Master’s
degree in Public and Private Management at Yale.
#5 Melinda
Gates
Although her
husband Bill Gates is mostly responsible for their wealth, she has been
responsible for talking him into co-founding a charitable organisation with the
money made from Bill’s empire. Bill Gates has stated that when he dies, all of
his $40 billion fortune will have been spent on good causes.
Melinda & Bill Gates have already
donated $27 billion to charitable causes.
#6 Susan
Wojcicki
Susan Wojcicki
can certainly claim to be one of the most influential women in business owing
to her being Senior Vice President at search engine giant Google, Susan has
been responsible for helping to turn a great idea into a very profitable idea.
Susan is mostly in charge of the
advertising revenue side of Google.
#7 Lady
Gaga
Whatever you
think of her music and fashion tastes, theres no denying that she has become an
extraordinary success within a very short space of time and one of the most
successful women in music today. Earning Lady Gaga her spot as number 8 in the
list of top female entrepreneurs.
Born Stefanie
Germanotta, Lady Gaga is estimated to be worth nearly $100 million at the
tender age of 25-years-old. The reason for her fortune is that unlike many of
her peers, she actually writes her own music, netting her a huge income in
royalties.
#8 Sara
Blakely
Sara Blakely
BillionaireFrom a woman who went door-to-door selling fax machines for 7 years,
to failing her life long dream of becoming a lawyer then creating “Spanx“, a
multi-million dollar undergarment company, you’d say that Sara Blakely is a
modern day “Wonder Woman”.Sara Blakely has secured her spot as the world’s
youngest self-made female billionaire with a current net worth of $1 Billion.
#9 JK
Rowling
This single and
struggling mother wrote a book that bought a generation of video gamers and tv
addicts back to reading books to excercise their imaginations once again.
Another rags to riches story, JK Rowling‘s Harry Potter books have become one
of the best-selling books of all time, she managed to spawn a major feature
film series and a franchise that also incorporates a fully functioning theme
park in direct competition with Disney. Her influence not only affects millions
of children around the world, but has also drawn many adults into her world.
#10 Sheryl
Sandberg
Whilst Facebook
was certainly very popular before she came on board in 2008, it was difficult
to see how the site would make an income worthy of its valuation. Not only did
she help meet those expectations that came with such a high valuation of a site
yet to make a real income, she helped massively exceed them.
Since she came
on board as Facebook’s number two, it’s user base increased more than 10 times
to roughly 11% of the world’s population, and the business is on course to post
massive profits that are rumoured to cause the company to be valued near the
$100 billion mark, which is almost as much as half the GDP of Ireland. It was
her task to monetize Facebook, and she did this very successfully.
She would have
been much higher in the top ten if it wasn’t for the fact that Facebook was
destined to conquer the world on account of it being a very good idea, but
everything she was tasked to do, she did very well and deserve her place
amongst the top ten women entrepreneurs.
