On the new FORBES list of the world’s 100 Richest In Tech, there are a mere seven women. These women include entrepreneurs who built innovative companies, heirs who took over tech fortunes and an executive who has run two of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies. Four of the female tech billionaires are based in the U.S., while the others hail from Switzerland, China and Hong Kong. The path to their riches lay in both software and hardware, and in everything from sound technology to online gambling.
The richest female techie who founded her own company is also one of the world’s richest self-made woman. Chinese entrepreneur Zhou Qunfei, who lives in Hong Kong, founded
In the U.K., Denise Coates is worth $2.9 billion thanks to Bet365, the online gambling company she launched in 2000. The former accountant is co-CEO with her brother, John Coates, who’s also a billionaire. Computer programmer Judy Faulkner bet on electronic health records in 1979, when she founded Epic Systems in the U.S. More than half of Americans’ medical information is now stored using her software, and her net worth is $2.6 billion.
The only woman on the list to serve as a hired hand is Meg Whitman, who’s led tech giant
Others inherited their wealth. Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Steve Jobs, inherited his stakes in Apple and Disney when he died in 2011 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She now wields a $21.4 billion fortune, making her the richest woman with tech money. In 2013, Dagmar Dolby, along with her sons, took control of roughly half of stock in
Women only accounted for 7% of the 100 richest tech billionaires — a smaller share than in the 2015 World's Billionaires list, where women comprised 11% of the total.
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