Francoise Bettencourt Meyers

Net Worth: $66.3 billion
Company: L’Oreal
Country:  France

Experts usually advise setting up a business where the chance of losing profit is not so high. Apart from food, fashion and make-up are some of the most lucrative industries in the world, and that is precisely where Francoise Bettencourt Meyers found herself. Thanks to being the heiress of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, whose family owned the personal care company L’Oreal, she had a good head start in the game.

Bettencourt Meyers was born and raised Catholic, so when a fire severely damaged the Notre-Dame de Paris, she and L’Oreal donated $226 million for the cathedral’s repairs. She is also a published author, having written on Greek Mythology and Jewish-Christian relations, among other spiritual writings. So while Bettencourt Meyers is mostly known for her business, she is also a noted academic.  Bloomberg credits her as the richest woman in the world as of 2019.