Her name might not be a household name, but her brand certainly is – so much so, in fact, that Liliane Bettencourt ranks as the richest woman in the world in 2016, as well as the richest woman in history. She is heiress to the French cosmetics and personal care company L’Oréal, and has been working with the company since she was 15 years old. Liliane Bettencourt’s net worth is $40.1 billion. She is listed by Forbes as the 11th richest person in the world, and the richest person in France.
Born in Paris, Bettencourt started apprenticing at her father, Eugene Schueller’s, company at age 15, tasked with mixing cosmetics and placing the labels onto shampoo bottles. She inherited the company when her father died in 1957 (her mother died when she was a young child), and she continued to hold a majority stake as a shareholder in L’Oréal went public in 1963. Ten years later, she would sell almost half of her shares in order to buy a 3% stake in another famous French company, Nestle. Incidentally, Nestle now owns almost 30% of L’Oréal.
She currently owns approximately 30% of the company’s shares, including shares that are held in trust for her daughter, Françoise. Although Bettencourt stepped down from the board of directors in 2012, several family members continue on the board.
Despite her incredible wealth (or perhaps because of it), Bettencourt is a very private person. Her life has been politically complicated, as her late husband was involved with a fascist group that had supported the Nazis during WWII, and she later funded conservative politicians.
But Liliane Bettencourt sure knows how to live the high life – she at one point owned a private island called D’Arros Island, which she sold in 2012 for approximately $78 million. She and her husband created a charitable foundation which has primarily invested in scientific research and education.
