Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the vice chair of French cosmetics giant L'Oreal, has become the first woman to amass a net worth of over $100 billion. This milestone was reached as L'Oreal's stock hit record highs, boosting Bettencourt Meyers' wealth to $100.1 billion, according to Forbes' calculations.
Bettencourt Meyers, 70, owns a nearly 35% stake in L'Oreal with her husband and two sons. The company, which boasts over three dozen brands including Maybelline, Kiehl’s, and Lancôme, reported revenues of $44 billion in 2023. Its success is partially attributed to strategic acquisitions, such as the purchase of Australian beauty brand Aesop last summer in a deal that valued the brand at $2.5 billion.
Bettencourt Meyers is the granddaughter of L'Oreal founder Eugène Schueller, who invented safe hair dye. She first appeared on Forbes' ranking of the world's wealthiest in 2018, following the death of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, a leading L'Oreal shareholder. Since then, her fortune has increased by nearly $58 billion.
Despite her wealth and status as the world's richest woman, Bettencourt Meyers prefers to keep a low profile, choosing to focus on her writing and piano playing in her Paris home. She joins a select group of 16 centibillionaires, whose collective wealth of $2.2 trillion accounts for 15% of the total wealth of the world's 2,781 billionaires.