Two Indian-Origin Women In US Richest Self-Made Women List

Forbes recently released its list of 60 richest self-made women in America. The list includes two Indian-origin American women and tech executives—Jayshree Ullal and Neerja Sethi. Ullal comes on 18^th position with a net worth of 1.3 billion dollars while Sethi achieves the 21^st rank with a net worth of one billion dollars.

“America’s top female entrepreneurs have shattered ceilings and scaled new heights, creating companies and building fortunes in everything from genetic testing to aerospace. Increasingly these self-made starters are tapping social media to cement their brands and build businesses ever more quickly. That in turn has helped the nation’s most successful women become richer than ever before,” Forbes said.

57-year-old Ullal was born in London but grew up in India. She heads Arista Networks, a computer networking firm, since 2008 as its President and CEO.

Sethi, who comes from Troy, Michigan, co-founded Syntel -- an IT consulting and outsourcing company --  along with her husband Bharat Desai in 1980. Today, she the Vice-President of Syntel.

ALSO READ: Forbes’ Highest Paid Athletes List Has No Women In Top 100

Ullal’s publicly traded company recorded revenues of USD 1.6 billion in 2017. According to Forbes, she owns 5% stocks of Arista Networks. She has earmarked some of her stocks for her two children, niece and nephew.

However, for Sethi, the couple started out with an initial investment of just USD 2,000. By the end of the first year, they recorded USD 30,000 revenue. From there to the 2017 revenue of USD 924 million, the company has come a long way. It currently has 23,000 employees, 80% of whom are from India, reported Forbes.

The total net worth of all the 60 women in the Forbes list comes up to USD 71 billion, which is 15% more than last year. It is also noteworthy that the minimum net worth to make Forbes’ fourth annual ranking of these top women jumped 23 per cent to a record USD 320 million.

“America’s top female entrepreneurs have shattered ceilings and scaled new heights, creating companies and building fortunes in everything from genetic testing to aerospace. Increasingly these self-made starters are tapping social media to cement their brands and build businesses ever more quickly. That in turn has helped the nation’s most successful women become richer than ever before.”

While only 18 women were Billionaires last year, the number has gone up to 24 this year. Seven women have joined the list for the first time and four of whom are Instagram-savvy makeup moguls.

Billionaire Anastasia Soare, whose runs cosmetics company Anastasia Beverly Hills, is the richest newbie in the list. She is largely known for beautifying eyebrows and has an Instagram following of 17 million people.

Forbes has also included 21-year-old Kylie Jenner, the famous Kardashian sister, in the list and several people on social media are trolling the magazine for including her in the category of “self-made” women while she comes from an ultra-rich family. She started her makeup brand Kylie Cosmetics.

Wisconsin billionaire, Diane Hendricks, who owns ABC Supply, one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing, siding and windows in America, has topped the list.

Picture credit- News Nation