Liliane Bettencourt, French Businesswoman and the only daughter of L’Oreal founder Eugene Schueller, was born in 1922, October 21 in Paris, France. At the age of five in 1927 she lost her mother. In 1957 she owned the fortune of L’Oreal.

She is married to André Bettencourt, French politician, and lives in Neuilly-sur-Seine. She has one daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers who is now the member of L’Oreal’s board of director.
She founded the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, in her father’s memory, to honor European researcher under the age of forty-five with Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences”. It is her biggest contribution for humanitarian, cultural and medical areas. She actively helps HIV and AIDS patients. She, as stated by Bloomberg, invested money through hedge fund Access International Advisor René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet.

According to Forbes Magazine 2010, she is the second richest in France and the world’s 17th richest woman whose net worth is $20 billion.

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Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, was born in 1949 on October 7 in Newport, Arkansas. She completed her graduation in Economics and Finance from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Alice Walton started her career as

Money manager and equity analyst for First Commerce Corporation and after few times, she moved her family’s Arvest Bank Group where she became Vice Chairman and the head of all investment-related activities. She founded an investment bank dealing in real estate finance and sales, public and structured finance, corporate finance and trading in 1988 named Llama Company and headed it as Chairman, CEO and president. She also worked as a broker for E.F. Hutton. She contributed in the development of the Northwest Arkansas Council as its first chairperson.

Philanthropic work:

In 2004, she contributed in the U.S. presidential election with estimated $2.6 million to the right-wing progress for American group. She serves on Board of Advisors for the University of Arkansas Graduate Business School at Fayetteville and on the board of director of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at Little Rock. She created summer camp Camp War Eagle in 1996 in Northwest Arkansas to bring together children from various social, economical and cultural backgrounds.

In 1989, in a car accident she killed 50-year-old pedestrian but no charge was filed against her. In 1996, she was caught of drunk driving and charged $925.

According to Forbes Magazine 2011, she is the world’s 16th richest woman whose net worth is $21.2 billion.

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Christy Walton was born in 1955 is the wife of late John Thomas Walton who died in 2005 in an aircraft crash. After the death of her husband, she officially inherited $15 billion and has been successfully maintaining the steady growth of her companies and crossed $22.5 billion. She owns a stake in solar power company, First Solar and has her shares of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Christy’s father-in-law Sam Walton, who started his career as a clerk for J.C. Penney for $75 a month in1940. And five years later he founded five-and-dime store Benjamin Franklin, Newport and Arkansas. After he died of multiple myeloma in 1992, his son John Walton shouldered the responsibility and became the chairman of the board of Wal-Mart. In 1968, John Walton contributed in Vietnam War as a part of the Studies and Observations Group in the Green Berets and fought bravely in the A Shau Valley and in Laos for which he was honored with a Silver Star. He also received awards and decorations such as Army Commendation Medal, Army Air Medal, Presidential Unit Citation (United States) 2001, Parachutist Badge (United States), Combat Infantryman Badge, and Army Special Forces tab. In 2005, while he was piloting his homebuilt aircraft CGS Hawk Arrow crashed in Jackson, Wyoming, and died.

As of 2011, Wal-Mart had 8400 stores with annual turnover of $405 billion and two million employees

Philanthropic Work:

In 2009, Christy gave away her 7-acre San Diego house to Cross Border Philanthropy.

According to Forbes magazine 2010, she is the world’s 12th richest whose net worth is $22.5 billion.

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Oprah Winfrey, the richest African American of 20th century, was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1958, on 29th of January. She is best known as the most successful American Television producer, host and philanthropist and is among the most influential women in the world. She did not have a promising childhood and had to face a variety of hardships in her teenage life. After her parents’ separation, she was sent to her grandparents, to live in extreme poverty. Some say that she used to wear dresses made of potato sack. She reunited with her mother at the age of 6 who moved with her to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother spent her all day out working as a maid at households and had no time for little Winfrey. At the age of nine, as she says, she was raped by her cousin, her uncle and a family friend. Having had enough, she ran away from her home at the age of 13 and became mother at 14. After her son’s death in infancy, she went back to live with her barber father in Tennessee. This was the first time, as she remembers she took her studies seriously and managed to become an honors student. Her dedication soon paid off and she became the most popular student at East Nashville High School and won several awards in open speech competition. Later, she studied communication from Tennessee State University.

At the age of 19, her life took a turn for better when she got a job at a local Radio Station as a co-anchor for the local evening news. In 1984, she started to host ‘AM Chicago’, an early morning talk show, which soon became the most watched show in America. Later, it was renamed as ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. The syndicated talk show became the most popular show in the Television history with over 30 million American viewers and spanned across 144 countries worldwide. She has also proved herself as the most influential spiritual leader through ‘Change Your Life TV’ with 22 million female viewers.

Besides being a T.V host and producer, she is the Co-founder of Oxygen Media and founder of Oprah Magazine. In 1998, she started a charity named ‘Oprah’s Angel Network’ for which she carries all administrative costs. Oprah’s Angel Network donated $10 million after Hurricane Katrina and collected $11 million given by her viewers on her request. She is regarded as the 32nd most philanthropist person in the world. In 2005, ‘Business Week’ enlisted her name among 50 most generous philanthropists for her contribution which was equivalent to $303 million dollars. According to Forbes of 2009, her net worth is $2.7 billion dollar.

Award and recognition:

At the 2002 Emmy Award, she was the recipient of first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for her contribution to Television and Films.

Quotes–

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. Oprah Winfrey

As you become more clear about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around.
Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine

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