12 Texans on Forbes’ richest self-made list
Some in Forbes’ new ranking of America’s 100 richest selfmade women are household names — think Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift.
Others are stalwarts in their industries who stay out of the glare of the public spotlight — like building supplies queen Diane Hendricks, who is No. 1 in this year’s ranking, or semiconductor company CEO and Austin resident Lisa Su.
Su is one of a dozen Texas women earning spots on this year’s list. But topping the Texas representatives is fellow technology leader Thai Lee, 64, of Austin.
Forbes pegs Lee’s net worth at $4.8 billion — making her the fifth-richest self-made woman in the U.S. this year. Lee and her exhusband paid less than $1 million in 1989 for a software reseller and grew the company into an IT behemoth. SHI International boasts more than 15,000 customers, including giants Boeing and Dallas-based AT&T, and recorded sales of $14 billion. It describes itself as the largest minorityand woman-owned business in the U.S.
Trailing Lee among Texans is Gwynne Shotwell, 59, of Jonesboro. She runs the operations of Elon Musk’s Spacex, where she’s president and chief operating officer. Forbes said her stake in Spacex is less than 1 percent, giving her a net worth of $860 million.
Robyn Jones, 60, of Westlake co-founded Westlake-based Goosehead Insurance, which went public in 2018. Her net worth was estimated at $830 million.
April Anthony, 56, of Dallas checks in next with an estimated net worth of $740 million. The home health care veteran founded her first company at age 25, sold it five years later. She also founded and sold Encompass Home Health & Hospice and enterprise software provider Homecare Homebase. She’s now CEO of Vitalcaring.
Ranking 44th nationally was Kathleen Hildreth, 61, of Aubrey. The company she co-founded in 2003, M1 Support Services, maintains military aircraft for the U.S. governmenthildreth’s net worth was estimated at $590 million.
Other Texas women on the list include:
• Kendra Scott, 49, of Austin, $550 million. Her namesake jewelry company has over 100 stores and achieved a $1 billion valuation in 2016 when private equity firm Berkshire Partners bought in. Scott serves as executive chair.
• Whitney Wolfe Herd, 33, of Austin, $510 million. The Southern Methodist University graduate co-founded dating app Bumble in 2014 with Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev. She also was a co-founder of Dallasbased Match Group’s Tinder dating app. She serves as CEO of Bumble Inc., which operates two dating apps: Bumble and Badoo.
• Paige Mycoskie, 43, of Austin, $380 million. The designer’s 1970s-inspired lifestyle brand, Aviator Nation, took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, with sales hitting $130 million last year.
• Iman Abuzeid, 38, of Austin, $350 million. She co-founded health care staffing firm Incredible Health in 2017, which matches nurse profiles with open hospital positions in the U.S. She is one of only a handful of Black female founders to run a company valued at more than $1 billion.
• Julia Cheek, 39, of Austin, $260 million. The Dallas native founded at-home testing company Everly Health in 2015. The firm, which sells about 30 health and wellness tests online and in stores like CVS and Rite Aid, had revenue of $250 million in 2022.
• Belinda Johnson, 56, of Austin, $250 million. She became Airbnb’s chief operating officer after joining the company in 2011 as its first executive hire. Her father-in-law is former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson.