Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer, is the richest woman in the field of technology with $1.3 billion in assets, according to Wealth-X, a research company about ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families.
Whitman, 58, made most of her money through the sale her shares in eBay, a company that she led from 1998 to 2008 during its dramatic expansion.
Wealth-X released a list of the five wealthiest women in the technology industry Wednesday. The wealth of the women lags far behind their male peers. For example, the wealthiest man, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has a net worth of $85.1 billion, according to Wealth-X estimates, while Mark Zuckerberg, the 30-year-old Facebook chairman, is worth at least $35 billion.
The second woman on the list is Sheryl Sandberg, 45, Facebook chief operating officer, whose net worth totals $1.22 billion. When she joined Facebook in 2008, Sandberg received company stock as part of her compensation plan. Since 2012, she has been selling off her Facebook shares, generating more than $700 million in cash. However, she still holds $430 million in Facebook stock.
Alibaba co-founder Lucy Peng (also known as Peng Lei) from China took third place with a personal fortune of $1.2 billion. The 42-year-old executive, who heads Alibaba’s new Ant Financial Services Group, became a billionaire in 2014 upon the valuation of the Chinese e-commerce giant prior to its record-setting IPO.
Wang Hsiueh Hong, 56, of Taiwan is fourth with $890 million. She is co-founder and chair of HTC, a smartphone and tablet manufacturer in Taiwan.
The youngest female tech executive on the list is 39-year-old Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, who has a net worth of $410 million and comes in fifth.
