New Delhi, April 15 : Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive Meg Whitman is the wealthiest women in the technology sector with a fortune of USD 1.3 billion followed by Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Alibaba’s Lucy Peng, according to a Wealth-X estimate.
The net worth of women on the Wealth-X list lags far behind their male peers in the technology sector, said global wealth intelligence and prospecting firm.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for example, has a net worth of around USD 85.1 billion, according to Wealth-X estimates, while Mark Zuckerberg, the 30-year-old Facebook chairman, is worth at least USD 35 billion.
According to the list of five wealthiest women in the technology sector released today, Whitman claimed the top spot with a USD 1.3 billion fortune.
Bulk of Whitman’s wealth is derived from profits from the sales of her shares in eBay, a company that she led from 1998 to 2008 during its dramatic expansion, the report said.
Ranking second on the list is Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, with a net worth of USD 1.22 billion.
Upon joining 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 USD 700 million in cash before taxes. However, she still holds USD 430 million in Facebook stock.
Alibaba co-founder Lucy Peng (also known as Peng Lei) took third place with a personal fortune of USD 1.2 billion.
The 42-year-old executive, who heads Alibaba’s Ant Financial Services Group, became a billionaire in 2014 upon the valuation of the Chinese e-commerce giant prior to its record-setting IPO.
The 56 year old Wang Hsiueh Hong, the co-founder and Chairman of HTC, was ranked fourth on the list with a fortune of USD 890 million dollar.
Fifth is the the youngest female tech executive on the list, 39-year-old Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, having a net worth of USD 410 million.
