Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken (born 30 June 1954) is a Dutch

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businesswoman, and the owner of a 25% controlling interest in the world's second-largest brewer, Heineken N.V. She is the richest person in the Netherlands, with a net worth of $16.7 billion as of May 2021, according to the

Forbes billionaires list ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also repo ...

Early life

Charlene Heineken was born on 30 June 1954, the daughter of

Freddy Heineken Alfred Henry "Freddy" Heineken (4 November 1923 – 3 January 2002) was a Dutch businessman for Heineken International, the brewing company bought in 1864 by his grandfather Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. He served as chairman of the boar ...

, a Dutch industrialist, and Lucille Cummins, an American from a

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

family of

bourbon whiskey Bourbon () is a type of barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn. The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although the precise source of inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbo ...

distillers. She was educated at Rijnlands Lyceum Wassenaar, followed by a law degree from

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

Career

She owns a 25% controlling stake in Dutch brewer

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Febr ...

, of which she is also an executive director. The biannual

Heineken Prize The Heineken Prizes for Arts and Sciences consist of 11 awards biannually bestowed by Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The prizes are named in honor of Henry Pierre Heineken, son of founder Gerard Adriaan Heineken, Alfred Heineken, ...

for cognitive science is named after her.

Personal life

She is married to

Michel de Carvalho Michel Ray de Carvalho (born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, on 21 July 1944) is a British financier, former Olympic skier and luger, and former child actor in films such as '' The Brave One'', ''The Tin Star'', and ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (und ...

, a financier and director of

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

, whom she met on a ski holiday in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He is a member of the supervisory board of Heineken NV. They reside in London with their five children. Upon the death of her father in 2002, she inherited about £3 billion, making her the wealthiest person with Dutch citizenship.

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

Sunday Times Rich List 2010: Britain's richest see wealth rise by one third
2010-04-24 In 2019, the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday news ...

'' ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK named her the wealthiest woman and the 7th overall, with an estimated fortune of £12 billion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carvalho-Heineken, Charlene de 1954 births Living people Businesspeople from Amsterdam Dutch billionaires Dutch brewers Dutch corporate directors Dutch expatriates in England Dutch people of American descent 20th-century Dutch businesswomen Female billionaires Heineken people Leiden University alumni 21st-century Dutch businesswomen

Early life

Career

Personal life

See also

References