Diane Hendricks
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Diane Marie Hendricks (née Smith; born 1947) is an American
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 film producer from
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. She is the widow of the late businessman
Ken Hendricks Kenneth A. Hendricks (September 8, 1941 – December 21, 2007) was an American businessman who, along with Diane Hendricks, his business partner and wife, grew a shingle supply company into a $2.6 billion fortune and a spot on the Forbes 4 ...
.


Early life

Hendricks was born and raised in Osseo, Wisconsin, the daughter of dairy farmers. She had her first child at the age of seventeen, and worked as a Playboy Bunny to pay her bills. She graduated from Osseo-Fairchild High School in 1965, and had been divorced from her first husband for ten years when she met Ken Hendricks.


Career

In 1975, she was selling custom-built homes and Ken was a roofing contractor. They married and became business partners. In 1982, they used their lines of credit to secure a loan that enabled them to establish
ABC Supply ABC Supply Co., Inc. is a major, private American roofing supply company based in Beloit, Wisconsin. It also sells windows, gutters, and siding for residential and commercial buildings and is the largest roofing and vinyl siding wholesale di ...
, the nation's largest wholesale distributor of roofing, windows, gutters, and siding for residential and commercial buildings. Hendricks owns the
Hendricks Holding Company Hendricks Holding, Inc. (HHC) is a privately held conglomerate based in Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. History and management The company was founded in 1982 by Ken Hendricks and Diane Hendricks, owners of ABC Supply. By the time of his de ...
, and is the owner and chairperson of ABC Supply. In March 2012, ''Forbes'' estimated her net worth at US$2.8 billion, and $11.1 billion as of August 2021. In 2018, ''Forbes'' ranked Hendricks the US's richest self-made woman.


Hollywood producer

She has produced movies, including ''
The Stoning of Soraya M. , image = The Stoning of Soraya M. US Poster.jpg , alt = , caption = U.S. theatrical release poster , director = Cyrus Nowrasteh , producer = Stephen McEveety John ShepherdTodd BurnsDiane Hendricks , ...
'' (2008), about an execution in an Iranian village, ''
An American Carol ''An American Carol'' (released as ''Big Fat Important Movie'' in other territories) is a 2008 American satire, satirical comedy film directed by David Zucker and written by Zucker, Myrna Sokoloff and Lewis Friedman. Using the framework of Charle ...
'', (2008), and ''
Snowmen A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture of a man often built in regions with sufficient snowfall and is a common winter tradition. In many places, typical snowmen consist of three large snowballs of different sizes with some additional ...
'', (2010).


Political donations

She donated $500,000 to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's 2012 campaign to avoid
recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning * Recall (memory) * ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
, and was his biggest donor that year. She also supported
Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...
. In 2014, she donated $1 million to the Freedom Partners Action Fund, a pro-
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
Super PAC created by the
Koch Brothers The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...
. In both 2015 and 2016, she donated $2 million to Freedom Partners Action Fund. In 2015, she gave $5 million to a PAC associated with presidential candidate Scott Walker, of which $4 million was ultimately refunded. In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, she gave over $5 million to the Reform America Fund, a super PAC which opposed Democratic candidate
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
and supported Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
Ron Johnson Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American accountant, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Se ...
. Hendricks served as an economic advisor to
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
's presidential campaign. Prior to
Scott Pruitt Edward Scott Pruitt (born May 9, 1968) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma. He served as the fourteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from February 17, 2017, to Jul ...
's resignation in July 2018, she donated $50,000 to the Scott Pruitt Legal Expenses Trust. Hendricks contributed to the campaign of Georgia representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene Marjorie Taylor Greene (born May 27, 1974), also known by her initials MTG, is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right conspiracy theorist Sources describing Greene as "far-right" include: * * * * * * * * * who has served as th ...
.


Tax controversies

Hendricks paid no state income tax in four of the five years from 2010 to 2014. An investigation by
Urban Milwaukee ''Urban Milwaukee'' is an online daily that provides real drama, politics, arts and entertainment news about Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The site features approximately 5-10 articles a day focusing on city council hearings, dramatic reports, real-estat ...
found that Hendricks's multi-story 8,500-square-foot home in the Town of Rock in
Rock County, Wisconsin Rock County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 163,687. Its county seat is Janesville. Rock County comprises the Janesville- Beloit, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Ma ...
, had been assessed as a 1,663-square-foot ranch. Following the ''Urban Milwaukee'' investigation, Hendricks denied the tax assessor access to the property, citing "security reasons". After she agreed to supply the assessor with data on the home, the property's assessment was changed from $445,700 to $1,205,500.


Personal life

Hendricks has seven children and lives in Afton, Wisconsin.


References


External links


Who is Diane Hendricks?
from ''Milwaukee Magazine''

from ''Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel''

from ''Beloit Daily News''

– opinion piece by Diane Hendricks in ''USA Today''
"Diane Hendricks"
IMDb {{DEFAULTSORT:Hendricks, Diane 1947 births American billionaires American women business executives American women company founders American company founders American women film producers Businesspeople from Wisconsin Female billionaires Film producers from Wisconsin Living people People from Beloit, Wisconsin Wisconsin Republicans 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century women philanthropists 21st-century American philanthropists