Forbes_USA_June_13_2017

6. Meg Whitman
10. Lynda Resnick
COLOR PORTRAIT ILLUSTRATIONS BY LOUISE POMEROY FOR FORBES
6. Judy Faulkner
$2.5 BILLION S
AGE 73 RESIDENCE: MADISON, WISCONSIN
Tech innovator launched medical-record software
provider, Epic, in a Wisconsin basement
in 1979. According to Epic, sales of the computer
programmer’s brainchild jumped $500 million
in 2016, to $2.5 billion. The software supports
the records of over half the people in the
U.S. and is used by renowned medical centers,
including Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic.
“The work of my life has been to
develop software that would help keep people well and
help sick people get better . . . but I never had any personal
desire to be a wealthy billionaire.”
8. Johnelle Hunt
$2.4 BILLION S
AGE: 85 RESIDENCE: FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS
The Arkansas native bought five trucks and seven trailers with her late
husband, J.B. Hunt (d. 2006), in 1969 to kick-start their trucking business.
She stepped down from the board of now publicly traded J.B. Hunt
Transport Services in 2008 but remains the $6.6 billion (sales) firm’s largest
individual shareholder with 17%.
$2.5 BILLION S
AGE: 60 RESIDENCE: ATHERTON,
CALIFORNIA
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise
CEO has been cutting deals as
the company doubles down on
servers and storage technology.
Since splitting with HP Inc. in
November 2015, HPE has spun
off its enterprise service business
and some software units,
and acquired storage-tech firms
SimpliVity and Nimble Storage.
Whitman’s fortune comes from
her decade as CEO of auction
site eBay. A former Walt Disney
Co. and Hasbro executive,
she sits on the boards of Procter
& Gamble and SurveyMonkey.
She is the richest self-made
woman in America who didn’t
start her own business.
9. Elaine Wynn
$2.1 BILLION S
AGE 75 RESIDENCE: LAS VEGAS
Wynn is fighting with her exhusband,
Steve, over her ability
to sell her 9% stake in Wynn
Resorts. The couple cofounded
the casino company in 2002;
she served on its board until being
ousted in April 2015. Wynn
pledged $1 million to Planned
Parenthood in February after
Sheryl Sandberg (No. 12) made a
similar gift. She sits on the board
of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
12. Thai Lee
$1.6 BILLION S
AGE: 58 RESIDENCE: AUSTIN, TEXAS
$2 BILLION X
AGE: 74 RESIDENCE: BEVERLY
HILLS, CALIFORNIA
Half of all Americans buy one
of Lynda and husband Stewart’s
products each year. Their Wonderful
Co. owns Fiji Water, POM
Wonderful and mandarin Halos.
The company has invested $120
million in sustainable technologies
for its substantial farm acreage;
part of that has gone toward
developing drought-resistant
pistachio “supertree” roots.
Lynda founded an ad agency
at age 19 after dropping out of
community college.
11. Peggy Cherng
$1.8 BILLION S
AGE 69 RESIDENCE: LAS VEGAS
Co-CEO of fast-food chain
Panda Express, which she runs
with her husband, Andrew. The
Myanmar native met her husband
at Kansas’ Baker University.
Cherng, who coded simulators
for the U.S. Navy, gave up
her electrical engineering career
in 1983; that same year, she
built the company’s point-ofsales
system to streamline operations.
In March, the couple
donated $30 million to Caltech
and had their names attached
to its medical engineering department;
Peggy says the aim is
to inspire the Chinese community
to follow in their footsteps.
CEO and cofounder of $7.6 billion (2016 sales) IT provider SHI International,
whose big customers include Johnson & Johnson and Bank
of America. The daughter of a prominent Korean economist, Lee did
stints at Procter & Gamble and American Express before buying a
$1 million software reseller with her now ex-husband in 1989.
WEALTH STATUS: UP S DOWN TUNCHANGED X NEW +
JUNE 13, 2017 FORBES | 87