Yelena Baturina: The Only Russian Woman in Forbes World's Self-made Women Billionaires List

LONDON, March 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

To coincide with International Women's Day, Forbes magazine published the list of the World's 56 Self-made Women Billionaires, and it brings good news: more women entrepreneurs than ever have reached the $1bln mark in their fortunes. The self-made women billionaires have a combined fortune of $129 billion and a record of setting up such global brands as Gap, Spanx, Alibaba and Little Caesars.

In the global list, Eastern Europe and Russia are represented by only one businesswoman - Yelena Baturina. She is also the only self-made female billionaire in the construction section of the Forbes list, a sector traditionally dominated by men. She has remained the richest Russian woman for 12 consecutive years and has been the only Russian woman in the Forbes world's rating on the whole.

According to Forbes, self-made women billionaires currently make up a record 25% of all women billionaires, up from 21% last year and 11% a decade ago. Overall, the number of self-made women ranking among all women billionaires has more than doubled since 2009. Total wealth among self-made women has increased by 50% in the past five years and it now makes up about 16% of all women billionaires' wealth.

Yelena Baturina moved her business headquarters to Europe in 2011, after selling her main Russian asset, the construction company, Inteco. Since that time, she has been engaged in a number of successful commercial endeavours. At present her assets include a network of hotels (Ireland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Russia), renewable energy interests (Italy and Greece), a membrane construction enterprise (Germany), and development projects in Europe and the US. In addition, she has invested in a number of real estate investment funds focused on residential and commercial construction and development in the UK and US.

Yelena Baturina is also active in philanthropy. She founded cultural and social initiative BE OPEN 2011, which supports the promising minds of the next generation through a system of conferences, competitions, exhibitions, master classes and art events. Among other projects, BE OPEN is currently working in close partnership with the Mayor's Fund for London on a number of educational initiatives.