Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken (born 30 June 1954) is a Dutch
billionaire 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.
Early life
Charlene Heineken was born on 30 June 1954, the daughter of
Freddy Heineken, 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 ...
family of
bourbon whiskey distillers. She was educated at
Rijnlands Lyceum Wassenaar, followed by a law degree from
Leiden University.
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 Feb ...
, of which she is also an executive director.
The biannual
Heineken Prize 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'' (u ...
, a financier and director of
Citigroup, 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 f ...
Sunday Times Rich List 2010: Britain's richest see wealth rise by one third
2010-04-24 In 2019, the ''
Sunday Times Rich List'' ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK named her the wealthiest woman and the 7th overall, with an estimated fortune of £12 billion.
See also
*
List of Dutch by net worth
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