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. As of July 2024, Forbes estimated her net worth at US$14.1 billion.[2]
Early life
[edit]Charlene Heineken was born on 30 June 1954, the daughter of Freddy Heineken, a Dutch industrialist, and Lucille Cummins, an American from a Kentucky family of bourbon whiskey distillers. She was educated at Rijnlands Lyceum Wassenaar, followed by a law degree from Leiden University.[2]
Career
[edit]She owns a 25% controlling stake in Dutch brewer Heineken, of which she is also an executive director.[3]
The biannual Heineken Prize for cognitive science is named after her.[4]
Personal life
[edit]She is married to Michel de Carvalho, a British financier, director of Citigroup and a former Olympic skier, whom she met on a ski holiday in St. Moritz, Switzerland.[5] He is known for portraying T.E. Lawrence's ill-fated servant Farraj in the 1962 film classic Lawrence of Arabia as a teen, and he is currently a member of the supervisory board of Heineken NV. They reside in London with their five children.[2][6][7]
Upon the death of her father in 2002, Charlene inherited about £3 billion, making her the wealthiest person with Dutch citizenship.[8][9] Prior to that, she had no money to her name except for one share of Heineken stock.[1] 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.[10] Charlene's wealth in 2021 was estimated by Forbes at $16.7 billion making her 116th among the world's billionaires.[11]
