Meet Diane Hendricks: From Playboy Bunny To Billionaire Entrepreneur

Dian Hendricks is listed as the most successful businesswoman in American history with a net worth of over $15 billion.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Gazi Abbas Shahid

Updated: June 8, 2023, 5:16 PM IST

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Dian Hendricks is listed as the most successful businesswoman in American history with a net worth of over $15 billion.

New Delhi: At 17, she gave birth to a child and during the 1960s worked as a Playboy Bunny to pay her bills, now 76, Diane Hendricks is the richest woman entrepreneur in American history, according to a list released by business magazine Forbes.

Diane Hendricks’ awe-inspiring journey from an underage mom who worked as a Playboy Bunny, to a billionaire businesswoman is marked with inspirational tales of overcoming adversity.

As per the Forbes Magazine, Diane overcame the tragic passing of her husband and battled against cancer twice on her way to becoming America’s most successful self-made billionaire. Commenting on overcoming adversities during her life Diane sums up her mantra of becoming successful in life: “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

During her formative years, Diane Hendricks bought broken down houses, fixed them herself, and rented the places to college students to make ends meet.

Diane recalls that she even had to clean the toilets of the houses she purchased in her attempt to cut down maintenance costs of her owned properties.

Now, 76, Dian Hendricks is listed as the most successful businesswoman in American history with a net worth of over $15 billion, as per the Forbes Magazine’s list of top successful women entrepreneurs in the country.

Diane is also a renowned Hollywood film producer with critically-acclaimed movies like the Johnny Depp-starrer ‘The Professor’ (2018) and ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’ to her credit.

Diane, who holds the title for the richest billionaire for the sixth consecutive year, is the chairman of ABC Supply, one of America’s largest wholesale distributors of building supplies like roofing, siding, and windows. The business was co-founded by Diane and her late husband, Ken Hendricks, in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1982.

After Ken’s tragic death in 2007, Diane rose to head the flourishing business and during her tenure as chairman, ABC Supply has made two of the largest in its history. In 2010, the company bought out their key rival Bradco and later, in 2016, ABC completed the merger of building materials distributor L&W Supply.

ABC Supply currently has over 900 branches across the United States and made 18.5 billion in revenues in fiscal year 2022.