Trailblazers in their industries, determined, hardworking and inspiring: these are Australia’s top 30 female entrepreneurs for 2015.
Each year SmartCompany publishes its list of the top female entrepreneurs ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8.
This year the list generated a combined revenue of $10.656 billion.
That compares to last year’s list which generated revenue of $6.127 billion.
The list is topped again this year by Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
But the list honours women from a range of industries, from fashion to finance.
Each woman has earned her place on this list as the owner of a business which has revenue of more than $25 million a year.
Here are the top ten:
The list of Australia’s top female entrepreneurs is ranked according to revenue.
Where possible, revenue has been provided by the entrepreneurs; if not,SmartCompany has sourced the revenue from publicly available sources, industry contacts or internal estimates. An asterisk (*) denotes where revenue has been estimated.
Be prepared to be inspired by their stories:
1. Gina Rinehart
Company: Hancock Prospecting
Established: 1955
Revenue: $2.63 billion
As the county’s richest person, Gina Rinehart is a fixture at the top of Australian business leader lists. While her wealth has slipped in recent years due to falling commodity prices, she still sits on a majority stake (76.6%) of Hancock Prospecting, the mining empire her father Lang Hancock established in 1955.
Her iron ore joint venture with Rio Tinto remains Hancock Prospecting’s most profitable project, helping the company turn over $2.63 billion in the 2014 financial year, according to a filing with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. But the company also expects its Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara to turn into a money-spinner if commodity prices steady.
Although she has maintained her mantle as Australia’s top female entrepreneur this year, the last 12 months have been rocky for the mining heiress. Rinehart faced fresh legal battles with her children who are battling their mother for a 23.5% stake in the business. Rinehart also launched legal action against the Nine Entertainment Network over a biopic of her family’s dynasty.
Forbes’ annual Rich List estimated Rinehart’s personal wealth at around $US11.7 billion ($A15 billion), despite a $US6 billion hit to her hip pocket thanks to the downturn in iron ore prices, making the 61-year-old the world’s 90th richest person.
2. Katie Page
Company: Harvey Norman
Established: 1982
Revenue: $2.547 billion (with Gerry Harvey)
Chief executive of Harvey Norman, Katie Page is one of only a handful (3.5%) of women to have the top job at an ASX200 company.
Alongside her husband and Harvey Norman founder, Gerry Harvey, Page controls the ASX-listed global homewares and electronics retail empire that turned over $2.547 billion in company revenue in the last financial year. And despite the retail downtown, the company’s latest financial results released last Friday show a 27% jump in global profits.
The retailer revealed company retail operations of $842.87 million for the first half of the 2014-15 financial year, meaning if the second half of the year remains consistent, Harvey Norman is on track to turn over $5 billion in company revenue for the full year. A booming Australian property market has seen Aussies turn to the retailer in droves, but questions remain as to whether Harvey Norman can fight off cheaper international players continuing to flood into the Australian market.
Page, who started her career with Harvey Norman in 1983 as an assistant, is a big supporter of women in business. She has previously said women need to push themselves to shrug off the fear of making a mistake in order to match their male counterparts in the business world.
3. Vicky Teoh
Company: TPG
Established: 1992
Revenue: $970 million (with David Teoh)
Vicky Teoh founded a computer hardware retail business Total Peripherals with husband David in 1992, and has since grown the business into one of Australia’s largest telecommunications providers, TPG.
Taking on telco rivals Telstra and Optus for a share of Australia’s internet provider market, the ASX-listed company turned over $970 million in the 2014 financial year. Teoh and her husband own 36.74%, or more than 291 million shares, in TPG’s capital.
The Teohs, who immigrated to Australia from Malaysia in 1986, are an intensely private couple that have largely stayed out of the media’s eye, but they have previously flagged an intention to take on the Abbott government’s NBN Co. TPG is now ramping up its stake in the market with it fiber-to-the-basement (FTTB) product.
4. Lesley Gillespie
Company: Bakers Delight
Established: 1980 (becoming a franchise in 1988)
Revenue: $585 million (with Roger Gillespie)
Despite Lesley Gillespie saying “there wasn’t a grand plan to have a Bakers Delight in every shopping centre in Australia” the bakery franchise edges closer to achieving retail ubiquity each year, boasting more than 700 bakeries across Australia, New Zealand and Canada. And the couple has flagged plans to open “a lot more stores” in coming years, not ruling out making a further expansion into the US.
The Bakers Delight network turned over more than $585 million in 2013-14 – a long way from the single bakery the Gillespies opened in 1980 in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. The couple still owns and manages about 30 bakeries within the company.
Co-founder, executive director and joint CEO of the business, Gillespie was last year honoured alongside her husband as a “champion of entrepreneurship” at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Southern Region awards last year. She has also previously been singled out for her philanthropy work, which has seen Bakers Delight raise more than $7.7 million for Breast Cancer Network Australia through the sale of its pink iced buns.
5. Naomi Milgrom
Company: ARJ Group
Established: 1939
Revenue: $490 million
Chief executive officer of the ARJ Group – the parent company of Sussan, Sportsgirl and Suzanne Grae chains – Naomi Milgrom has a retail presence in almost every major Australian shopping hub, making her one of Australian high street fashion’s most powerful names.
In 2014, the company generated total revenue of $490 million and employed more than 3900 staff across its 500-store network. But ARJ faces continued strain from a fashion retail downturn and competition from international fashion players such as Zara and H&M.
The entrepreneur last month told the Retail Futures Forum in Melbourne she recognised an increasing pressure on ARJ to focus on its digital channels over its bricks-and-mortar stores and flagged the potential to expand into international markets through its online presence, according to Fairfax.
“From my point of view, I love that idea [of selling to big markets overseas] because I actually don’t want any more bricks-and-mortar stores. I don’t want to open a store in Singapore, but I do have the opportunity to market my online stores in those territories,” Milgrom said.
For the full list of Australia’s top 30 entrepreneurs for 2015, see the original article here.