The 47-year-old, Zhou Qunfei has beome the
youngest self-made female billionaire in the
world after dropping out of high school.
According to Metro, the woman who is the
founder and CEO of Lens Technology which
makes glass screens for iPhones became a
multi-billionaire after her company went
public in 2015 and her net worth is now
estimated to be £7.6 billion.
That total makes her not only the youngest
self-made female billionaire on the planet
but also the richest self-made woman on
earth.
Not bad for someone who dropped out of
school in China aged 16 to work on the floor
of a watch lens factory. Zhou’s story to
success began at the age of 22 when she
founded her own company making watch
lenses in 1993, according to Money.
‘During the period of China’s rapid economic
growth, there were plenty of opportunities
for entrepreneurs, including women,’ she
told AFR.
‘It allowed me to develop my business.
‘It allowed me to develop my business.’
In 2015, she told the Times she chose to
pursue business instead of getting married
or engaged at 16, like many girls in her
village.
She started working in the phone industry
in 2003 when Motorola approached her to
work on a scratch-proof lens for its new
Razr V3 phone.
It started taking orders from HTC, Nokia,
Samsung and then Apple for its first iPhone.
Today her company is worth £8.4billion and
has 32 factories, employing more than
90,000 staff. She is married with two
children from a previous marriage but still
manages to pull 18 hour days and keeps
living quarters in her office.
