There aren’t many women in the world who have created their own multi-billion-dollar fortune from scratch. As a matter of fact, female billionaires are much rarer than their male counterparts. For many years, Diane Hendricks, the widow of Ken Hendricks, has held the first spot on this exclusive list.
As of 2024, Diane Hendricks’ net worth is estimated at $21 billion – and rising.
If you look at the lists of the richest people in the world, you’ll find that only around 10-15% of that list are women. These days, Hendricks sits second in the race for the richest woman in the world, right after Rafaela Aponte-Diamant from Switzerland.
She stands in the ranks of Taylor Swift, Peggy Cherng, and Sheryl Sandberg.
To learn more about her inspiring story, keep reading.
How Much is Diane Hendricks Worth in 2024?
Net Worth: Estimated at $21 billion.
Source of Wealth: Co-founder of ABC Supply, real estate investor, film producer.
Real Estate: Owns properties worth over $1.2 million, including luxury residences.
ABC Supply Earnings: Owns 100% of ABC Supply, the largest wholesale distributor of roofing materials in the U.S.
Other Ventures: Owns Hendricks Holding, which includes multiple businesses across various sectors.
Political Contributions: Known for her donations to conservative causes, including $5 million to the Super PAC Make America Great Again.
Diane Hendricks’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown
Hendricks’ story and rise to fame are truly impressive.
The American billionaire, film producer, and businesswoman co-founded ABC Supply, the building materials distributor that propelled her family’s fortune to incredible heights.
She then used the gains from the business to keep growing her empire, ultimately reaching the status of America’s richest self-made woman a few years back.
Hendricks’ fortune mostly stems from her sole ownership of ABC, but she also earns millions from her Hendricks Holding business and has earned an undisclosed amount from film production. After detailed research, we put together a breakdown of her main assets and sources of income:
| Asset or Income Source | Contribution to Net Worth |
| ABC Supply ownership | $20.4 billion |
| Hendricks Holding, majority or sole ownership | $230 million annually |
| Real estate | $1.2 million |
| Movie production | Undisclosed |
| Total Net Worth | $21 billion |
6 Fun Facts About Diane Hendricks
- From Playboy Bunny to Billionaire: Hendricks worked as a Playboy Bunny before building her business empire.
- Self-Made Woman: One of the richest self-made women in the world, with a fortune largely stemming from ABC Supply.
- Largest Distributor: ABC Supply has over 970 locations and brings in billions in revenue.
- Hollywood Producer: Produced the movie The Stoning of Soraya M and An American Carol.
- Political Influencer: Donated millions to Republican campaigns and served as an advisor to Donald Trump.
- Philanthropist: Donates to various causes, including education and health initiatives.
Latest News & Controversies
Here’s a quick rundown of the latest news surrounding Diane Hendricks as of late 2024:
- Political Spotlight: Hendricks, a significant GOP donor, recently highlighted the “American Dream” at the 2024 Republican National Convention, emphasizing threats she sees to U.S. opportunities under current policies. She has been a vocal supporter of conservative initiatives, particularly for Donald Trump and GOP campaigns.
- Business Expansion: ABC Supply, her building supply company, has expanded into Canada, boosting her net worth to around $21 billion.
- Community and Philanthropy: Locally, Hendricks contributes to economic and community programs in Wisconsin, supporting education and health initiatives through various foundations.
Early Life and Education
Diane Marie Hendricks (née Smith) was born in Mondovi, Wisconsin on March 2, 1947. The family lived in Osseo, Wisconsin, where they owned and worked on a dairy farm.
Growing up on a farm, Hendricks often dreamed of moving to Minneapolis, where she could “drive fancy cars and wear blue suits”. She once said:
I don’t want to be a farmer, and I don’t want to marry a farmer.
However, she became pregnant and had her first child at seventeen, so she completed her senior year of high school from home, followed by a series of odd jobs to support her family. She graduated from Osseo-Fairchild High School in 1965. At that time, she worked as a Playboy Bunny to pay her bills and take care of her child.
“That’s when I really started to look at a career, a career I’d always dreamt of having, which was being in business,” she said.
Three years after she gave birth, young Diane Smith filed for divorce from her high school sweetheart and the father of her child and started working toward a career in real estate.
In 1975, she met and started dating the roofing contractor Ken Hendricks, whom she married soon after. Ken was a high school dropout who was helping his father, a roofer, while Diane was selling custom-built homes when they met.
Today, Diane Hendricks has seven children and lives in Afton, Wyoming. In 2006, her husband Ken Hendricks passed away from injuries suffered in a fall in what the police believe was an accident. He fell through a subfloor into the garage of his home.
Diane Hendricks Net Worth: How the Playboy Bunny Built a Multi-Billion Dollar Business
These days, Diane Hendricks earns millions through different ventures and investments, but the company that propelled her to billionaire status was ABC Supply, the wholesale distributor she founded with her husband Ken Hendricks.
Let’s take a look at how they built their massive fortune from scratch.
The Founding and Growth of ABC Supply
In 1982, Diane and her husband Ken took out a $900,000 loan from Beloit Savings Bank and invested all their savings and assets to launch their company, ABC Supply. Today, the business is one of the largest wholesale distributors in the nation, working with roofing materials, windows, gutters, and sidings for commercial and residential buildings.
According to the company’s official website, the couple were already successful entrepreneurs when they founded the business, owning two companies – Hendricks Real Estate Properties and International Roofing.
They decided not to hunker down during the early 80s recession, and instead took on the risk of starting a new business, using the loan to acquire three supply centers from Bird & Sons.
They used the centers as the first locations of the American Builders and Contractors Supply. In 2022, she told Forbes that she and her husband decided to start the company after they saw the deficit of one-stop shops for roofing materials made by different manufacturers.
Fast forward five years and ABC Supply has expanded to include 50 stores. In 1998, the business brought in $1 billion in annual sales revenue.
ABC Supply grew rapidly by opening new facilities and acquiring other distributors. The two biggest acquisitions of the company were Bradco Supply Corp. with its 128 locations in 2010, and L&W Supply with its 136 locations across 36 states.
In 2022, the Hendricks family expanded their business to Canada by acquiring the Monarch Group, based in Alberta. Today, they have over 970 locations in the United States and Canada, making ABC Supply the largest wholesale distributor of exterior and interior building products in North America.
Following her husband’s death in 2007, Diane Hendricks owns ABC Supply in its entirety, and has been the chair since. Today, the business has grown to be worth over $20.4 billion, according to its official website.
Diane Hendricks’ Political Activities
For years now, Hendricks has been known to make major donations to conservative causes and Republican politicians. In 2012, for instance, she donated half a million dollars to the campaign of Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Governor, which made her his biggest donor of the year.
In 2014, Hendricks donated $1 million to the Super PAC Freedom Partners Action Fund, created by the Republican brothers Koch. In 2015/2016, she donated a total of $2 million to the same fund.
During the run-up to the presidential election in 2016, Hendricks donated over $5 million to the Republican super PAC Reform America Fund, working closely with Donald Trump as an advisor in his campaign.
The Reform America Fund opposed the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, supporting the US Senator Ron Johnson.
In 2018, before the resignation of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Hendricks donated $50,000 to his Legal Expenses Trust.
In 2020, she once again supported Trump, this time donating $1.1 million to his presidential campaign. She also contributed to the campaign of Marjorie Taylor Green, Georgia’s representative, and donated $5 million to the Super PAC Make America Great Again in 2023.
Philanthropic Endeavors
Hendricks is a co-chair of Rock Country 5.0. This is an initiative designed to advance the economic development plan of Rock County, Wisconsin.
She has also been part of boards of charitable organizations such as:
- Stateline Boys & Girls Club
- Beloit Foundation
- Beloit Memorial Hospital
- Forward Janesville
Diane Hendricks Net Worth: Other Ventures and Investments
For the most part, Hendricks’ net worth comes from her stock and earnings through ABC Supply. However, this isn’t the only source of her wealth.
Hendricks Holding
The same year the Hendricks family founded ABC, they also founded a conglomerate called Hendricks Holding. This company manages various enterprises in different fields including logistics, real estate, transportation, and insurance.
Some of its biggest holdings include:
- American Aluminum Extrusion Company, which supplies aluminum parts
- Federal Health Sign Company, provider of visual communications technology
- American Westbrook Insurance Services
- GEM Pharmaceuticals
- Hendricks Commercial Properties, LLC for real estate
- Henry Technologies Holdings
- Rivers Edge Foundry
- Humane Manufacturing, which manufactures recycled flooring and rubber mats
- North Star Medical Technologies
- Mule-Hide Products
- Merrill & Houston, a steakhouse
- Universal Recycling Technologies
The revenue of Hendricks Holding is significantly smaller compared to ABC, but this is a very successful holding still. Its revenue was $230 million in 2023.
Producing Career
Hendricks has also dabbled in the movie industry, working as a producer on several feature films.
In 2008, she helped produce the Persian-language movie The Stoning of Soraya M, which featured Jim Cavizel and Sahohreh Aghdashloo. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Director’s Choice Award.
In the same year, Hendricks produced David Zucker’s comedy An American Carol, which was a major success at the box office.
In 2010, she also produced Snowmen.
Real Estate
Hendricks’ success hasn’t come without controversies.
Perhaps her mo0st inflammatory scandal was linked to her real estate assets. In 2016, which was the first year she topped America’s Richest Self-Made Women list, she was subjected to many controversies regarding her tax payments.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Hendricks “didn’t pay a dime in state income tax between 2012 and 2014.” The investigation found that her multi-story home in Town of Rock, Rock County, which is her primary residence, was assessed as a 1,663-square-foot ranch, while it was actually 8,500 square feet.
Hendricks denied the tax assessor from accessing her property for security reasons (supposedly) but agreed to supply them with data on the home, which led to a change in the property’s assessment from $445,700 to $1,205,500.
She most likely wasn’t asked to pay the difference for the previous years, seeing how this wasn’t necessarily illegal.
What Can We Learn from Diane Hendricks’ Story?
Hendricks’ story offers several valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as individuals who strive to overcome professional and personal difficulties.
Despite facing many early challenges, such as becoming a mother at 17 and becoming a single mother after getting divorced a few years later, Hendricks has demonstrated adaptability and resilience.
She transitioned from working various jobs to pursuing a career in real estate, showing that determination can pave the way to success.
Furthermore, her decision to co-found ABC with her late husband, despite economic uncertainties, underscores the importance of calculated risks and strategic partnerships. The couple’s willingness to invest their savings and take on a substantial loan to invest in an idea they believe in highlights the potential rewards of taking bold, well-considered risks.
Hendricks’ wealth is not solely derived from ABC.
Her diversified portfolio of businesses, as well as her film production projects, illustrates the importance of expanding your investment horizons. Diversification can provide multiple revenue streams and enhance your financial stability.
The rapid expansion of ABC from a few centers to over 970 locations showcases the family’s commitment to growth and innovation. Continuous improvement and scaling up operations are the keys to long-term success in business.
Finally, the controversies surrounding her tax assessments emphasize the need for integrity and transparency in business practices. She has handled such issues with a willingness to rectify her mistakes, which is important for maintaining trust and credibility.