| Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken | |
| Birth Name: | Charlene Heineken |
| Birth Date: | 30 June 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Education: | Rijnlands Lyceum Wassenaar |
| Alma Mater: | Leiden University |
| Spouse: | [1] |
| Children: | 5 |
| Parents: | Freddy Heineken Lucille Cummins |
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]
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]
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]
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. 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]