Meg Whitman, Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer: These are the richest women in tech
Women at the top of tech industry are raking in billions.
Hewlett-Packard chief executive Meg Whitman is the top earner with an estimated net worth of $1.3bn (£800m). The bulk of her handsome remuneration package comes from profits from the sales of her shares in eBay, which she led between 1998 and 2008 during a period of dramatic expansion.
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg – whose book famously implored women to "lean-in" – has an estimated net worth of $1.22bn, propelling her into second place. She received company shares upon joining Facebook in 2008, and has since been selling them to generate a nifty $700m in cash before taxes.
They were followed by Alibaba co-founder Lucy Peng, HTC chairman and co-founder Cher Wang as well as Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer, according to the research by wealth intelligence firm Wealth-X.
Like many of its counterparts, the notoriously male-dominated tech sector has a much-documented equal pay problem – which also holds true at the top.
The net worth of the richest women still lags far behind their male peers in the technology sector, Wealth-X said. For example, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has a net worth of around $85.1bn and Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg is worth at least $35bn.