Marian Ilitch ranks eighth on Forbes' list of richest self-made women list
A Michigan businesswoman beat out the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian on Forbes' recently released America’s Richest Self-Made Women list.
Marian Ilitch, founder and chairwoman of Ilitch Holdings Inc., is the only Michigan resident on the list, ranking eighth with a net worth of $4 billion. The list ranks 100 women who are cumulatively worth a record $124 billion, Forbes said, up nearly 12% from a year ago.
Building supply distributor Diane Hendricks ranked first for the sixth year in a row, with a $15 billion net worth, Forbes said. Also on the list are Elaine Wynn, who co-founded Wynn Resorts with her then-husband Steve Wynn; Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, and the fashion designer Tory Burch.
Ilitch, 90, has been on Forbes' America's Richest Self-Made Women list consistently over the last several years and topped the list in 2017, according to news reports at the time. Forbes said to be eligible for the list, women have to have substantially made their own fortunes in the U.S. and/or be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, according to an explanation of its methodology on its list from last year. To compile net worth, Forbes valued individual assets including stakes in public companies and valued private companies by consulting with outside experts.
How did Marian Ilitch make her fortune?
Ilitch is a first-generation American, the daughter of Macedonian immigrants. She got her start in the food business as a young girl filling napkin containers and salt and pepper shakers in her father’s restaurant, according to her biography on Ilitch Holdings' website, and graduated from Fordson High School in Dearborn.
After her third child was born, Marian and her husband, Mike, who died in 2017, opened a single Little Caesars pizza shop in Garden City, Michigan, in 1959. Little Caesars is now the third-largest pizza chain in the world, with stores in each of the 50 U.S. states and in more than 27 countries around the world.
Together, Mike and Marian purchased the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers and the Fox Theatre.
Marian invested in Detroit’s MotorCity Casino in 1999 and in 2005 became sole owner of the casino. In 2021, the Ilitch family organization purchased half of Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort.
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Who is running the Ilitch family organization today?
Mike and Marian's son Chris Ilitch runs the day-to-day operations of Ilitch Holdings as its president and CEO. Under that umbrella are Little Caesars, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Tigers, Olympia Development and the live entertainment company 313 Presents, among other companies.
Olympia Development of Michigan, in partnership with New York megadeveloper Stephen Ross' The Related Cos., is in the midst of a development project called District Detroit, which calls for 10 new or rehabilitated buildings in and around downtown Detroit, including 1.2 million square feet of new office space, nearly 700 new apartments and two new hotels.
Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Marian Ilitch beats out Rihanna, Oprah on richest self-made women list
