“You have seen the sweet and docile side of Charlene. She owns a 92.59 per cent stake in the education company together with her aunt, Yang Meirong. He’s an associate at Lion Capital, a London-based private equity and buyout firm, and he joined the Heineken holding company board last year. Until her father’s passing, Charlene had no money to her name except a single share of Heineken stock—then worth 25.60 euros, or $32—that her father had given her. Its green credentials feature state-of-the-art technology aimed at reducing energy and water consumption by up to 40%. WomensDay Charlene and Michel’s advice to Alexander or whoever among their children eventually takes control: “Surround yourself with the best possible people who are not yes men and sycophants. In 2010, Heineken bought Femsa Cerveza, Mexico’s second-largest brewer. This story is from the December 22, 2014 issue of Fortune. Yang Huiyan is the daughter of Guangdong developer Yeung Kwok Keung, a self-made tycoon who founded Country Garden Holdings. Heineken still ranks as the world’s No. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យអន្តរជាតិ Charlene guides her children this way: “If you have a passion and the ability to pursue it, follow that,” she says. She came to Fortune reluctantly, coaxed by her outgoing, energetic 70-year-old husband, an investment banker who holds the vice chairman position at Citigroup’s investment bank and chairs Citi Private Bank in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region. Click here to take our family business relationships survey. You might say that one life ended and another began the day that Charlene de Carvalho buried her father. “Jean-François is one of the world’s great CEOs,” says Michel. Does your family business need a war room? Yang also chairs the Bright Scholar Education Holdings, the largest operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China. At age 20 she left the Netherlands. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យ​វិទ្យាសាស្ត្រ​សុខាភិបាល That’s because Freddy was an authoritarian boss who selected board members who would agree with him. Two days after they returned from their honeymoon in St. Croix and Virgin Gorda, something happened that would alter Charlene’s life dramatically. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! * វិទ្យាស្ថានជាតិពាណិជ្ជសាស្រ្ត The 53-year-old van Boxmeer has stretched the balance sheet in ways that Freddy never would have. Granddaughter to Frank C. Mars, the founder of the world’s largest candy maker, Jacqueline Mars is an heiress to Mars, Inc, and possesses an estimate of a third of its shares. “That’s the message we’ve been hearing.” Though they may opt to hand control to more than two of their children (see box). She is also the founder and chairperson of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which she established in 2011. And in September, on the same day that Charlene rejected SABMiller’s bid, she and Michel were in Chicago at a conference hosted by Byron Trott, a former Goldman Sachs executive who has his own firm, BDT & Co., to advise and invest for billionaire owners of closely held companies. “I was checking share prices and looking at board materials and made countless notes,” he says. She also serves on six boards, including at the Smithsonian and the National Archives. To understand Heineken and the woman who controls it, it helps to know a bit about the people who came before her. However, the ‘iron lady’ refuses to be called an heiress—and rightfully so. “It’s not a very crowded legacy,” he says. When she was 17, he wouldn’t let her leave home for college. You want people who express doubt.”. The King also visited the company at the Universal Exhibition of 1992, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Don Alfonso XIII, who visited the Iberian-American Exhibition of 1929. Particularly after her father was kidnapped 31 years ago, she worked hard to live below the radar—for many years content to be unknown even to employees of the company that bears her name. * វ់ទ្យាស្ថាន វ៉ាន់ដា Your use of this site is governed by the Terms and Conditions. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យភ្នំពេញអន្តរជាតិ Click here to take our family business relationships survey. She has since been channeling her energy in her for-profit social firm Emerson Collective, as well as other philanthropic initiatives. “It was an unbreakable bond,” says Michel. © 2020 Tatler Asia Limited. “We all have exactly the same problem,” says Michel. Gerard had one son, Henry, who chaired Heineken for 23 years and lost family control of the company in 1942 when he sold shares to pay for taxes and brewery expansion. With $24.9 billion in 2013 revenue, the company has an enviable portfolio of premium brands such as Amstel, Dos Equis, Sol, and the eponymous green-bottled lager that is the most widely distributed beer on earth. Wooing Charlene Heineken from the grip of her father turned out to be the ultimate sport for de Carvalho. After Alexander, their first child, arrived in 1984, Charlene had three more, including twin girls, within four years. For the next 21 days Charlene and her mother holed up with a squad of police and hostage negotiators at the seaside Heineken home in Noordwijk, 50 kilometers southwest of Amsterdam. The King was said to be very impressed with the new brewery, nicknamed “Jumbo”, because of its scale and size, as he greeted the workers and uncovered a plaque commemorating his visit. She also steered Hancock into the beef sector, becoming Australia’s third largest cattle producer. As the couple met with managers and investors around the world—initially, he more than she, since they had young children at home—they spent many hours at night comparing notes. “Heineken is the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning and the last thing I think about when I go to bed,” he says. Every day he wears Freddy’s watch—“a very scratched, very old simple Rolex”—and he goes out of his way to hail a Heineken-branded taxi to ride to work. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យចំរើនពហុបច្ចេកវិទ្យា “I’m finding it fascinating,” she recalls thinking. Charlene and Michel, who is a Heineken director, called on the board to replace the then-CEO with a more aggressive leader. Charlene and Michel recently hired a British consultant on inherited wealth, Martin Jenkins, to talk with the family about, as Michel said in a letter to the five children in June, “your ambitions, desires, questions, maybe even fears of inheriting a legacy.” Jenkins meets with the family as a group and with the individual children, now 23 to 29, whom their parents call the “G-5.”. Today he calls Charlene “my boss.” Michel’s proposition the day of Freddy’s burial was, she says, “my wake-up call.”. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យមេអង្គកម្ពុជា The company is now a leader in true specialty chemicals like paint, coatings, adhesives and more. As she left her father’s grave, her husband put her on the spot. Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, Heineken. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យអាស៊ីអ៊ឺរ៉ុប * សាលាជាតិកសិកម្មព្រែកលៀប Of course we marked the bills, but you couldn’t see it,” says Charlene. Before she sat down with Fortune in Amsterdam for this story, she had never spoken with the media. The third generation heiress to Fidelity Investments—the privately held mutual fund giant founded by her grandfather Edward C. Johnson II—and the first woman to take over its reins, Abigail Johnson has proven herself to be one of the most powerful women in finance. Since becoming the CEO of Fidelity Investments in 2014 and its chairperson in 2016, Johnson has quickly shaken things up at the 72-year-old firm, steering away from its traditional, open-end mutual funds and introducing millennial-friendly zero-fee index funds. “That is probably a side that you should leave dormant.”. This 25% stake came with voting control, meaning that her single vote outweighed the votes of other investors on any board matter. Unlike her brothers, Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, doesn’t have an active role in running the world’s largest retailer. * វិទ្យាស្ថានបច្ចេកវិទ្យាកម្ពុជា She studied French in Geneva and photography in New York City. The 29-year-old Alexander has been interested in the family business since he was 8 years old. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យអាយអាយស៊ីនៃបច្ចេកវិទ្យា Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken wasn’t always groomed to take over Heineken, the world’s second largest brewer. For an overprotected heiress who didn’t know what she wanted out of life, he was quite a catch. Sign up for our newsletters to get all our top stories delivered. But don’t just pass her off for another German heiress—Klatten was instrumental in transforming her grandfather’s Altana AG into a world-class pharmaceutical/specialty chemical corporation and was committed to the development of the company as an investor before fully acquiring it in 2008. But he loved competing, and he went back to the Olympics as a member of Britain’s luge team in 1972 and 1976. “I lived off his salary and his bonus in his house,” she says, referring to Michel. “These companies tend to outperform the market over long periods of time.” Trott advises the de Carvalhos: “Keep doing what you’re doing, because you’re doing it very well.” —P.S. “He had to be boss,” says Charlene. In September, London-based SABMiller made an unsolicited bid for the company. Michel adds: “I would be very disappointed if three or four executives wouldn’t consider themselves to be candidates, but in Holland and in London, unlike the U.S., putting yourself even slightly above the parapet is a recipe for disaster.”, Learning how to preserve the dynasty has become the de Carvalhos’ most important mission. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យ កម្ពុជា “In his dreams, I would have married a nice Dutch boy and lived next door,” she says. “If we get that wrong, we’ve wasted our energy on all that we’ve built,” says Michel de Carvalho, the investment banker husband of Charlene Heineken. The group’s most notable assets include Banco de Chile, the second biggest bank in Chile; Compañía de las Cervecerías Unidas, Chile’s largest brewer; Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores, the largest and one of the oldest shipping company in Latin America; and manages some of the largest copper mines in the world under Antofagasta Holdings. His parents are pleased that Alexander wants the job of guarding and guiding the family business. disney The richest woman in the world (at the time of writing), Françoise Bettencourt Meyers ranks 14 on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យបញ្ញាជាតិ But they’re not counting out younger son Charles, 23, who is working for an Internet retailer in Vietnam, or oldest daughter Louisa, 28, who has worked in film production and is now with a spirits company in London. He led the acquisition of Edinburgh-based Scottish & Newcastle for $15.5 billion, in partnership with Carlsberg—a deal that fortified Heineken in the European beer market and gave it a major footprint in the fast-growing cider category. Javascript is disabled!common.-_please_enable_js, With International Women's Day approaching, we shine the spotlight on 10 of the most powerful women around the world, and how they made their fortunes. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យអង្គរ The widow of Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs inherited US$20 billion worth of stakes in Apple and Disney when her husband passed away in 2011. The matriarch of Chile’s richest family, Iris Fontbona inherited the Luksic Group upon her husband Andrónico Luksic’s death in 2005. * វិទ្យាស្ថានជាតិពហុបច្ចេកទេសកម្ពុជា And they made clear that they were not fooling around. * សាកលវិទ្យាល័យ​ភូមិន្ទ​កសិកម្ម​ចំការដូង * វិទ្យាស្ថានជាតិបណ្តុះបណ្តាលបច្ចេកទេស Carvalho-Heineken has shared that she views her leadership as more of a guardianship and is grooming her children to take over the family business. And in fact, the transfer of control from Freddy to his daughter was a wake-up call for Heineken too. She interned at Heineken in Paris, where she followed the local boss around to get a taste for the family business.