There are a lot of things pizza chain employees are known for: delivering boxes of happiness to hangry customers, dealing with some scary on-the-job hazards, and creating pies so over-the-top, we've seriously questioned their sanity. One thing they're not typically associated with, though, is rollin' in dough — at least not the non-edible, kind that is. (According to Glassdoor, the average delivery driver makes somewhere in the $7 per hour range.) But one Midwestern woman has made pizza her life — and she just topped the Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women.
That title belongs to 84-year-old Marian Ilitch, who's worth a cool $5.1 billion. In 1959, she and her husband Mike opened a small pizza restaurant in Garden City, MI. You might recognize the name: They called it Little Caesars Pizza, after Marian's nickname for Mike. Between the two of them, they had marketing covered — his job — and finances, too — her forte. On opening day, the pair baked 49 pizzas, and they began franchising just three years later.
Today, Little Caesars operates in countries across the world and holds rank as the third most successful pizza chain in America — successes that people credit the Ilitches with. Marian is a self-taught accountant, never having gone to college. She's notoriously mum in interviews, but in a conversation with New York Times in the '90s, she said her secret is keeping things simple. Back then, thirty years into business, she still looked over the company-owned stores' income statements.
The Ilitch-grown chain now rakes in around $4 billion dollars in annual sales, but Mike's purchases over the years, including a number of sports teams, help pad Marion's self-worth. Hers almost doubles Oprah's $2.9 billion, and it's 10 times as large as Celine Dion's $400 million net worth. Taylor Swift is barely worth mentioning at $280 million. She's not just sitting on stacks of cash, though. The Ilitches have donated millions to tons of causes and organizations, including local medical and business schools.
So you see: Pie in the sky dreams really can come true.
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