Ninety-two-year-old Joan Payden, with a whopping net worth of $700 million or Rs 5794 crore, is one of America's richest self-made women, as per Forbes. Born and raised in Derby, Connecticut in 1931, Payden spent her teenage years in Indonesia.
After returning to the US, Ms Payden completed a dual degree in maths and physics at Trinity College, graduating in 1953, which was a rare achievement for women at that time.
She was among few women in engineering in the 1950s at a New Jersey-based company building oil refineries. However, she was laid off, which became a momentous point in her career.
Thereafter, Payden began a career in finance. She later joined Merrill Lynch, an investment management company. "I was hired at a 25% discount because I didn't know the difference between a bond and stock," she said to the Los Angeles Times in 1999.
Gradually, Payden's career flourished and was hired by Scudder, Stevens & Clark, an investment counselling firm, where she became the first woman partner.
In 1983, at 52, Ms Payden established Payden & Rygel with colleague Sandra Rygel, which targetted fixed income and global markets. "There are always worries. When I set up the company, I worried I wouldn't get clients. But that was no problem," she told the Los Angeles Times.
Currently, after four decades, the company has become one of the country's largest private money managers, with $162 billion in assets under management.
Despite her achievements, Payden is humble and connected to philanthropy. She has donated millions to causes like animal welfare to education.
