790th richest person in the world as on Thursday, February 16, media-shy heir of a pharma fortune, Leena Tewari is currently the third richest woman in India. She chairs privately held USV India, which her late father Vithal Gandhi set up with Revlon over six decades ago in 1961.
The 65-year-old businesswoman was on the 51st spot on Forbes’ India’s Richest 2022 list while was at the number 778 position on the richest billionaires 2022 list. Just behind politician and businesswoman Savitri Jindal and late ‘Big Bull’ Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s wife Rekha Jhunjhunwala, India’s 3rd richest female Tewari is worth billions.
As on February 16, 2023, Forbes estimates her net worth at $3.7 billion or over Rs 30,000 crore. The richest Indian female Savitri Jindal has a net worth of $17 billion (Rs 1,40,659 crore) and second richest female Rekha Jhunjhunwala has a fortune of $5.9 billion.
In 2016, she had a net worth of $1.7 billion which increased to $2 billion a year later in 2017. Tewari’s net worth further surged to $2.4 billion in 2018 but took a slight hit in 2019 and came down to $1.9 billion which remained almost same in 2020 too. Before touching $3.8 billion in 2022, Leena Tewari’s fortune was $3.5 billion in 2021.
The mother of two, Tewari did her MBA from Boston University and completed B.Com from the University of Mumbai. She loves animals and travels into forests across India.
USV India, which Tewari is chairing, specialises in diabetic and cardiovascular drugs, with a portfolio that spans biosimilar drugs, injectables and active pharmaceutical ingredients. The $511 million (revenue) company is run by her husband, Prashant, an Indian Institute of Technology graduate and mechanical engineer from Cornell.
The pharma company had acquired German generics firm Juta Pharma for an undisclosed sum in 2018.
Tewari’s daughter Aneesha Gandhi Tewari has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT and was appointed to USV’s board in August 2022. Her son Vilas, who founded a gaming outfit in Los Angeles, has a board seat at USV.
