CNN :She’s been dubbed the Russian “Tsarina,” a former circuit-board-equipment seller who happened to sit next to one of the world’s richest business moguls on a plane-and now heads his company.Meet Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the chairperson of French commodities giant Louis Dreyfus Holdings, with a net worth estimated at an eye-watering $6 billion according to Forbes.Orphaned at seven after her parents died in a train accident, Louis-Dreyfus was raised by her grandfather in what was then the Soviet Union, studying law at Moscow State University.She met her future husband, billionaire Robert Louis-Dreyfus, on a plane in 1988. When he died from leukemia two decades later, the mother of three was left in charge of one of the biggest commodity companies on the planet, as well as the French football club Olympique de Marseille. You might not recognize the 160-year-old Louis Dreyfus firm, but it’s the one trading 70 million tonnes of agricultural goods each year, employing 30,000 people. And since 1851 it’s been handed down from one male heir to another-until now.Margarita Louis-Dreyfus sat down with CNN’s Leading Women to talk about the act of “fate” that sat her next to her future husband, how his illness taught her to manage “big egos,” and her plans for a company which claims to feed and clothe 500 million people worldwide.Margarita Louis-Dreyfus with Vincent Labrune, president of French football club Olympique de Marseille, of which she is the owner.
