Diane Hendricks

Diane Hendricks was born on a farm in Mondovi, Wisconsin, the fourth of nine girls, and grew up on her family’s dairy farm in Osseo.⁠[1][2]

By age ten she knew she wanted more than an agricultural life, recalling: “I don’t want to be a farmer, and I don’t want to marry a farmer.” She wanted to wear a blue suit and work in the city, in Minneapolis.⁠[2]

She later moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, worked at the local Playboy Club, and then sold real estate across southern Wisconsin and began selling custom-built homes.⁠[2]

At 22, while selling custom homes, she met roofing contractor Ken Hendricks, and they married in 1976. In three years the couple bought 200 old homes, fixed them up and rented them to college students; she recalled: “I cleaned a lot of toilets.”⁠[2][3]

In 1982 the Hendrickses pledged everything they owned and took out a $900,000 bank loan to buy two struggling building supply stores, founding American Builders & Contractors Supply Co. (ABC Supply) in Beloit, Wisconsin. The company bought directly from manufacturers and sold to contractors and project builders, emphasizing customer service.⁠[2][4][3]

Within five years ABC had 50 stores and approximately $140 million in sales.⁠[2]

In 1992 ABC Supply became the 12th-largest privately held company in Wisconsin. Its sales reached $1 billion in 1998, the year the couple recruited Bridgestone executive David Luck as ABC’s president.⁠[5][2]

In 2001 Diane and Ken Hendricks established Hendricks Holding Company, Inc.⁠[4]

On December 21, 2007, Ken Hendricks fell through a new roof he was checking above the garage at home and died in surgery that night. A rival offered to buy the company; instead of selling, Hendricks asked David Luck to become CEO and named herself chairwoman.⁠[2]

She recalled: “They just thought, me being a woman, that I would sell.”⁠[2]

ABC’s sales fell 7% between 2006 and 2009 as the real estate market collapsed, and the company closed stores for the first time.⁠[2]

In 2008 she formed Diane M. Hendricks Enterprises, Inc. as the parent company of ABC Supply, Hendricks Holding Company and other Hendricks investments.⁠[4]

In 2010 Hendricks orchestrated ABC’s biggest acquisition, buying rival Bradco, which had $1.6 billion in sales; to fund it she gave up 40% of her ABC stake to a backer on the condition that she could buy it back within five years, and did so in less than four.⁠[2]

She said: “It’s not a company that’s ever going to be for sale.”⁠[2]

In 2016 she paid $674 million for Chicago-based building materials distributor L&W Supply.⁠[2][3]

In October 2022 ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry estimated Hendricks’s net worth at $12.2 billion, triple its level five years earlier, and described her as the richest female entrepreneur in U.S. history. At the time she owned 100% of ABC Supply, as well as a real estate development firm and a holding company with stakes in 18 businesses.⁠[2]

ABC’s revenue reached a record $15 billion in 2021 and its store count had more than doubled since her husband’s death, to 900. She said: “It’s five times what it was when Ken was alive.”⁠[2]

Hendricks served as chairman of ABC Supply and Hendricks Holding Company until stepping down in 2024. In 2025 Hendricks Holding Company was merged into Diane M. Hendricks Enterprises, which renamed itself Hendricks Holding Company, Inc.⁠[4]

In 2026 ABC Supply announced a new naming structure under which L&W Supply became ABC Supply Interiors, Inc.⁠[5]

In its March 2026 World’s Billionaires list, Forbes estimated Hendricks’s net worth at $22.3 billion; its real-time estimate as of November 4, 2026, was about $23.6 billion. Forbes lists her source of wealth as building supplies, classifies her as self-made and gives her residence as Afton, Wisconsin.⁠[3]

ABC Supply has more than 900 branch locations and had $20.2 billion in revenue in 2025; it is the largest wholesale distributor of roofing products in the United States and one of the largest distributors of siding, windows and other building products.⁠[3][4]

Since her husband’s death she has spent $85 million redeveloping a former iron factory in Beloit into the Ironworks Campus, home to the local YMCA, the Beloit Chamber of Commerce and 46 small businesses employing 1,800 people. She also chairs NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, into which she has put $550 million, and helped fund The Lincoln Academy, a Beloit charter school that opened in 2021.⁠[2]

Her real estate firm, Hendricks Commercial Properties, built a $40 million minor league baseball stadium in Beloit and paid $42 million for a hotel in Santa Barbara, California.⁠[2]

Hendricks describes herself as a conservative: “Everyone knows I am a conservative.” By 2022 she had donated more than $40 million to Republican candidates since 1992.⁠[2]

She has said: “I love this country. I’m just so blessed to have been born in America.”⁠[2]

ABC Supply: Official website: https://www.abcsupply.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

Hendricks Holding Company: Official website: https://www.hendricksholding.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]