Beate Heister (née Albrecht; born 5 October 1951) is a German billionaire heiress. She is one of the two children of Karl Albrecht, who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. As of 2022, she was one of the five richest women in the world, according to Forbes magazine. ^[2] Together with her brother Karl Albrecht Jr., as of 2020, she had a net worth of US$41.3 billion, putting them at the top of Forbes list of the richest Germans. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

Personal life

Heister was born in 1951 in Essen and lives in Neuss, Germany. ^{[2] [6]} She is married to entrepreneur Peter Heister, who is related to the Werhahn family and was the former head of Aldi South. ^[6] They have six children. ^{[3] [6] [7]}

She is "notoriously reclusive". ^{[8] [9] [10] [11] [12]} In a 2014 feature article on the Albrecht family, Manager Magazin compared Beate to her father Karl Albrecht, saying that she resembled him "especially in her sometimes uncompromising hardness". ^[6]

Business

Heister controls half of Aldi South, which operates more than 6,000 stores in southern Germany, the US, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and many other countries. ^[2] She, her husband Peter, and their son Peter Max Heister, all sit on Aldi's advisory board. ^{[3] [13]} Her son Christian sits on the board of directors. ^[2] As of 2021, Heister remained active as a board member of the Siepmann Foundation, which takes its name from the maiden name of her paternal grandmother. ^[5]

References