2. Meryl Barry
The only daughter of legendary Namibian tycoon Harold Pupkewitz runs the Pupkewitz Foundation, the philanthropy which channels hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to causes in education, health, sport, civil society, environment and culture promotion. Her father parlayed a small family trading business into Pupkewitz Holdings, one of Namibia’s largest privately held conglomerates of which she is heir along with her brother, Tony Pupkewitz. Pupkewitz Motors, a subsidiary of the group is the largest dealer of Toyota, Nissan, and Honda cars in the country. The group also has extensive interests in real estate and irrigation services and is also the largest distributor of Nokia, Samsung and Apple products in the country. Her late husband, Phil Barry, died in a motorcar accident along with their son.