The highest-paid female CEO in the United States is a trans woman.
Fifty-nine-year-old Martine Rothblatt has been named the highest-paid CEO in the US after bringing in $38 million in 2013 as the head of United Therapeutics, a biotech firm she founded in hopes of finding a treatment for pulmonary hypertension after her daughter was diagnosed with the disease. Rothblatt is also the founder of GeoStar and Sirius Radio.
Rothblatt transitioned in 1994 at the age of 40 and has “a huge appreciation for all of the privileges I received as a man,” she tells Yahoo Finance. “As the oldest son I was expected to do great thing, but so many times it’s the oldest son that gets that encouragement and not the oldest daughter. Those things kind of percolate and when all is said and done, only 11 of [the 200 highest paid] CEOs are women because of that.”
Watch Rothblatt’s full interview on her transition, the gender pay gap and motherhood.
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