My great-great-grandfather invented the modern car - Im worth $125m but the law prevented me from

ELENA Ford is the great-great-granddaughter of Henry Ford and the first female executive in the family. Her net worth is estimated to be at $125million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, and it could have been a lot more if she had not lost out on her fathers inheritance.

ELENA Ford is the great-great-granddaughter of Henry Ford and the first female executive in the family.

Her net worth is estimated to be at $125million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, and it could have been a lot more if she had not lost out on her father’s inheritance.

ABOUT ELENA

Elena, now 57, currently works as chief customer experience officer at Ford Motor Company, which was founded by her great-great-grandfather in 1903.

Despite being the fifth generation to work in the family business, she is the first female to reach an executive-level position.

Since joining Ford in 1995, Elena’s accomplishments include launching a 500-person call center in Houston, Texas, and improving the customer experience for used-Ford customers via Ford Blue.

Speaking about the legacy of Henry Ford for the Henry Ford Heritage Association, Elena said: “It’s the spirit of being part of a family.”

Read about more family fortunes

She explained: “All the things that he stood for, all the innovations that he came up with were to serve the customer and to be out in the community and make the world a better place.”

FORD FAMILY HISTORY

Elena is a direct descendant of Henry Ford through her mother, Charlotte Ford.

The Fords are one of the biggest industrial families in American history.

Henry Ford’s production line method enabled the manufacturing of the world’s first affordable automobile, the Model T.

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Today, Ford is the second-largest US-based auto manufacturer and the fifth-largest in the world.

HER FATHER’S FORTUNE

Elena’s net worth is estimated to be $125million, but her wealth would be significantly greater if she had not been cast out of her father’s inheritance.

Elena’s father, Stavros Niarchos, was a Greek shipping tycoon who left behind an enormous $12billion fortune when he passed away in 1996.

However, he wrote Elena and his four other children by his fourth wife out of his will.

An Athens court ruled in 1997 that she, therefore, had no right to the inheritance of her father.

Her $125 million has instead come from the family’s small remaining ownership of Ford Motor Company, and the money she has accumulated from her professional roles.

THE OTHER FORDS

Elena is just one of dozens of descendants of Henry Ford.

The founder’s son, Henry II, presided over the company between 1945 and 1960 as car ownership became the norm among middle-class Americans.

Henry II’s nephew, William Clay Ford Jr. is the present-day executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, and also the vice chairman of the Detroit Lions.

Altogether, the Ford family is worth a combined $2billion, according to Forbes.

But the Fords aren’t the only family worth a fortune thanks to an ancestor’s invention.

Read More on The US Sun

The Busch family is worth $18billion after the founder invented a beloved beverage 147 years ago.

And three brothers have made a combined $15billion by playing their father’s fortune on the stock market.

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