What Is Doris Fisher's Net Worth?
Doris Fisher is an American businesswoman who has a net worth of $1.4 billion. Doris Fisher earned her fortune as co-founder of The Gap, a multinational clothing and accessories retailer.
Doris founded the company with her husband, Donald, in 1969, and they eventually expanded the company to more than 3,000 locations. Gap Inc. also operates Athleta, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. Donald died in 2009 at the age of 81, and directly or indirectly through various family trusts, Doris and her three sons own around 43% of the company's shares.
At the peak of the company's performance, the Fisher family received $100 million a year in dividends alone. The family is one of the 30 largest landowners in the US, owning 440,000 acres in California alone. Doris is the co-founder of the KIPP Foundation, which supports charter schools under the same name (KIPP schools). She is also an art collector who holds about 1,100 pieces of art made by 185 artists. Her art collection is considered to be as valuable as her shares in The Gap. Doris and Donald were inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2011.
Early Life
Doris Fisher was born Doris Lee Feigenbaum on August 23, 1931, in San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of Jewish parents, Dorothy and Bertram Joseph (better known as B.J.) Feigenbaum, and her father was a California state legislator. B.J. was a founding trustee of Fremont's Cancer Prevention Institute of California, and Doris later became a trustee of the institute. Fisher grew up with two siblings, older sister Ann and younger brother Joseph. Doris earned an Economics degree from Stanford University in 1953.
(Photo by BILLY FARRELL/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
The Gap
Doris and her husband, Donald, opened the first Gap store in San Francisco in 1969, after Donald couldn't find jeans that fit. The couple raised $63,000 in order to open the store, and they made a profit of $2 million in the first year of operation. Doris was the company's merchandiser until 2003, and she was a member of the Gap Inc. board until 2009. In 2009, she was named Honorary Lifetime Director of the board. In 2022, Gap Inc. made $15.616 billion in revenue. The Fishers began collecting art after founding The Gap, including works by Ellsworth Kelly and Andy Warhol. One day before Donald's death in September 2009, the "San Francisco Chronicle" reported that the couple had decided to loan their art collection to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which would "elevate SFMOMA to one of the world's leading showplaces of late 20th century art." In 2018, "Forbes" included Doris on its list of "The Most Powerful Women."
Personal Life
Doris married Donald Fisher in 1953, and they remained together until his death in 2009. The couple's sons, William, Robert, and John, manage Gap Inc. In 2019, it was reported that Doris and her sons donated close to $9 million the non-profit organization Americans for Job Security, which opposed President Barack Obama during the 2012 election.
Real Estate
In 1975, the Fishers paid around $211,000 for a parcel of land in Atherton, California. After adding on to the property, it eventually grew to eight acres. The main house includes five bedrooms and four bathrooms, and the property features a swimming pool and a tennis court. Doris and Donald spent approximately $17.5 million getting the property to its current state. In September 2021, the property went on the market for $100 million, with proceeds going to the Doris & Donald Fisher Foundation, whose mission is to "provide support for the improvement of K-12 public school education, especially underserved students." Here is a video tour of the property:
