Mary Kay’s Rogers Becomes Billionaire in Pink Escalade

Richard Rogers was 20 years old when he and his mother, Mary Kay Ash, began enticing housewives to sell makeup to their friends at house parties.

Fifty years later, Rogers is a billionaire. Mary Kay Inc., the company the pair founded in 1963, is the third-largest direct seller of cosmetics and skincare products. The Addison, Texas-based business, which rewards sales agents with pink Cadillacs, has annual wholesale revenue of $3 billion and 3 million independent salespeople selling more than 200 products in 35 countries.