Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Most Powerful Women in Busines


Nearly half the women on our list run huge companies—a record. And all are working hard to transform their businesses.
By Caroline Fairchild, Beth Kowitt, Colleen Leahey, and Anne VanderMey, with additional reporting by Michal Lev-Ram and Patricia Sellers
More CEOs, more industries, more power, more challenges. That’s the story of Fortune’s 2014 ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Women in ­Business, which features an all-time record of 24 large-company CEOs in its pages. Our women are leading—and in many cases pushing through difficult transformations—in heavy industries such as tech, energy, defense, and autos. Ginni Rometty, No. 1 for the third time running, continues to retool IBM. No. 2, Mary Barra, must fix General Motors from the inside out. And Marillyn Hewson, the CEO of Lockheed Martin and our fourth-ranked woman, is looking beyond defense for growth. Today eight of our top 10 MPW lead large industrial, tech, and consumer products companies.
It’s a long way from our original 1998 list, on which, we noted at the time, most members “came from industries with a premium on creativity,” such as advertising, media, and publishing, with “no top women at blue-chip firms.” Creativity is still a requirement for success, of course, but you no longer have to work in a “creative” industry to advance as a woman. Another common denominator is change: Seven of our top 50 were named to their jobs in the past year, and nine are newcomers to the list. That suggests more turnover at the upper echelons of business—which, it’s fair to say, is a very good thing for a whole lot of powerful women. —Jennifer Reingold
See our Methodology
Top Stories
·         The Most Powerful Women of Asia-Pacific
·         The Most Powerful Women of Europe, the Middle East and Africa
·         Cashing in on power: Fortune's Most Powerful Women ranked by pay
·         Mary Barra's (unexpected) opportunity
·         IBM CEO Ginni Rometty gets past the Big Blues
·         Why it takes a crisis to get women in leadership

1-Ginni Rometty


Rank
1
Previous Rank
1
Age
57
Title
Chairman, CEO, and President
Company
IBM
Industry
Tech
Rometty three-peats as No. 1, even though IBM’s revenue declined for the second consecutive year, falling 5% to $99.8 billion in fiscal 2013. But her strategy of investing in new technologies is showing results : In nonlegacy areas like mobile and cloud services, revenue rose 69% for each division last year. Rometty has also signed strategic partnerships, such as a deal with Apple to provide IBM’s services on the iOS platform. And in October, IBM will move its newly formed Watson business group to a new building in downtown Manhattan. Rometty has also pledged to invest $1 billion in the development and commercialization of the cognitive computing system, another future growth area for the company.


Top of Form
2-Mary Barra


Rank
2
Previous Rank
29
Age
52
Title
CEO
Company
General Motors
Industry
Auto
Barra became the auto industry’s first female CEO in January and promptly faced GM’s largest vehicle recall ever (29 million so far) from a faulty ignition switch linked to at least 13 deaths since 2005. She is also tackling GM’s infamous culture. 

3-Indra Nooyi

Rank
3
Previous Rank
2
Age
58
Title
Chairman and CEO
Company
PepsiCo
Industry
Consumer Products
Nooyi’s innovation push is paying off at PepsiCo, which has increased R&D spending 25% since 2011. Products launched in the past three years now make up 9% of revenue–which totaled $66.4 billion in 2013. And of 2013’s 50 bestselling new food and beverage products in the U.S., nine came from PepsiCo: Starbucks Iced Coffee, Muller Quaker Yogurt, and Mountain Dew Kickstart, to name a few. In July the company raised its profit growth forecast for the year, which should help Nooyi counter calls by activist investor Nelson Peltz to break up the food and beverage giant.
4-Marillyn Hewson

Rank
4
Previous Rank
4
Age
60
Title
Chairman, CEO, and President
Company
Lockheed Martin
Industry
Aerospace & Defense
Hewson posted record operating profits and earnings per share in 2013, her first year as CEO of the world’s largest defense contractor, despite a 4% drop in revenue, to $45.4 billion. Now she is looking to industries such as renewable energy for new customers.
5-Ellen Kullman


Rank
5
Previous Rank
3
Age
58
Title
Chairman and CEO
Company
DuPont
Industry
Chemicals, Bioscience
DuPont’s share price was in a 10-year slump when Kullman took over in 2009. Since then, she’s moved the 212-year-old company into higher-margin areas like nutrition, advanced materials, and bioscience. She sold the auto paints unit in 2013 and will shed performance chemicals like Teflon and Freon next year. Investors seem to like the moves: DuPont’s market cap has more than doubled during her tenure.

6-Meg Whitman


Rank
6
Previous Rank
9
Age
58
Title
Chairman, CEO, and President
Company
Hewlett-Packard
Industry
Tech
Whitman added the chairman title at Hewlett-Packard in July, two years into her five-year plan to turn around the struggling tech giant. In the third quarter of 2014, HP’s sales rose for the first time in over three years. But 2013 revenue fell 6.7%, to $112.2 billion.
7-Irene Rosenfeld

Rank
7
Previous Rank
6
Age
61
Title
Chairman and CEO
Company
Mondelez International
Industry
Consumer Products
The global snack company boosted sales and profits by 1% and 28%, respectively, in 2013. But Rosenfeld, facing weak consumer spending and pressure from shareholder Nelson Peltz, plans to cut $1.5 billion in costs over the next four years.
8-Pat Woertz

Rank
8
Previous Rank
7
Age
61
Title
Chairman, CEO, and President
Company
Archer Daniels Midland
Industry
Food Production
Woertz, CEO since 2006, came to ADM from Chevron with big plans for ethanol. Since then, she’s also pushed to diversify the $90 billion agri-giant, spending $3.1 billion this year to purchase Swiss-German flavoring company Wild Flavors.
9-Abigail Johnson


Rank
9
Previous Rank
10
Age
52
Title
President
Company
FMR (parent of Fidelity Investments)
Industry
Finance
Fidelity is the second-largest U.S. mutual fund company, with $4.62 trillion in assets last year, up 19% from the year before. Johnson, president since 2012, has reached out to women and millennials. Fidelity funds actually led Uber’s latest funding round.

10-Sheryl Sandberg
 


Rank
10
Previous Rank
5
Age
45
Title
COO
Company
Facebook
Industry
Tech
Last year was all about Sandberg: Her bestselling book, Lean In, helped her become the face of corporate gender equality. This year is all about Facebook. Its 2013 profits jumped an astounding 2,730%, mainly because of increased revenue from mobile ads, and it announced huge deals in early 2014 to acquire virtual-reality company Oculus VR for over $2 billion and buzzy messaging platform WhatsApp for $19 billion. As CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s No. 2, Sandberg remains crucial to the company’s long-term strategy. She’s also the best-paid woman on our list, making $38 million last year.

11-Phebe Novakovic
 

Rank
11
Previous Rank
11
Age
56
Title
Chairman and CEO
Company
General Dynamics
Industry
Aerospace & Defense

Novakovic took over in January 2013, just after General Dynamics lost $332 million. She’s since moved the defense contractor back into the black, posting $2.4 billion in 2013 profits, thanks to new Gulfstream aircraft and a big order from Canada.

12-Carol Meyrowitz
 


Rank
12
Previous Rank
12
Age
60
Title
CEO
Company
TJX Companies
Industry
Retail
The parent of T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, and Marshalls is a rare success story in an abysmal retail climate (see story). Since Meyrowitz took over in 2007, profits have almost tripled, revenue has jumped nearly 60%, to $27.4 billion, and the stock is up over 300%.
13-Lynn Good

Rank
13
Previous Rank
16
Age
55
Title
CEO and President
Company
Duke Energy
Industry
Utilities
In February 2014, seven months after Good became the first female CEO to lead Duke Energy, the company spilled as many as 39,000 tons of coal ash in North Carolina. Crisis management has kept Good busy, as has investing in Duke’s renewable-energy unit.

14-Safra Catz

Rank
14
Previous Rank
14
Age
52
Title
Co-President and CFO
Company
Oracle
Industry
Tech
The longtime Oracle executive continues to help grow the $37.2 billion company through acquisitions: Catz oversaw eight in fiscal 2013, and in July, Oracle announced its biggest deal since 2010, acquiring hospitality tech provider Micros Systems.
15-Rosalind Brewer

Rank
15
Previous Rank
15
Age
52
Title
CEO and President, Sam's Club
Company
Wal-Mart Stores
Industry
Retail
Brewer wants to double the size of Sam’s Club, a move that would turn the warehouse club division of Wal-Mart into a more than $100 billion business. Last year she increased fees for the first time since 2006, which helped boost membership income 5.9%.
16-Marissa Mayer


Rank
16
Previous Rank
8
Age
39
Title
CEO and President
Company
Yahoo
Industry
Tech
Since Mayer took over in July 2012, she has spent almost $1.4 billion on 37 acquisitions. Yet Yahoo’s sales fell 6% in 2013, dropping it from the Fortune 500. The bright spot: its 24% stake in Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant that’s slated to go public tomorrow.
17-Ursula Burns

Rank
17
Previous Rank
13
Age
55
Title
Chairman and CEO
Company
Xerox
Industry
Tech
Burns has moved Xerox away from printing hardware and toward business services since she became CEO in 2009. Though Xerox’s revenue continues to fall–down 2.5%, to $21.8 billion, in 2013–investors won’t give up; the stock is up 34% year-over-year.
18-Melanie Healey

Rank
18
Previous Rank
17
Age
53
Title
Group President, North America
Company
Procter & Gamble
Industry
Consumer Products
The Brazilian-born Healey has been running P&G’s largest division, the $32.1 billion North America unit, for five years and reports directly to CEO A.G. Lafley. After years of tepid growth, there are signs of improvement. But it’s still a turnaround situation.
19-Susan Wojcicki
 

Rank
19
Previous Rank
19
Age
46
Title
CEO, YouTube
Company
Google
Industry
Tech
Wojcicki was SVP of ads and commerce, the unit that creates Google’s ad products, until becoming YouTube’s CEO in February. YouTube has just $4 billion in estimated revenue, but it’s critical to the $60.6 billion tech giant–which is why she got the job.
20-Sandi Peterson

 
Rank
20
Previous Rank
-
Age
55
Title
Group Worldwide Chairman
Company
Johnson & Johnson
Industry
Consumer Products
Peterson is in her second year leading consumer-facing businesses, which include brands like Tylenol and Listerine. She has responsibility for $20 billion in revenue and some 70,000 people–more than half of J&J’s total workforce.

No comments: