World's most powerful women in business

Irene Rosenfeld
Chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods

Irene Rosenfeld has been working in the food and beverage industry for about 30 years.

Her first job was at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in New York and she later joined General Foods in consumer research.

In 2004, Rosenfeld was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo.

Rosenfeld was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods in June 2006.

Irene topped the 'Top 50 Women in Global Business' list of 'The Financial Times' and 'Fortune' recently ranked her as number 1 among the 'Top 50 Women in Global Business' and '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' lists, respectively.

Forbes has named Irene as one of the world's '100 Most Powerful Women' for several years. 

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Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi is the executive and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, the second largest food and beverage business in the world by net revenue.

According to Forbes, she is consistently ranked among World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named president and CFO in 2001. Nooyi has directed the company's global strategy for more than a decade and led PepsiCo's restructuring, including the 1997 divestiture of its restaurants into Tricon, now known as Yum! Brands.

Nooyi also took the lead in the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, and merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade to PepsiCo.

In 2007 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo's 44-year history. Nooyi was named on Wall Street Journal's list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008, and was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007 and 2008.

Forbes named her the third most powerful woman in 2008. Fortune ranked her the most powerful woman in business in 2009 and 2010. 

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Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer is the president and CEO of Yahoo!. She is the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Mayer joined Google in 1999 and was the company's first female engineer. During her 13 years with the company, she was an engineer, designer, product manager, and executive.

Mayer held key roles in Google Search, Google Images, Google News, Google Maps, Google Books, Google Product Search, Google Toolbar, iGoogle and Gmail.

On July 16, 2012, Mayer was appointed President and CEO of Yahoo!. Mayer was named to Fortune magazine's annual list of America's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

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Ellen Kullman

Ellen Kullman is the president, chair and chief executive officer of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) in Wilmington and a former director of General Motors.

Forbes ranked her 4th of the 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011. Kullman began her business career at General Electric and joined DuPont in 1988 as marketing manager in the company's medical imaging business.

DuPont's board of directors elected Kullman President and a director of the company with effect from October 1, 2008 and Chief Executive Officer with effect from January 1, 2009.

She is the nineteenth executive, and the first woman, to lead the company in its 206 year history.

Fortune magazine named Kullman fifteenth in its list of the world's fifty most powerful women for 2008, and fifth on the list for 2009 and 2010.

The Wall Street Journal named her eighth on its 2008 list of "Women to Watch".

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Angela Braly

Angela F. Braly is the president and chief executive officer for WellPoint, Inc, a large US-based health care company, and is a member of the company's board of directors.

Prior to her current position, Braly served as executive vice president, general counsel and chief public affairs officer for WellPoint.

Braly was also a key strategist during WellPoint's acquisition of New-York based WellChoice in 2005.

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Andrea Jung

Andrea Jung is the executive chairman and former CEO of Avon Products Inc. Jung joined Avon Products, Inc in 1994 as the company's president in its product marketing group.

She became president of global marketing in 1996 and executive vice president/president of global marketing and new business in 1997.

Andrea Jung has been on the company's board of directors since 1998. In November 1999, Jung was promoted to chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

On December 13, 2011, it was announced that Avon had initiated a search for a new chief executive. She will have a role in choosing her replacement, and she will also continue as chairman of the board for the next two years. 

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Virginia M Rometty

Virginia M Rometty is the president and CEO of IBM. She is the first woman to head IBM.

Prior to becoming president and CEO in January 2012 she held the position of Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Sales, Marketing, and Strategy at IBM.

She has been named to Fortune magazine's '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' for seven consecutive years, ranking seventh in 2011. She was also named to the Time 100 in 2012.

Rometty joined IBM as a systems engineer in its Detroit office. She joined IBM's Consulting Group in 1991.

On October 25, 2011, IBM announced that she was to be the company's next president and CEO, with Sam Palmisano stepping down but retaining his position as chairman. 

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Ursula Burns

Ursula M Burns serves as the chairperson and CEO of Xerox. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company.

Burns first worked for Xerox in 1980 as a summer intern and joined a year later after her master's degree. She worked in various roles in product development and planning throughout her 20s.

In 2000 she was named a senior vice president and began working closely with soon to be CEO Anne Mulcahy. She was named CEO in July 2009 succeeding Mulcahy.

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Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman is the president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard. Whitman served as an executive in The Walt Disney Company where she was vice president of strategic planning throughout the 1980s.

In the 1990s, she served as an executive for DreamWorks, Procter & Gamble, and Hasbro. Whitman served as president and chief executive officer of eBay from 1998 to 2008.

In January 2011, Whitman joined Hewlett-Packard's board of directors. She was named CEO on September 22, 2011. In January 2011, Whitman joined Hewlett-Packard's board of directors.

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Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg has served as the chief operating officer of Facebook since 2008. In June 2012, she was also elected to the board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board.

Before Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google. She also was involved in launching Google's philanthropic arm Google.org.

In 2012, she was named in Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

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Anne Sweeney

Anne Sweeney is the Co-Chair of Disney Media Networks and President of Disney-ABC Television Group.

Previously she was chairman and CEO of FX Networks, Inc., since 1993.

During her tenure, she presided over the launch of two basic cable networks, FX, an entertainment network and FXM: Movies from Fox, Hollywood's first studio-based movie network.

Before joining Fox, Sweeney spent 12 years at Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite in various executive positions, most recently as senior vice president of Program Enterprises. Among many accomplishments, she oversaw

Nickelodeon's international expansion, including launching the channel in the United Kingdom, resulting in a joint venture with British Sky Broadcasting.

Named the 'Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment' by The Hollywood Reporter, one of the '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' by Fortune, and one of 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women' by Forbes, Sweeney serves as co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group. 

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Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist.

Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history.

She has been ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

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Abigail Johnson

Abigail Johnson is President of Fidelity Investments Personal and Workplace Investing. Fidelity is led by her father, Edward C. (Ned) Johnson III.

After a brief stint as a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton from 1985-86, she joined her father's company, Fidelity Investments, as an equity portfolio manager from 1988 until 1997.

She was promoted to an executive role in Fidelity Management and Research (FMR) in 1997 and has held various senior executive posts inside FMR, Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services and Fidelity Investments since then. 

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Susan Wagner

Susan Wagner heads BlackRock, a global firm that manages assets for clients in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Africa.

The firm employs more than 9,900 talented professionals and maintains offices in 27 countries around the world.

As of 30 June 2012, BlackRock's assets under management total $3.560 trillion across equity, fixed income, cash management, alternative investment, real estate and advisory strategies.

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Susan Chambers

With over 25 years of experience in the manufacturing and retailing industries, M. Susan Chambers serves as the executive vice president of the Global People Division for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart).

She is responsible for managing, attracting and retaining the largest private workforce in the US.

Susan oversees compensation, recruiting, development and retention initiatives, as well as benefits and communications for more than 2 million Walmart associates worldwide.

Additionally, her responsibilities include human resource technology, culture, and regulatory issues. She is also responsible for Walmart's Global Ethics Office and Global Diversity Office.

Four years in a row she was named to Fortune magazine's list of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business. 

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Rosalind Brewer

Rosalind Brewer is president and CEO of its Sam's Club warehouse retail chain. She is the first woman and first African-American to lead a business unit of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer.

She was most recently President of the Wal-Mart U.S. east business unit, and was responsible for 1,600 stores spanning from Maine to Puerto Rico.

With 550,000 associates and about $100 billion in sales -- a figure that would put her division in the top 20 of the Fortune 500 if it were a standalone company.

In 2010/11, she was named to Fortune magazine's list of '50 Most Powerful Women'. 

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Marillyn Hewson

Marillyn A. Hewson is Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin's Electronic Systems business area. 

On April 25, 2012, Hewson was elected as the Corporation's next President and Chief Operating Officer, effective January 1, 2013.

With 2011 sales of about $14.6 billion, Electronic Systems is headquartered in Bethesda, employs 45,500 at facilities in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Hewson was selected by Fortune magazine as one of the '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' in 2010 and 2011. 

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Linda Hudson

Linda Hudson is the President & CEO of BAE Systems, Inc. She leads around 46,000 people across more than 130 sites in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Israel, Germany, Mexico and South Africa.

BAE Systems, Inc. had 2010 revenues of $17.9 billion and is a US-based, wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, headquartered in London.

Concurrently, Hudson is an executive director of the BAE Systems plc Board and a member of the Executive Committee. She is also an executive director on the BAE Systems, Inc. Board.

Previously, Hudson was president of BAE Systems' Land & Armaments operating group, a role she began in January 2007. Land & Armaments is the world's largest military vehicle and equipment business, with operations around the world.

Prior to joining BAE Systems, she served for seven years as an officer and vice president of the General Dynamics Corporation, and she was president of General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in Charlotte, North Carolina.