WASHINGTON — The chief executive officer of General Motors is the most powerful woman in business, Fortune says.
Mary Barra topped the magazine’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, released Thursday.
Top 10 of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in 2015
- Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors
- Indra Nooyi, CEO and Chairman, PepsiCo
- Ginni Rometty, CEO, Chairman and President, IBM
- Marillyn Hewson, CEO, Chairman and President, Lockheed Martin
- Ellen Kullman, CEO and Chairman, DuPont
- Abigail Johnson, CEO and President, Fidelity Investments
- Meg Whitman, CEO, Chairman, and President, Hewlett-Packard
- Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
- Irene Rosenfeld, CEO and Chairman, Mondelez International
- Phebe Novakovic, CEO and Chairman, General Dynamics
Fortune says it made the picks based on the size and importance of the woman’s business; the health and direction of the business; the arc of the woman’s career, and social and cultural influence.
There are 27 CEOs on the list, which Fortune says is a record, adding that together, the women control more than $1 trillion in revenues. The first list came out in 1998 and was topped by Carly Fiorina. Singer Taylor Swift snagged a bonus slot on the list, coming in at No. 51.
In a post on its website explaining the list, Fortune says, “Every year someone asks why we still need an issue devoted to the Most Powerful Women in business. ‘You’d never run a men’s issue,’ they say. “Aren’t you being sexist?’
“Let’s concede the obvious: For decades every issue of Fortune (and every other business publication) was a men’s issue. … These insightful and provocative stories reveal how power, leadership, ambition, and, yes, gender are playing out in the heart of business today.”
