The women on this year’s list come from 19 countries and spread across six continents, 13 of whom are from China.
Women are still rare at the helm of large multinational companies. In 2019, only 14 were women at the head of Fortune 500 companies—an improvement from 12 in 2018. As we take a closer look at the most powerful women in business around the world (outside the United States), there’s reason to think bigger changes are afoot.
One-third of this year's list are newcomers who have just been appointed to the top of multinational companies (such as Ping An's Chen Xinying , Solvay's Ilham Kadri, Puma Energy's Emma Fitzgerald), or have been promoted to leadership positions (such as Petrobras' CFO Andrea Marquez de Almeida, Air France CEO Ane Rigai, Japan's Uniqlo CEO Maki Akaida).
Many names appear in industries where female executives are rare, such as chemicals, oil and gas, metal manufacturing, etc. Although they have just taken on the new role and their performance remains to be seen, the important thing is that they are in a position where some things can change.
The women on this year’s list come from 19 countries (every continent except Antarctica), 13 of whom are from China. Fewer and fewer of them are on the list because of the family business behind them.
But one exception is Anna Botin, who returns to the number one spot on this year's female list. She serves as executive chairman of Santander, an international banking giant with annual revenues of US$90.5 billion. Santander was founded by her father, but Botin has proven herself a capable leader over the past five years.
1 Ana Botín, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, Spain
Source: Simon Dawson—Bloomberg via Getty Images
Thanks to the stable performance of Santander, the multinational bank this year, Ana Botín has returned to the top spot. Santander ranks 85th among this year's Fortune Global 500, with revenue of US$90 billion in 2018. Much of the growth came from the bank's presence in Latin American markets, particularly Brazil and Mexico, as well as cost cuts in Europe. Botin, who took over the company five years ago after the sudden death of her father, is on track to deliver on her promise to strengthen Santander's capital, cultivate customer loyalty (up more than 40% since 2015, according to internal measurements), and digitize the bank's platform (it has 32 million users and counting). But things didn't go well for Botting this year. She made a big mistake - hiring a new CEO and then firing him, which ultimately led to a $100 million lawsuit.
2 Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, UK
Source: Luke MacGregor—Bloomberg via Getty Images
Emma Walmsley has a distinctive feature: her industry is dominated by men in management, and she is one of the few women to reach the top ranks of the industry. Walmsley's aggressive style left his mark on Big Pharma. GlaxoSmithKline is a British pharmaceutical giant with a market value of 100 billion US dollars. Since Walmsley took over the company in April 2017, she has transformed the company's core business strategy. She shows no mercy when it comes to negotiating deals. It also hired well-known talents, such as R&D director Hal Baron, to support the company's drug production line. In January this year, GlaxoSmithKline reached a $5 billion agreement with Tesarro, a pharmaceutical technology company dedicated to treating cancer, marking GlaxoSmithKline's return to becoming a major player after years of silence in the oncology field. If those changes weren't forward-looking enough, Walmsley also spearheaded a deal with 23andMe last year to integrate the genetic testing company's strengths into the company's drug strategy. In September this year, Walmsley was also appointed as a director of Microsoft .
3 Dong Mingzhu (Dong Mingzhu), China
Chairman and President of Gree Electric Appliances
Source: Visual China Group via Getty Images
Dong Mingzhu is one of China's most respected business leaders. She manages Gree, China's largest air-conditioning manufacturer, with an iron fist. Last year, when the company's largest shareholders asked for more money to be invested in financial derivatives, Dong Mingzhu, Gree's lifelong chairman, deterred them and invested the money in the semiconductor industry to wean Gree off its dependence on American suppliers. Dong Mingzhu, who has been elected as a representative of the National People's Congress many times, is so confident in Gree's long-term development that she even increased her bet with smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi to 1 billion yuan (about 140 million U.S. dollars) to bet on which company would have higher revenue within five years. In the last bet as of 2018, Gree won because Gree's revenue increased by 33%, reaching 30 billion US dollars, but Dong Mingzhu did not collect the gambling money.
4 Jessica Tan, co-CEO, COO, CIO of China
Ping An Group
Source: Eric Rechsteiner for Fortune
Chen Xinying graduated from MIT majoring in electrical engineering. She came into contact with Ping An Group while working at McKinsey & Company in Singapore. As a partner at McKinsey at the time, Chen Xinying helped Ping An develop a large new campus in China, but she said she was reluctant to do this project at the time. But now, she is the co-chief executive of the company with a market capitalization of US$164 billion. She joined Ping An Group in 2010 and had the dual position of chief operating officer and chief information officer. Ping An is an insurance company in name, but is actually a data-driven technology company. It ranks 29th on this year's Fortune Global 500. In terms of revenue, Ping An is the largest company on the list. As Chief Operating Officer, Chen Xinying leads Ping An to penetrate deeply into the technology field. In her new role as co-CEO, she continues to lead technology project development, which is core to the group's business.
5 Isabelle Kocher, CEO of France
Engie
Source: Eric Dessons—JDD/SIPA VIA AP
She was a French civil servant with multiple degrees in physics. Today she is the leader of the French energy giant Engie and the only female CEO among the top 40 French companies by market capitalization (CAC40). Since taking office in 2016, she has pushed the company to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and shift toward sustainable energy. This year she has streamlined the company's operations, saying Engie will exit 20 markets.
Investors have received mixed reviews for her approach. Engie, which ranked 126th on the Fortune Global 500 in 2019, saw its revenue drop by 1.5% in 2018, and its profits fell by 24%.
6 Alison Rose, UK
CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland
Source: Courtesy of RBS
When Rose was appointed deputy chief executive of NatWest in 2018, she was considered the most influential woman in British banking. The bank is a "ring-fenced" arm of Royal Bank of Scotland and does not engage in high-risk investment banking. Then, a piece of big news came out in September: Ross may succeed Ross McEwen and become the new CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland. McEwen is credited with turning around the bank's sluggish business, which finally turned a profit two years ago after a decade of no profits. Rose, who has worked at the bank for 27 years, joined the executive team in 2014, an appointment that makes her the first woman to lead one of the UK's big four banks. Royal Bank of Scotland's revenue last year was $22.2 billion.
7 Shemara Wikramanayake, Australia
Macquarie Group CEO and Executive Director
Source: Courtesy of Macquaire Group
Shemara took over as CEO of Macquarie Group at the end of last year, becoming the first female head of the investment bank worth approximately US$28 billion.This year, she has set her sights on climate change, becoming a member of the World Bank's Global Adaptation Council, whose only three members are multinational CEOs. Leveraging Macquarie's $82 billion investment in infrastructure, Himara is driving investment in environmental protection and sustainable development. Himala also completed US$680 million in fundraising in August this year to invest in renewable energy and technology.
8 Alison Cooper, CEO of British
Imperial Brands
Source: Jason Alden—Bloomberg via Getty Images
Like many players in the tobacco industry, Imperial Brands, which is helmed by Cooper, is also shifting its business focus from traditional cigarettes to "new generation products." Under Cooper's leadership, the $21 billion company has expanded its Blu Vaping e-cigarette brand into new markets - Spain, Portugal, Ireland and New Zealand - and in July announced one of the largest investments in the history of the cannabis industry. Under this project, Imperial Brands will invest approximately US$100 million in Canadian listed company Oxley Cannabis Group and give it a global license for e-cigarettes in exchange for a 20% stake in the latter and a board seat. However, Imperial Brand’s focus on new technology coincides with the fact that e-cigarettes have attracted strict scrutiny from the government, and the United States is considering banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes that are attractive to young people.
9 Anne Rigail, CEO of France
Air France-Air France-KLM Group
Source: Romauld Meigneux—SIPA via AP
Rigail is a newcomer on this year’s list. She only became CEO of Air France (part of Air France-KLM Group) in December last year and became one of the few women to run a major airline. Air France-KLM is one of the top 20 airlines in the world, carrying 101 million passengers last year, setting a company record. Rigai was promoted from the position of executive vice president at a time when Air France was engaged in pay negotiations with unions, and the issue has since been resolved. Air France's revenue in 2018 was about $17.6 billion, but its shares have fallen about 17% in the past six months due to fewer bookings during the peak season.
10 武伟 (Maggie Wu), China
Alibaba Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategic Investment
Source: Courtesy of Alibaba
Since joining Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce empire, in 2007, Wu Wei has assisted the company's two listings: one in 2007, when she was the chief financial officer of alibaba.com; and the other in 2014, when she was the chief financial officer of Alibaba Group . That listing was the world's largest listing project at the time. There are rumors that Alibaba will be listed in Hong Kong for the second time this year, so Wu Wei will have three listing experiences in his career resume. Wu Wei was an auditor at KPMG. In June this year, she also assumed the position of head of strategic investment and gained greater responsibilities. She took over the position from Joseph Tsai, executive vice president of the group.
11 Ge Yue (Isabel Ge Mahe), China
Executive Director of Apple Greater China
Source: Courtesy of Apple
In recent years, Apple has relied more on services such as Apple Pay and Apple Music for growth rather than mobile phones or laptop devices. Ge Yue predicted in 2017 that this would be particularly challenging in the Chinese market because WeChat dominates the market and the WeChat ecosystem integrates payment tools, information systems and games. In the quarter ended in June, net sales in Greater China fell 4% year-on-year to $9.2 billion, while Apple's overall net sales rose slightly by 1%. This means that the sales of Apple’s iPhone 11 mobile phones have a huge impact on the revenue of this region. In addition to running the US$52 billion business segment in Greater China, Ge Yue also sought executive job opportunities outside of Apple this year. In September, she joined the board of directors of Starbucks .
12 Wang Fengying (Wang Fengying), CEO and Vice Chairman of China
Great Wall Motors
Against the background of the overall decline of China's auto industry, Wang Fengying's job is not easy to lead Great Wall Motors, China's leading automaker, to move forward. The Hong Kong-listed company's profits rose 4% last year, at the cost of cutting research and development costs in half. In the first half of this year, Great Wall Motor's profits fell 59% to US$222 million, and revenue fell 16%. But Wang Fengying is still pushing Great Wall Motors to go overseas: there is a factory under construction in Russia, a subsidiary has been established in India, and there are plans to launch business in North America - but this may be hindered by trade frictions. Wang Fengying told China Daily: "For Great Wall Motors, the main battlefield is the global market." This confirms Great Wall Motors' expansion-oriented corporate culture. It is this culture that allows Great Wall Motors to occupy a place in the Chinese auto market dominated by state-owned enterprises.
13 Hilde Aasheim, CEO and President of Norwegian Hydro
Source: Kyrre Lien—Bloomberg via Getty Images
After being appointed CEO of Norwegian Hydro in May this year, Asheim became the first female leader of the global industrial company. Norwegian Hydro had revenue of $17.8 billion in 2018 and has 35,000 employees in 40 countries. In her role, she has championed sustainability and worked to make the company a leader in reducing the environmental impact of metals. Today, Norwegian Hydro has the lowest carbon emissions in aluminum production, and she hopes to get even lower. In addition to promoting green environmental protection, Assheim also proposed updating the company's board of directors and strictly controlling expenses to increase profits.
14 Chua Sock Koong, CEO of Singapore
Singapore Telecom Group
Source: Courtesy of Government of Singapore
This year has been a difficult year for this strong Asian woman. Since 2007, Chua Shujun has led Singtel Group, Southeast Asia's largest telecommunications operator. She slashed her pay last year, almost halving it from US$6.1 million to US$3.5 million, as Singtel needed to fund some loss-making digital investments. Singtel's cybersecurity business halted ongoing pre-tax losses, recording a loss of US$102 million in 2018.
15 Wu Yajun (Wu Yajun), China
Chairman of Longfor Real Estate
Source: Jerome Favre—Bloomberg via Getty Images
She has had an extraordinary career as a factory worker and journalist, working her way up to becoming one of the richest women in China. Wu Yajun and her ex-husband Cai Kui founded Longfor Real Estate in 1993. Later, with China's rapid economic development, Longfor Real Estate became a commercial real estate empire. After divorcing Cai Kui in 2012, Wu Yajun remained at the helm of Longfor, but last year she transferred 44% of the company's shares to her daughter Cai Xinyi. According to Longfor, this was an arrangement for a "succession plan." Wu Yajun appears to still be in control of the company, but the company says Cai Xinyi will take charge of the company as her mother expected.
16 Michelle Scrimgeour, CEO of British
Legal Capital Management
Earlier this year, British insurance giant Legal Capital arranged for Scrimgeour to manage its investment management department with an asset size of US$1.24 trillion. This position has been called "one of the most influential positions in Europe's asset management industry" by the Financial Times.
Scrimgeour previously worked at Merrill Lynch , BlackRock and MG Investments. When she was responsible for the asset management business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Tianli Investment, she switched to Legal Capital Management. In addition to overseeing Legal Capital Management's vast business unit, Scrimgeour has led the firm's participation in a pro-gay campaign aimed at promoting recognition of the phenomenon in the banking and investment industry.
17 Wat Cuirong (Joey Wat), China
CEO of Yum China
Source: Anthony Kwan—Bloomberg via Getty Images
Since taking over Yum China, a subsidiary of Yum Group , Wat Cuirong has performed major surgery on the group - transforming 95% of KFC stores. These stores account for 70% of Yum China's revenue and opened more than 1,000 new KFC stores across the country. Before establishing Yum China in 2016, Cuirong Wat was the president and CEO of KFC China. Later, she became the group president and chief operating officer. Under her leadership, Yum China expanded at a rate of two new stores a day. The group currently has more than 8,700 stores in China. Sales rose slightly 1% last year after years of decline before Yum China was founded. Revenue in 2018 increased by 8% to $8.42 billion.
18 Dominique Senequier, President of French
Ardian
Source: Courtesy of Ardian
Ardian is the world's largest private equity firm headed by women, and Senequier continues to lead the company's tremendous growth. Last year, the company's assets under management rose from US$71 billion to US$96 billion, an increase of more than 35%. One reason is that Ardian acquired a $5 billion private equity fund portfolio from Japan's Agriculture and Forestry Central Bank. Senequier oversees 620 employees in 15 offices across Europe, the Americas and Asia as she raises $12 billion for a new fund.
19 Ho Ching (Ho Ching), Singapore
Temasek CEO and executive director
Source: Paul Miller—Bloomberg via Getty Images
As the executive director and CEO of Singapore’s national investment company Temasek, Ho Ching manages a financial giant with 800 employees in 11 offices around the world. As of the end of the first quarter of 2019, the company's assets were valued at $231 billion. Last year the company recorded a shareholder return of 1.49%, having invested $17 billion and divested $20 billion by the end of March. Temasek's new investments are mainly in the United States, followed by Europe and China. New investments include investments in North American digital solutions provider UST Global and food delivery company DoorDash.
Ho Ching joined Temasek in 2002, and the question of successor has always haunted her. There are some signs that she may be considering retirement. For example, in March this year, Li Tengjie succeeded her as chairman of subsidiary Temasek International. She said the change was to ensure Temasek International was "prepared for the disruptive challenges and opportunities of the next decade".
20 Jean Liu, President of China
Didi Chuxing
Source: Tomohiro Ohsumi—Getty Images
Liu Qing is in charge of China’s online ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing. The company, founded 7 years ago, has dominated the Chinese market (90% share) and has a latest valuation of US$56 billion. Didi's road has not been smooth, with Chinese users vocally dissatisfied with the company's failure to respond to public concerns in a timely manner after two passengers were killed in 2018 and a driver was killed in December of the same year. After briefly suspending the ride-hailing business, Didi plans to restart the project. Didi previously said it would spend 2 billion yuan (approximately $290 million) this year to upgrade system security, including better software and driver training.
Under Liu Qing’s leadership, Didi earlier this year spun off its self-driving unit into an independent company to raise external financing and better position itself to face competition. Didi's chief technology officer will lead the self-driving car company and become CEO.
21 Ilham Kadri, Chief Executive Officer of Solvay, Belgium
Source: Courtesy of Solvay
In March of this year, Kadri became the CEO of this 156-year-old Belgian multinational company. Solvay, which has a market capitalization of $12.9 billion, makes advanced materials and specialty chemicals, such as plastics that are as strong as metal, used in a wide range of products including top-end cars and aircraft, medical equipment and batteries.Kadri, who came to Solvay from Diversey, a U.S. cleaning products company, has made organizational changes and announced plans to deleverage the company. Later this year, she will outline her grand strategy. Solvay plans to sell its non-specialty polyamides business, a move welcomed by investors.
22 Junko Nakagawa, CEO of Nomura Asset Management Japan
In April this year, Junko Nakagawa became the first female head of Nomura Asset Management - she is responsible for nearly $500 billion in assets and 1,500 employees in 12 countries. She has reached the pinnacle of her career at the Japanese financial giant after 31 years in a variety of leadership roles, from capital markets underwriting to health care. Junko Nakagawa's office is located at Nomura's Tokyo headquarters, and she is considering prioritizing the development of the company's international business.
23 Anne Richards, CEO of Fidelity International in the UK
Source: Jason Alden—Bloomberg via Getty Images
Richards was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was the CEO of MG Investments and switched jobs to competitor Fidelity International in December 2018. She oversees a company with more than $412 billion in assets under management and more than 2.4 million clients around the world. Her responsibility is to lead Fidelity International forward in a rapidly evolving and accelerating competition in the asset management industry. She has also been a bold voice for diversity and gender equality within the industry, speaking out against the "masculine" culture that prevents many women from advancing their careers in asset management.
24 Linda Jackson, CEO of the French
Peugeot Citroën Group
Source: Courtesy of Citroën
Jackson joined the French car manufacturer Citroen in 2005 as the financial director of the British division. Now she has served as the company's first female CEO for the sixth year. Since his appointment in 2014, Citroën has experienced five consecutive years of growth, with sales revenue increasing by 28% cumulatively. In 2018, the Peugeot Citroen Group's iconic-Citroen-DS division achieved a record-breaking profit margin of 8.4% and a sales growth rate of 18.9%. After Autocar magazine named her the most powerful woman in the UK automotive industry in 2018, Jackson set ambitious goals for the company's future. She hopes to expand Citroën's markets outside Europe, including India and South Africa, to increase sales from 1.1 million to 1.5 million by 2021.
25 Jessica Uhl, Chief Financial Officer of Royal Dutch Shell of the Netherlands
Source: Courtesy of Shell International BV
Jessica Uhl is a native of California, USA, and currently works at Shell's Dutch headquarters. She has served as the oil giant's chief financial officer since 2017. Royal Dutch Shell ranks third in this year's Fortune Global 500 and is the world's second-largest oil company, second only to Exxon Mobil. Shell's revenue in 2018 exceeded US$396 billion. Uhl joined Shell in the renewables business and has since publicly pushed for transparency in the natural resources industry, including transparent taxation and climate change issues. The oil giant faces potentially conflicting demands as it transitions to a lower-carbon business, just as the global economic winds reverse: Economic growth is slowing, oil prices are falling and refining profits are falling.
26 Ornella Barra, Co-Chief Operating Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, UK
Source: Courtesy of WSM
Barra has had a huge impact on Walgreens Boots Alliance, a global drugstore chain worth US$131.5 billion, ranked 40th among this year's Fortune Global 500. Her responsibilities include 230html's $1 billion pharmaceutical wholesale business, international retail pharmacies, and helping to expand the Walgreens Boots Alliance brand globally. Barra was just a pharmacist when she first entered the industry. Now she is responsible for the company's global supply chain and the innovation of Walgreens Boots Alliance's global IT department. Her husband is Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Stefano Pesner. Barra's focus also includes: developing brands in the Chinese market, which the company considers to be the most promising and important market.
27 Adaire Fox-Martin, head of global customer operations and executive director of German
SAP company
Source: Courtesy of SAP
As executive director, Fox-Martin began to take over the global customer business in April this year. Previously, she was jointly responsible with Jennifer Morgan, who currently leads SAP's cloud computing business. Fu Meidai is now directly responsible for the German software company's business growth and customer relations, as well as annual sales of US$27 billion. The company has high hopes for her leadership and hopes to achieve sales of $38.7 billion by 2023.
28 Duan Xiaoying (Rachel Duan), China
President and CEO of GE International Business, Global Senior Vice President
Source: Courtesy of GE
Recently, Duan Xiaoying was promoted to President and CEO of GE International Business, becoming the first woman and first non-American leader of the organization. In her new role, she is responsible for GE's business growth in international markets, including the Middle East, Latin America, China, India, Asia Pacific, Africa and Central Europe. Last year, Duan Xiaoying formed a joint venture with Harbin Electric to manufacture and supply wind turbines to Chinese customers. She also signed an investment agreement to build a General Electric offshore wind power manufacturing base in Guangdong. At the same time, she received regulatory approval to establish a new fund to specifically invest in clean energy infrastructure projects.
29 Susanne Schaffert (Susanne Schaffert), President of the Oncology Division of Novartis, Switzerland
Source: Courtesy of Novartis
Novartis aspires to be an innovative pioneer in cancer drugs, and Schaffert is fully committed to promoting this goal. In January 2019, Shaffert became president of Novartis' oncology division. Previously, she served as president of French Advanced Accelerator Applications, which was acquired by Novartis in 2018 because of its unique cancer targeted therapies. The company said the appointment was rewarded with high dividends. For example: Novartis' global cancer portfolio sales in the first half of 2019 reached US$6.9 billion, accounting for almost 40% of the company's total revenue, a year-on-year increase of 9%. To some extent, the performance growth is due to Shafet's aggressive expansion of Kymriah's use. Kymriah is a pioneering leukemia therapy that reprograms a patient's own immune cells to fight cancer. It has been implemented in more than 160 treatment centers in 20 countries.
30 Harriet Green, Singapore
CEO and Chairman of IBM Asia Pacific
Source: Courtesy of IBM
In January 2018, Green was promoted from General Manager of IBM Watson IoT to CEO of IBM Asia Pacific. She actively reorganized the business and adjusted its shares, including integrating technology and business consulting teams into IBM services, and adjusting departments to provide more focused and customized services for Singapore. In 2018, the Asia-Pacific region achieved revenue of US$17.1 billion, accounting for a little more than 21% of the company's overall revenue last year, the same proportion as the previous year. Green is also working to improve diversity. Currently, women account for more than 40% of the team, making it one of the teams with the highest proportion of women in any IBM region.
31 Helle Østergaard Kristiansen
(Helle Østergaard Kristiansen), Denmark
CEO of Danske Commodities Company
Source: Courtesy of Danske Commodities
At the beginning of 2019, Denmark's Christiansen became the world's first female CEO in the energy trading field. The revenue of Danske Commodities Company ranked tenth in Denmark (revenue in 2018 was approximately US$10.7 billion). Christiansen previously served as Danske's chief financial officer, where she won a major victory in energy giant Equinor's $460 million acquisition of Danske in February. As part of the deal, Danske will push short-term energy trading to focus on renewable energy. Equinor's plan includes investing 15% to 20% of total capital expenditures in new energy solutions every year by 2030. In July this year, Christiansen also made his first attempt to expand Danske's business into the U.S. energy market.
32 Maki Akaida, CEO of Uniqlo Japan,
Senior Vice President of Fast Retailing
Maki Akaida, 40 years old, serves as the senior vice president of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, and has spent most of his career in the group. In 2001, Maki Akida joined the group and was responsible for the operation of stores with strong demand in China and Japan. In June this year, Maki Akaida took over as CEO of Uniqlo Japan. In 2018, Uniqlo Japan’s profit was US$1.11 billion. Maki Akaida has nearly 20 years of experience in managing high-income stores, so when founder Tadashi Yanai decided to resign, Maki Akaida was the first choice to take over as CEO of the group, and Tadashi Yanai also expressed his hope that a woman would take over.
33 Ann Cairns (Ann Cairns), UK
Executive Vice President Mastercard
Source: Mary Turner—Bloomberg via Getty Images
In 2011, Cairns joined Mastercard and served as a member of the Global Management Committee. Last year he served as executive vice president of the payments technology company, which had nearly $15 billion in revenue in 2018. As she rose through the ranks, she also took on a corporate ambassador-like role, focusing on promoting gender diversity and working to maintain a gender balance among candidates for Mastercard’s top positions. Outside of work, Keynes also advocated gender balance. In June of this year, she served as co-chairman of the well-known "30% Club", which is headquartered in the UK and mainly calls on global companies to provide more opportunities for women at all levels.
34 Emma FitzGerald, CEO of Puma Energy in Singapore
Source: Courtesy of Puma Energy
In January this year, Fitzgerald joined Puma Energy to take over the position of CEO. Previously, she held senior positions in the British energy industry and worked for Royal Dutch Shell for 20 years. She takes over at a tumultuous time, and this spring she said 2018 had been a "very difficult year" for the company. Months before she took over, she revamped her management team. Puma Energy is partly owned by Singaporean trading company Trafigura and partly by Angola’s state-owned Sonangol Angolan oil and gas company. The company's oil storage and retail gas station business continues to expand, with retail gas stations in Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. However, it is affected by economic tensions in Angola, and the International Monetary Fund is also monitoring Angola's macroeconomic stabilization measures. In 2018, the company lost $25 million. Reports say Fitzgerald plans to sell assets to reduce debt.
35 Nancy McKinstry, Chairman and CEO of Wolters Kluwer of the Netherlands
Source: Courtesy of Taco Anema/Wolters Kluwer
McKinstry is from the United States. In 2003, she became the first female CEO of Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch information service provider. In 2017-2018, McKinsey worked on its digital strategy, divesting some printing and distribution services and investing instead in industrial software. This strategy allowed the company to increase net profit by 3% despite a 2% decline in total revenue ($4.7 billion). In 2018-2019, McKenzie increased the number of female executives at Wolters Kluwer from 50% to 65%. Under her stewardship, the company's stock price grew by about 19% last year and by 364% throughout her tenure.
36 R. Alexandra Keith, CEO of the Beauty Division of Procter & Gamble in Switzerland
Source: Courtesy of PG
In the past year, the heads of P&G's six major business units have received the title of CEO. P&G said this is to strengthen the department's decision-making power in all aspects from supply chain management to commercialization. Keith, CEO of the global beauty department, is one of the promoted department heads. In 2018, her department’s net sales were US$13.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%. From 2017 to 2018, Keith led the department to achieve organic sales growth of 8%, setting a 10-year record. This is because she focused more on promoting the ingredients of cosmetics after analyzing the purchasing behavior of millennials. Her strategy turned Olay's sales around and enabled the expansion of natural cosmetics brand Native.Olay also acquired personal care brand Walker Company, which is mainly targeted at people of color.
37 Fama Francisco, CEO of Procter & Gamble's Baby and Feminine Care Business in Switzerland
Source: Courtesy of PG
In 2018, Francisco's first year on the job, he achieved the strongest growth in net sales, profits and productivity in the feminine care industry in 10 years, with net sales of baby care and feminine care products totaling US$12.1 billion. Francisco has made drastic changes in promoting P&G: internally, in just 12 months, she changed the leadership of the infant care team, which accounts for 70% of men, to half of men and women; externally, she launched the "Pampers Project" in 2019, calling for the placement of thousands of diaper tables in men's restrooms across North America to solve the difficulties fathers encounter in childcare.
38 Jane Jie Sun, CEO of China
Ctrip Travel Network
Source: Billy H.C. Kwok—Bloomberg via Getty Images
worked at KPMG and Applied Sun Jie, who works at Materials, has been working at China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip (the English name will soon be changed to Trip.com Group) since 2016. She has held various positions and currently works at Ctrip’s Shanghai headquarters. Ctrip's market value on Nasdaq is nearly US$19 billion, and its revenue in 2018 reached US$4.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16%. Despite the macroeconomic unfavorable factors, as Sun Jie said, "the Sino-US trade dispute affects Chinese tourists traveling to the United States," Ctrip's financial performance is still good. Sun Jie attaches great importance to improving the diversity of Ctrip employees and creating opportunities for women. Currently, one-third of Ctrip’s senior executives are women. Ctrip offers a range of benefits to female employees, including reimbursing taxi fares for pregnant women and providing funding for employees who want to freeze their eggs.
39 Han Seong-Sook, CEO and President of South Korea
Seong-Sook
Seong-Sook, South Korea's leading internet provider, received large investments last year and increased spending on artificial intelligence and new services such as Naver Pay, Webtoon and its Japanese communications subsidiary Line. Related investments reduced the company's profits by US$5 billion, but boosted by artificial intelligence technology, Shilian Interactive's core search , content and advertising businesses performed well, with revenue growing by 17% in the second quarter of 2019. Worldlian Interactive is facing increasingly fierce competition in the domestic market, so it is simultaneously looking for growth opportunities overseas. Initiatives include establishing joint venture mobile banks in neighboring countries and promoting Webtoon business globally.
40 Belinda Wong, China
CEO and Chairman of Starbucks China
Source: Courtesy of Starbucks
Belinda Wong is an old face of Starbucks. After she was promoted to CEO and Chairman of Starbucks China in June this year, she significantly reorganized the Chinese business into two departments: retail and digital venture capital, both of which she is responsible for. As competitors such as Luckin become more popular in China, Wang Jingying chose to speed up the launch of new services and products in stores to enhance competitiveness: as of June, 100 stores had launched the online ordering service "Starbucks Now"; the first Starbucks Reserve Coffee Roastery was opened; and the first Starbucks Now store was piloted - unlike the typical model, this store is mainly responsible for takeaway orders and delivery. Last year, Starbucks opened more than 600 new stores, and Wang Jingying plans to increase the total number of stores to 6,000 by 2022.
41 Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV UK
Source: Courtesy of Matt Frost/iTV
The television industry has been completely caught up in the fierce battle with streaming media, and McCall's iTV is certainly not immune. iTV and the BBC have formed a formidable alliance. They will launch a business called BritBox in the UK in the fourth quarter of 2019, including original TV series and shows currently airing in the UK, such as Broadchurch, Gavin Stacey and the embarrassing Love Island. Currently, BritBox has been launched in the United States and Canada.Despite BritBox's strong background, it's unclear whether it can compete with rivals such as Netflix and Disney that have become industry giants in their own right. BritBox was launched in response to declining TV viewing, competition from the Internet and declining advertising revenue - iTV in May gave a pessimistic future outlook based on falling advertising revenue. At a Fortune event in June, McCall said today was an era where consumers were willing to pay for quality content, a far cry from the situation 10 years ago when she was CEO of The Guardian.
42 Paula Santilli, Mexico
CEO of PepsiCo's Latin America region
Source: Courtesy of PepsiCo
On May 1 this year, Santilli became the CEO of PepsiCo's Latin American business. The $7.4 billion business has 70,000 employees, 24,000 sales channels and 34 markets, with Mexico and Brazil among PepsiCo's six largest markets. Santilli was previously president of PepsiCo Mexican Foods, which accounted for more than half of PepsiCo's total sales in Latin America and employed 40,000 people. Santilli has just been promoted, but has already achieved good results in his new position - Latin American business sales increased by 10% in the second quarter, which may be due to the successful marketing activities involving famous international football players such as Messi.
43 Gina Rinehart, executive chairman of Australia's
Hancock Exploration Company
As everyone knows Australia's richest man, mining queen Gina Rinehart inherited Hancock Exploration Company after her father's death in 1992. She has since grown the business into iron ore, coal, mining and dairy. The company disclosed revenue of more than $6 billion in 2018, significantly higher than in 2017, driven by its profitable iron ore business. But it is her high-profile legal battles that have captured the Australian public's attention, including an iron ore mining rights case and a long-running dispute with two of her four children over company shares. In May, Reinhardt won a lawsuit that prevented Australia's High Court from intervening in the equity dispute.
44 Margarita Louis Dreyfus, Switzerland
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Louis Dreyfus Holding Company
Source: Jean Catuffe—Getty Images
Louis Dreyfus is one of the largest integrated agricultural trading companies in the world. It trades and processes many crops such as coffee and cotton, and its business covers the world. In 2009, Margarita Louis-Dreyfus took over the company after her husband's death and has since continued to steadily increase her shareholding. In January 2019, she fully acquired the shares held by other members of the Louis Dreyfus family, thus obtaining 96% of the shares. In addition, the company has been "busy" - in September 2018, after appointing Ian McIntosh as CEO, the fifth CEO since 2011, Louis Dreyfus has completely restructured its management this year and put new traders in charge of each major business unit. Meanwhile, the company's profits rose 12% in 2018, helped in part by record sales of soybeans from Brazil to China.
45 Sun Wei (Wei Sun Christianson), China
Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific Co-CEO and China CEO
Source: Courtesy of Morgan Stanley
Sun Wei is a clear supporter of China's further opening up of its capital market. Under her leadership, Morgan Stanley’s China business has been in a leading position. Data from Thomson Financial shows that Morgan Stanley led the Chinese M&A market in 2018, but gave up its leading position in the equity capital market to Goldman Sachs, both in terms of transaction value and transaction volume. Sun Wei is also the co-head of Morgan Stanley's Asian business. In the second quarter of this year, the revenue of this business (excluding Japan) reached US$2.4 billion. Sun Wei has been focusing on expanding Morgan Stanley's Asian business, which led to the revenue growth rate of this business reaching an all-time high last year.
46 Yang Huiyan (Yang Huiyan), China
Country Garden Group Co-chairman
Source: Fang Xing—Imaginechina via AP
Yang Huiyan is the richest woman in China. At the same time, she is also one of the richest people under the age of 40 in the world, mainly due to the Country Garden shares transferred to her by her father, Yang Guoqiang, founder of Country Garden, in 2007. But this is not to say that Yang Huiyan herself has not contributed to Country Garden’s success. Yang Huiyan attended Country Garden board of directors meetings with her father when she was a teenager. At the end of 2018, she was promoted from vice chairman to co-chairman. Today, 38-year-old Yang Huiyan co-manages the company with her father. Country Garden is one of the largest real estate companies in China, and its business has also extended to Malaysia and Australia.
47 Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar Canada
Source: Fortune
In 1990, Hasenfratz started her career at the Ontario, Canada auto parts factory established by her father. She became the head of the company in 2002 and has been one of the few female CEOs in Canada. As an important and outspoken member of Canada's manufacturing industry, her company achieved revenue of $5.6 billion in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 7%. But the company and the entire industry in which it operates face significant headwinds. As Hassenfreeze publicly pointed out in June this year, U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and policies are "100 percent" responsible for the decline in demand in the Canadian auto industry.
48 Nunu Ntshingila, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Facebook South Africa
Source: Courtesy of Facebook
As Facebook’s head of sub-Saharan Africa, Nissingila’s job is to lead sales in the region for the company’s various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. In September 2019, the number of users in sub-Saharan Africa alone exceeded 155 million, up from 139 million in July 2018. Nisingila's goal is to eventually connect more than 1 billion Africans through Facebook's platform, a goal made difficult by the continent's unreliable and sometimes even unavailable internet. In her area, more than 98% of monthly users use Facebook on their mobile phones. Before joining Facebook, Nissingila served as head of communications at Nike and chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather.
49 Andrea Marques de Almeida
(Andrea Marques de Almeida), Brazil
Chief Financial Officer of Petrobras
Source: Courtesy of Andrea Marques de Almeida
In March 2019, Almeida became the chief financial officer of Petrobras, after 25 years as the financial director of the multinational mining giant Vale. In his new role, Almeida will oversee the multibillion-dollar enterprise. Currently, Petrobras ranks 74th among the Fortune Global 500. The job is difficult - Petrobras has been cleaning up and trying to restore its reputation since it was ordered to pay $2.95 billion in January 2018 to settle a corruption case in the United States. However, the company's revenue in 2018 was still close to US$95.6 billion, and its profit was approximately US$7.2 billion.
50 Renuka Jagtiani (Renuka Jagtiani), Chairman and CEO of Landmark Group in the United Arab Emirates
Jagtiani is the co-chairman of Landmark Group, a retail and hotel complex headquartered in Dubai. The other co-chairman is her husband Mickey Jagtiani. In 1973, Landmark Group started in Bahrain with only one baby products store at the beginning. Today, the company is huge, with more than 230html more than 100 retail stores, restaurants and hotels, and its business covers 22 countries. For more than 20 years, Gattiani's focus has been corporate strategy, including entering several new markets in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.She also launched Landmark Group's e-commerce business a few years ago.
This article is reproduced from Fortune Chinese website
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