1. Mary Barra
54 years old, CEO and Chairman, General Motors
Auto giant General Motors' operating revenue surged to US$152.4 billion in the past year, and Mary Barra was once again elected as Fortune's most powerful woman. She deftly guided GM through the 2014 ignition switch crisis, made the difficult decision to exit the Russian market, and invested in ride-sharing company Lyft. Under her leadership, General Motors also acquired Silicon Valley startup Cruise Automation for $581 million. In 2015, General Motors earned a record profit of $9.7 billion. However, she failed to boost the stock price. Even though U.S. stocks hit new highs, the company's stock price has not improved. In January this year, the General Motors board of directors awarded her the position of chairman, reflecting the trust she shouldered.
2. Indra Nooyi
60 years old, CEO and Chairman, PepsiCo
This year marks Nooyi’s tenth year as CEO. PepsiCo has been growing steadily. In 2015, the company's sales and profits fell by 5% and 13% respectively due to international market fluctuations, but its market value still increased by 18% in the past 12 months, reaching US$155 billion. Investors appear to believe that Indra Nooyi's push to make PepsiCo produce healthier food and drinks will pay off. In addition, PepsiCo, which had net operating income of US$63 billion in 2015, has cut costs by US$3 billion in the past three years, which also satisfied investors. Some people predict that as Nooyi further diversifies the company's business and no longer sticks to carbonated drinks with declining performance, more acquisitions may emerge in the health care products industry.
4. Ginni Rometty
54 years old, Chairman and President, IBM
Rometty’s journey after taking the helm of IBM has not been smooth: the technology giant recently announced that its operating income has declined for 17 consecutive quarters. However, there are also bright spots in the financial report. In fiscal year 2015, "strategic businesses" (that is, real growth businesses) accounted for 35% of IBM's operating income of US$81.7 billion, compared with only 10% in 2010. IBM's performance growth is partly due to acquisitions. In the past 18 months, Rometty has completed 25 acquisitions, investing a total of US$9 billion. Several acquisition targets, including Truven Health and Merge Healthcare, are in the medical analytics space.
6. Sheryl Sandberg
47 years old, COO, Facebook
As Sandberg continues to serve as chief operating officer, Facebook's performance has also maintained amazing growth. The social media company's mobile ad revenue surged 80% to $17.9 billion last quarter and now accounts for 84% of ad sales. The next step is to further monetize the video and video live broadcast business Facebook Live. In addition, Instagram, the photo-sharing social networking site acquired by Facebook, is expected to bring in $3 billion in advertising revenue in 2016 alone. In addition to her full-time job, Sandberg is also writing a new book after losing her partner in 2015, titled "Option B."
7. Meg Whitman
60 years old, President and CEO, HP
Whitman presided over the most watched technology company split in the corporate world - in October 2015, HP was split into HP Enterprise and HP Inc. Whitman, who currently oversees Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the $52 billion storage business, is continuing to streamline the company (she is also HP's chairman). Whitman's breakup of the company wasn't over, though. She said in May that Hewlett Packard Enterprise would merge its IT services unit with Computer Sciences to form another new company in 2017. In addition, Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced that it will sell its software business for $8.8 billion. Whitman was a former Republican gubernatorial candidate and actively supported Clinton's presidential bid.
9. Irene Rosenfeld
63 years old, Chairman and CEO, Mondelēz International
Her career hit a snag in August when Rosenfeld announced she was abandoning the acquisition of Hershey. The acquisition would have been Rosenfeld's latest corporate overhaul. During her time at Rosenfeld, she successfully implemented a series of reforms at Mondelez International and its predecessor, Kraft Foods. As a consumer packaged food giant, Mondelēz International has a market value of US$29.6 billion. But after the failure of the Hershey acquisition plan, some people believe that Mondelēz International itself may also become an acquisition target. Although 75% of the company's sales come from markets outside North America, growth in major emerging markets remains slow. Last year, the company's revenue decreased by 13.5%, mainly due to the adverse impact of currency translation.
14, Angela Ahrendts
56 years old, Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores, Apple
Angela Ahrendts has been the head of Apple’s retail operations for two years and is responsible for about 12% of the company’s $233.7 billion in sales. Ahrendts, the former CEO of Burberry, is creating a new luxury retail experience. But she is also facing pressure as iPhone sales decline and growth slows in the Chinese market. Her first major retail project, the Apple Watch, received mixed reviews and disappointing sales. Now, Ahrendts is rolling out a new brick-and-mortar store design that debuted at the Apple flagship store in San Francisco in May 2016. The new store design adds a beautifully designed information desk "Genius Grove", installs a movie theater-sized video screen, and a conference room for application developers to exchange ideas with small companies. The question is whether these actions can help Ahrendts push the technology giant to a new annual sales record.
16. Susan Wojcicki
48 years old, CEO, Google YouTube
Wojcicki is trying to keep the $9 billion online video site growing despite growing competition from Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Snapchat. She launched new live streams, new ad formats and virtual reality videos for the site. YouTube has more than 1 billion users worldwide. In addition, she has been promoting a large number of high-quality original video content - recently acquiring the rights to the TV series "Step Up". Now, the company hopes an ad-free subscription service that also offers music streaming will bring in more revenue.
19. Rosalind Brewer
54 years old, President and CEO, Walmart Sam’s Club
Sam's Club, Walmart's warehouse club division, is worth $57 billion. Brewer, who has led the division for four years, is stepping up his attack on larger rival Costco. She plans to use e-commerce to fulfill online orders for in-store pickup, as well as launch a product that allows consumers to go directly to the checkout without going through a checkout counter.Get an edge over the competition with applications that accept payments. In addition, she is investing in food service (more organic food), doing brick-and-mortar remodels, and opening new stores in higher-income neighborhoods. Brewer still has a long way to go; Sam's Club revenue, operating income and same-store sales all declined from last year.
31. Amy Hood
44 years old, executive vice president and CEO, Microsoft
Hood has served as CFO of Microsoft (Microsoft) since 2013 and is also the company's first female CFO. She played an important role in the negotiations for Microsoft's $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in June this year. Hood, a former bank investor, is now widely regarded as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's right-hand man. Hood is overseeing the company's financial management as the company, which has annual revenue of $85.3 billion, transitions to cloud computing, including investing nearly $7 billion in new data centers last year. After Microsoft's COO resigned this year, Hood became responsible for global licensing and pricing.
33. Judith McKenna
50 years old, Executive Vice President and COO, Walmart USA
McKenna has been running Walmart U.S. operations since December 2014 and is helping turn around its largest unit. Walmart's U.S. business sales are US$298.4 billion, and so far, same-store sales have maintained positive growth for two consecutive years. Same-store sales are an important metric in the retail industry. Previously, Wal-Mart decided to invest US$2.7 billion in training projects and decided to raise the wages of approximately 1.2 million U.S. store employees, in which McKenna played a key role. At the same time, she's pushing for technology upgrades: All store and supermarket managers are now equipped with mobile devices, so they can spend more time in the store instead of in the warehouse.
Influential Business Women of the Future
51. Beyoncé
35 years old, pop queen
This is Beyoncé’s year to shine. She is the first female artist to have 12 songs (all from her sixth album "Lemonade") enter the Billboard top 100, making history in the music industry. Not only that, she has also caused a sensation in the business world. In April this year, she launched Ivy Park, an athleisure clothing brand.While this is her first entrepreneurial venture outside of music, it's not Beyoncé's first time being a boss. Back in 2007, she established her own entertainment and management company, Parkwood Entertainment. This year, Parkwood expanded its music business and signed three artists, all of whom are women. Advancing female empowerment appears to be an ongoing theme for the music mogul: In May she announced an investment in female-founded watermelon water startup WTRMLN WTR.
