Women of disctinction draft 6

WOMEN OF DISTICTION fIN IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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Foreign Investment Network

WINTER 2015

REMARKABLE

WOMEN IN

2015

Visionary Leaders Show the Way

by Example

PUBLISHED BY Foreign Investment Network UK Ltd MANAGING DIRECTOR Peter Lane HEAD OF GLOBAL MARKETING Ms. Khami Alexander BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT John Laniyi john.laniyi@finmagazine.com Iyabo Oniko Mariarita Iannone-de Tollis. mariarita@finmagazine.com Lanre Koleade, Director, Global Project Tola Ayo Adeyemi, Director, Legal Services

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EDITORS Lawrence Joffe Nick Kochan ASSOCIATE EDITOR Victor Ivoke victor.ivokes@finmagazine.com EDITORIAL ADVISOR Malu Halasa CONTRIBUTORS Sam Warshaw Ali May BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Francis Chukwurah PROJECT MANAGER Abby Fay PROJECT COORDINATOR Akin Laniyi akin.lan@finmagazine.com LAYOUT AND DESIGN Xandy Daehnhardt

4 Angela Merkel Germany’s Iron Lady Europe’s economy is on the brink of deflation. The answer in the coming year may be Qualitative Easing. Merkel may not be keen but be assured, she will be in the thick of the action.

CORRESPONDENTS Jo Preston (South Africa) jo.preston@finmagazine.com Betty Woods (Kenya) betty.woods@finmagazine.com Nana Ankwomah (Ghana) Liu Li (China) liu.li@finmagazine.com

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CHAIRMAN Mrs. Olayinka Fayomi yinka.fayomi@finmagazine.com CONTACTS 78 York Street, London W1H 1DP Tel/Fax: +44 207 692 5669 E-mail:info@finmagazine.com WEB www.foreigninvestmentnetworks.com EDITORIAL POLICY

The publisher acknowledges the assistance of all individuals and organizations that have contributed to this publication. The information contained in this publication has been published in good faith and the opinions herein are those of the authors and not of FIN Ltd. FIN therefore cannot accept responsibility for any error or misinterpretation and neither do they endorse any product or service advertised herein. Please note that reproduction of any part[s] of this publication without permission is prohibited.

Johnson Sirleaf Liberian leader Bidding to beat ebola Times are tough for Johnson Sirleaf as she battles ebola virus.

For her people and for the world, the coming year is critical to health and livelihood

6 Diezani Allison-Madueke In Opec’s hot seat The new Opec President could not have taken the reins at a more challenging time. Oil Price crisis will bring out the best in the Nigerian Minister in Opec’s hot seat

Dilma Rousseff Bringing Brazil to top table Starring for the BRICS Falling energy and commodity prices will turn up the heat on Brazil’s economy. Holding the reins of the BRICS strongest economy will be one of its toughest politicians.

11 Park Geun-hye South Korea’s tough champion More complicated political relations with North Korea turn up the heat on the Park Geung-hye.

The South’s leader has much to watch in 2015

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16 Christine Lagarde Safe pair of hands in crisis IMF’s Saviour of global economy Lagarde saw the World economy through the end of the financial crisis. But the next year or two should see her finish the job.

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Portia Simpson Miller Jamaica’s environmental champion As the US reduces QE, Jamaica’s economy will feel Meg Whitman currency turbulence. Simpson Miller will need to HP’s New-technology visionary take the strain.

Meg Whitman has shown she has the finger on the button of new technology. Where Meg goes we all tend to follow. She is a woman to watch.

14 Hillary Rodham Clinton America’s next President?

Woman striding global stage Clinton is widely expected to stand as a candidate for the next Presidential election. Whether she does or does not, the Clinton effect remains magnetic

19 Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi Pepsi’s Corporate mould-breaker Nooyi has pulled off some notable acquisitions for PepsiCo. The next period may well see more, with Nooyi in the driving seat

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ANGELA Germany’s Iron Lady

Merkel:

I

n any ranking of powerful women with massive achievements to their name, Angela Merkel comes very high. The Chancellor of Germany, is up there with Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, a tough and fierce achiever with great focus but considerable human qualities. This is a woman who loves work and is determined to make a difference.

The comparison with Margaret Thatcher is appropriate.

For example, she is a female politician from a centre right party who is also a scientist(Margaret Thatcher was also a scientist). Mrs Merkel studied physics while her male predecessors as Germany’s Chancellor (or President) studied law, business or history or were military officers.

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citizens. She has emphasised the importance of strengthening transatlantic economic relations – she signed the agreement for the Transatlantic Economic Council on 30 April 2007 at the White House. The Council, co-chaired by an EU and a US official, aims at removing barriers to trade in a further integrated transatlantic free-trade area.

The plaudits have been handsome. On 28 May 2014 she was named the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She was ranked the world’s second most powerful person by Forbes magazine in 2013, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman, and is now ranked fifth.

Angela Dorothea Merkel, who is 60, was born in Hamburg.

She has been the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000 and the Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She is the first woman to hold either office. In 2007, Merkel became the President of the European Council and chaired the G8, the second woman (after Margaret Thatcher) to do so.

She played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. One of her priorities was also to strengthen transatlantic economic relations by signing the agreement for the Transatlantic Economic Council on 30 April 2007. Merkel is seen as playing a crucial role in managing the financial crisis at the European and international level, and has been referred to as “the decider.”

In domestic policy, health care reform and problems concerning future energy development have been major issues of her tenure.

In the early part of her career Merkel was called Germany’s “Iron Lady“, “Iron Girl”, and even “The Iron Frau”. But later in her tenure, Mrs Merkel acquired the nickname “Mutti“ (a German familiar form of ‘mother’). This clash of nicknames reflects both her firm manner and her common sense. Merkel is [the youngest German chancellor since the Second World War. Angela Merkel has been described as the de facto leader of the European Union, and On 26 March 2014, she became Mrs Merkel has been a steadfast defender of both German the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the and European interests and integrity, believing strongly in European Union. the principles of the EU, while looking after her national

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DIEZANI

Alison-Madueke:

OPEC’s new President

D

iezani Allison-Madueke, the newly elected President of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) brings a new and decisive force to the leadership

of the prestigious organisation. Nigeria’s Minister for Petroleum Resources can be expected to have a major transformative affect on the global oil production and exporting industry.

Mrs Allison-Madueke was elected President of OPEC at the 166th session of the community in Vienna and took up her position on 1 January 2015. She had served as OPEC’s alternate President the previous year.

The position offers an opportunity to bring her determination and vision to bear on a global industry, experiencing unprecedented pressures from falling oil prices. These are introducing much uncertainty into the industry. Mrs Allison-Madueke sees it as her duty to guide the industry through these difficult times. She has talked about confronting the issue rather than avoiding it. “OPEC will provide a real platform for member countries to find a remedy and deal with the challenges posed by shale oil and gas from the United States and the current decline in crude oil prices. US shale oil and gas has had considerable impact on all major oil and gas producing economies. It is a major game changer for all stakeholders in the energy mix across the globe.’

She continues, “The months ahead, OPEC would provide a veritable platform for member countries to find a remedy and confront the issue”.

The falling oil price is of course a phenomenon of global markets, and OPEC’s role needs to be understood. Mrs Allison-Madueke

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entered the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, first as Minister of Transportation, and then of Mines. Her efforts were rewarded with the frontline position to which she was most suited, namely Minister of Petroleum Resources. This sector is the country’s predominant contributor to GDP as well as Africa’s largest single national oil sector. Her role as Africa’s spokesman on oil issues was assured.

Mrs Allison-Madueke has also made her mark as a spokesmen for women, seeking to encourage them to aspire and take up senior positions in the public and private sectors. She says, “(When) one woman breaks through a barrier she opens possibilities for every woman.” But gender-awareness has its limitations, and she sees these as necessary. “In my mind, almost as one of the boys, I’m very much a woman, in every sense. I maintain that femininity as best I can. I’m aware that I’m a woman but that does not affect my interactions or what I enforce in terms of the actual quantitative discourse around the table.” says, “The burden of falling oil prices was impacting on both OPEC and non-OPEC member countries.’

Nigeria’s response to the oil price issue must be no less resolute and impactful. She says, “There are no quick fixes to sliding oil prices. The strategy the Federal Government of Nigeria to cushion the effect of the fall is to develop the country’s gas infrastructure for domestic use. The current trend would make Nigeria to look very stringently again at the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is already before the National Assembly to ensure that the enablers therein are explored to make it more competitive in the global energy market.”

The move-up to President of OPEC represents an important step for Mrs Allison-Madueke who is already a recognised spokesman for the industry on the world stage. World leaders in the US and Europe already know her, for example, for the determination she has shown in seeking to outlaw ‘blood oil’ obtained by criminal bunkering of oil in the Niger Delta. Those leaders responded by toughening up measures in the supply and transportation chain.

This campaign gave her a considerable presence on the world stage and Mrs Allison-Madueke impressed leaders with her persuasiveness and toughness. Some observers have compared Mrs Allison-Madueke with Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, a nononsense leader who gets things done. She herself have expressed her own admiration for the former British prime minister.

That charisma and style is present and powerful as much at home as abroad. So we see Mrs Allison-Madueke pushing through the Petroleum Industry Bill into law. The legislation aims to improve regulatory transparency and accountability and provide for increased indigenous participation in Nigeria’s upstream industry.

Her domestic successes include ensuring much wider distribution of petrol around Nigeria’s retail network, winning plaudits at home as well as abroad.

Much more will be heard of this powerful but intensely human advocate of an efficient and modern Nigeria. For AllisonMadueke, the impact of her strides on the world stage are less for herself than for those that will follow.

She says many more women are waiting in the wings in Nigeria to break the glass window that she has broken in many sectors and endeavours. “I see it more as a woman breaking barriers for other women,” citing inspiration from “many heroic women in the history of Nigeria”, such as Queen Amina of Zaria, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Mrs Olufunke Olakunri and Grace Alele Williams. In times to come, it is likely her successors will include her name in that august list of important and influential African women.

The woman who has now moved to a position of eminence in the global oil industry is the daughter of powerful figures in Rivers state. Aged 54, Mrs -Madueke was educated in the United States, where she studied architecture at Howard University. She then went on to the University of Cambridge in England to do a Masters of Business Administration.

She showed a commitment and competence in the oil sector when she headed up Shell’s operations in Nigeria. This was the first time such a position had been held by a woman. She then

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ELLEN Johnson

Sirleaf:

T

he challenges facing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia, as she looks forward to 2015 and beyond are indeed formidable. Foremost among them is the battle against the scourge of ebola. If her efforts contain at the same level, she will win acclaim indeed. Up to now, she has won major plaudits and The Economist indeed has called her “arguably the best president the country has ever had.”

f ighter for her country

leaders. As of 2014, she is listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf came to power when she won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006. She was re-elected in 2011. Sirleaf was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with two other women, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen. The women were Johnson Sirleaf ’s eloquence in appealing to the world for help recognized “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of in fighting ebola was outstanding and powerful. In the course women and for women’s rights to full participation in peaceof a public letter, she wrote that ‘Across West Africa, a building work.” Johnson Sirleaf received the Indira Gandhi generation of young people risk being lost to an economic Prize by President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 12 September catastrophe as harvests are missed, markets are shut and borders 2013. are closed. The virus has been able to spread so rapidly because of the insufficient strength of the emergency, medical and Her foreign policy has been linked to keeping close relations military services that remain under-resourced.’ with the United States, Liberia’s traditional ally. On 15 March 2006, President Johnson Sirleaf addressed a joint meeting of “This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has the United States Congress, asking for American support to the capacity to help, whether that is with emergency funds, help her country “become a brilliant beacon, an example to medical supplies or clinical expertise ... It is the duty of all of us, Africa and the world of what love of liberty can achieve.” as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves against an Mrs Johnson Sirleaf has also strengthened relations with the enemy that they do not know, and against whom they have little People’s Republic of China, reaffirming Liberia’s commitment to the One-China policy.[54] Sirleaf is a member of the Council defence,” Johnson Sirleaf said. of Women World Leaders, an international network of current This strong leader was first recognised by Forbes magazine in and former women presidents and prime ministers whose 2006 when it named her the 51st most powerful woman in the mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally world. Newsweek listed her as one of the ten best leaders in the for collective action on issues of critical importance to women world, while Time counted her among the top ten female and equitable development.

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DILMA

Rousseff:

Brazil’s pioneering woman

V

ision and toughness are at the core of the philosophy and indeed life of Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil, and a woman of enormous determination and character. She is also the first woman President of the country.

Earlier in her career, Mrs Rousseff went to prison for her beliefs and was tortured. Today, she is a champion of a resurgent and increasingly powerful Brazil.

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This has been acknowledged in her ranking fourth in Forbes’ 2014 list of the most powerful women in the world. She was ranked second most powerful in 2013. In October 2010, she was ranked 16th in the Forbes’ list of the most powerful people in the world. She was the third highest placed woman on the list, after Angela Merkel and Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress.

The highest plaudits have come in great numbers. So has received a Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award and was the first woman to open a session of the United Nations General Assembly. Mrs Rousseff was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine on 26 September 2011.

Dilma Rousseff, who is 67 is the 36th President of her country, having served as Chief of Staff of the legendary President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010. The daughter of a Bulgarian entrepreneur, Rousseff was raised in an upper middle class household in Belo Horizonte. She was initially a socialist radical but transformed into a social democrat. She was elected President of her country on 31 October 2010 and re-elected on 26 October 2014.

She has stuck fearlessly by her commitment to social inclusion and her championing of Bolsa Familia, a social welfare scheme that has benefited 36 million Brazilians.

Under her guidance and leadership, Mrs Rousseff has led a country which has placed itself firmly at the head of the BRIC economies. The triumph of the World Cup in 2014 and the selection of Rio de Janeiro in 2016 celebrate the recognition of the country’s growing economic power. Mrs Rousseff ’s vision for her country and her continent enhance her esteem on the world stage.

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PARK

Geun-hye:

woman in the hot seat of Asia

P

ark Geung-hye is South Korea’s first elected woman president. She is also one of Asia’s most remarkable and visionary politicians, with strong market-based economic convictions that have helped shape a country cut taxes, reduce regulation, and establish strong law and which is now regarded as one of the powerhouses of the order.[31] Since 2009, however, Park started to focus more on world. welfare issues, advocating customized welfare services to the South Korean people.

This degree of achievement is reflected in Forbes’ naming her the world’s 11th most powerful woman and the most powerful woman in East Asia by Forbes Magazine’s List of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. She was named the world’s 52nd most powerful person by Forbes Magazine’s List of The World’s Most Powerful People, the fourth highest among Koreans after Ban Ki-moon, Lee Kun-hee and Kim Jong-un.

She has cut her own very individualistic path, despite being the daughter of Park Chung-hee, who was President of South Korea from 1963 to 1979. She is the first female head of state in the modern history of Northeast Asia.

Her conservative, market-oriented political stance was well reflected in her campaign pledge for 2008 presidential bid to 11

Park is well known for her strict, no-compromise adherence to political promises and fearlessly took on political leaders and vested interests in the pursuit of her beliefs. The administrative vision of President Park Geun-hye’s new government is “a new era of hope and happiness”.

Park has maintained a close relationship with the U.S., which has over 20,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea. During her visit to the U.S., she addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress, where she called for a united front against any North Korean provocations. Park also called for a strong global relationship between South Korea and the United States.

Park assesses the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and emphasized that deterrence capabilities were the most important factor for security. Thus, Park considers the American-South Korean alliance as the most successful one in the world. And she hopes the American-South Korean relationship can be upgraded from a comprehensive strategic alliance to a global partnership.

Park is recognised as dealing with the North Korean issue deftly and confidently. Park has said that peace and unification on the Korean peninsula is the wish of all 70 million Koreans and that as president she will do her utmost to meet such a goal. And the ultimate objective of reunifications is to improve the quality of lives of people in South and North Korea, to further expand freedom and 12

human rights, and thereby build a happy Korean Peninsula.

Peaceful unification, she says, will be achieved in three stage unification initiative: starting from securing peace, going through economic integration, and finally reaching political integration. To achieve sustainable peace by the initiative, the new administration will offer humanitarian assistance for the people in North Korea, inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in economic, social and cultural areas, and will apply ‘Vision Korea project’ for establishing a single economic community in the Korean peninsula, conditioned on sufficient mutual trust and progress in denuclearizing North Korea.

PORTIA Simpson

Miller

P

ortia Simpson Miller is a Jamaican politician who has been Prime Minister of Jamaica since 5 January 2012.[1] Previously she served as Prime Minister from March 2006 to September 2007. She is the leader of the People's National Party, and she was Leader of the Opposition between her two terms as Prime Minister.

While serving as Prime Minister, Simpson-Miller retained the positions of Minister of Defence, Development, Information and Sports. She had served as Minister of Labour, Social Security and Sport, Minister of Tourism and Sports and Minister of Local Government throughout the years.[2] Following her second election win in December 2011, when her party defeated the Jamaica Labour Party, she became the second individual to have served non-consecutive terms, the ďŹ rst having been Michael Manley.[3] Simpson-Miller was elected in 1976 to the Parliament of Jamaica, for the constituency of South West St. Andrew Parish, as a member of the People's National Party. The PNP boycotted the elections called in 1983. She was re-elected to the same seat in a later election, and served as Minister of Labour, Welfare and Sports from 1989 to 1993. She was Minister of Labour and Welfare from 1993 to 1995, Minister of Labour, Social Security and Sports from 1995 to February 2000, Minister of Tourism and Sports from February 2000 to October 2002, and Minister of Local Government and Sport since October 2002.[4]

of the delegates' vote, making her the ďŹ rst PNP president to be elected by less than half of eligible delegates. In July 2008, Simpson-Miller was challenged for the presidency of the PNP

by Phillips. The election was held among the party's delegates on 20 September. She was re-elected as the head of the PNP for her second consecutive year, defeating him by an even wider margin than that of the previous election.

Simpson-Miller has endorsed replacing the position of the Jamaican monarchy with an elected head of state. [16] She is She was a vice president of the PNP from 1978 to 2006, when the second Jamaican head of government, after Percival she became its president. In the PNP's internal vote to elect P. Patterson, to openly endorse republicanism.[17] SimpsonJ. Patterson's successor, held on 26 February 2006, she received Miller has reportedly pledged to transform Jamaica into a 1,775 votes, while her nearest rival, security minister Dr. Peter republic as part of the 50th anniversary of the island's Phillips, took 1,538 votes.[5] She garnered approximately 47% independence

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HILLARY Rodham

Clinton:

Woman standard bearer for democracy

T

he vision of Hillary Rodham Clinton has ensured that the United States has retained and enhanced its position as the global super power. She is recognised as a standard-bearer of liberty and firmness for her country and for Western democracy.

The former United States Secretary of State, U.S. Senator, and First Lady of the United States, has also championed the cause of women, of the poor of her national interests with a commitment and energy that has impressed the world.

The hard realities of political life are well understood by Rodham Clinton who has put “smart power“ as the basis for a strategy of asserting U.S. leadership and values. Her approach combines military power with diplomacy and American capabilities in economics, technology, and other areas. She encouraged empowerment of women everywhere and used social media to communicate the U.S. message abroad The political facts of this remarkable woman speak for themselves. Rodham Clinton was the 67th Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013, serving under President Barack Obama. She previously represented New York in the U.S. Senate (2001 to 2009). Before that, as the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was First Lady from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election, Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Rodham Clinton, who is 67, married former President Bill Clinton in 1975. She subsequently became the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation, and in 1979, the first female partner at Rose Law Firm. The National Law Journal twice listed her as one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America. As First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 with her husband as Governor, she led a task force that reformed 14

never charged with wrongdoing in this or several other investigations during the Clinton presidency. Her marriage endured the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.

Arkansas’s education system. During that time, she was on the board of directors of Wal-Mart and several other corporations.

After moving to New York, Clinton was elected the first female senator from the state; she is the only First Lady ever to have run for public office. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she supported military action in Afghanistan and the Iraq War Resolution, but subsequently objected to the George W. Bush administration’s conduct of the war in Iraq. She opposed most of Bush’s domestic policies. Clinton was reelected to the Senate in 2006.

Running in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Clinton won far more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but narrowly lost the nomination to Obama.

The possibility that America has its first woman President In 1994, as First Lady of the United States, her major rests on Mrs Rodham Clinton standing in, and winning the initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval next presidential election from the U.S. Congress. However, in 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a leading role in advocating the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. Rodham Clinton had her tough times, but fought through them. So beside all the plaudits, she is the only First Lady to have been subpoenaed, testifing before a federal grand jury in 1996 regarding the Whitewater controversy. But she was 15

CHRISTINE

Lagarde

of the IMF:

securing the world economy

L

eadership, panache and seriousness are the hallmarks of Christine Lagarde, the safe pair of hands at the International Monetary Fund who helped negotiate the tricky waters of the aftermath of the financial crisis with considerable confidence. As the IMF’s managing director, she has received great acclaim among developed economies as an articulate manager who can be relied upon to say the correct thing at the correct time.

Mrs Lagarde, who is 59, was a trendsetter in French politics, holding various ministerial posts in the French government, before becoming the country’s first female finance minister. The Financial Times ranked her the best Minister of Finance in the Eurozone.

On the strength of her political career, she became the first woman to head the IMF. Her term, which lasts five years, ends in 2016. In 2014, Lagarde was ranked the 5th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.

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The United States in particular supported her speedy appointment in light of the fragility of Europe’s economic situation. The U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that Lagarde’s “exceptional talent and broad experience will provide invaluable leadership for this indispensable institution at a critical time for the global economy.” Nicolas Sarkozy referred to Lagarde’s appointment as “a victory for France.” Lagarde was born in Paris, France, into a family of academics.

In the course of her term as head of the IMF, she had to deal with the world’s disressed debt situation. She said, in July 2010, that the IMF’s lending program for distressed European countries was “a very massive plan, totally unexpected, totally counter-treaty, because it wasn’t scheduled in the treaty that we should do a bailout program, as we did.

We had essentially a trillion dollars on the table to confront any market attack that would target any country, whether it’s Greece, Spain, Portugal, or anybody within the eurozone.”

Lagarde has always taken a hard line with respect to the French economy, says that besides short-term stimulus efforts: “we must, very decisively, cut our deficit and reduce our debt.”

Her earlier career was no less distinguished. She was a noted anti-trust and labour lawyer, eventually becoming the first female chairman of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie.

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MEG Whitman’s

Visionary Magic

Her key break occurred in 1998 when she joined ebay, when the company had 30 employees and revenues of approximately $4 million. She grew it over a decade to an $8 billion concern, with 15,000 employees.

Her transformation of the company has gone down in American corporate legend. The ebay website was a simple black and white webpage with courier font when she joined.

Indeed, on her first day, the site crashed for eight hours. She believed the site to be confusing and began by building a new executive team. Whitman organized the company by splitting it into twenty-three business categories. She then assigned executives to each, including some 35,000 subcategories.

During Whitman’s tenure as CEO, eBay completed the purchase of Skype for $4.1 billion in cash and stock in September 2005. In 2009, Skype was sold by eBay at a valuation of $2.75 billion. In 2011, Skype was bought by Microsoft for US$8.5 billion.

She has won worldwide applause for her managerial excellence. So in 2014, Mrs Whitman was named 20th in Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

Mrs Whitman was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2008.

argaret ‘Meg’ Whitman is America’s most recognisable business woman. At the same time Mrs Whitman’s interest in politics came to the fore in 2009, she has set a new standard for business women in when she announced her candidacy for Governor of US corporate life through her remarkable power and vision. California. She won the Republican primary in June 2010, Mrs Whitman has contributed substantially to creating the having spent more of her own money platform for today’s internet on the race than any other political economy. candidate spent on a single election in American history, $144m. She is the Coupled with that is capacity to fourth wealthiest woman in the state multi-task, so Mrs Cushman has of California with a net worth of $1.3 embarked on a career in politics at billion. Whitman lost to Jerry Brown the top table of America’s in the November 2 election. democratic institutions.

Whitman has received numerous Mrs Whitman, who is 58, today awards and accolades for her work at leads Hewlett-Packard as its eBay. On more than one occasion, she chairman, president and chief was named among the top five most executive officer. An alumnus of powerful women by Fortune magazine.

Harvard, she came up through Harvard Business Review named her management jobs at The Walt the eighth-best-performing CEO of Disney Company DreamWorks, the past decade and the Financial Procter & Gamble, and Hasbro.

Times named her as one of the 50 faces that shaped the decade.

M

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INDRA Krishnamurthy

Nooyi:

PepsiCo powerhouse

W

omen occupy many leadership positions in some of the world’s largest and most dynamic companies.

None represents this model of management better than Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi. She has transformed the size and performance of her company PepsiCo by her vision and her energy. Numerous authorities have recognised her great contribution to American corporate life including

Fortune in 2014 which named her the 3rd Most Powerful Woman in Business.

Mrs Nooyi, PepsiCo’s Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, has directed the company’s global strategy for more than a decade and led PepsiCo’s restructuring, including the 1997 divestiture of its restaurants. Mrs Nooyi also led some major corporate actions including the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, and the merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade to PepsiCo. In 2006 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 44-year history. She has greatly enhanced the company’s annual revenues with net profit more than doubling, to $5.6 billion in 2006 since she started as CFO in 2000.

Mrs Nooyi, who is 59, was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report in 2008. In 2008, she was elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In January 2008, Mrs Nooyi was elected Chairwoman of the US-India Business Council (USIBC). Nooyi leads USIBC’s Board of Directors, an assembly of more than 60 senior executives representing a cross-section of American industry.

A native of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, she came through manager positions at Johnson & Johnson, the leading consumer goods firm, and textile firm Mettur Beardsell before attending Yale School of Management in 1978, earning a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management. She later joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and then held strategy positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri.

In addition to her commercial work, she serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

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