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The heiress of $10 billion Perdue Farms and the $12 billion Sheraton Hotels empire wore hand-me-downs, still rides the subway, and flies economy

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FeaturesMost Powerful Women

Marissa Mayer’s unprecedented amazing trifecta

By
Patricia Sellers
Patricia Sellers
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By
Patricia Sellers
Patricia Sellers
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November 21, 2013, 5:16 PM ET
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Elon Musk, one of the greatest disruptors in tech since Steve Jobs, is Fortune‘s 2013 Businessperson of the Year, announced this morning. Musk is the innovator behind three major startups: Tesla Motors , SpaceEx and SolarCity . An audacious, tenacious triple threat. But another technology exec scores a trifecta that no one else in Fortune history ever has: Marissa Mayer is the only person ever to make the Businessperson of the Year list (No. 10), Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women rankings (at No. 8), and our 40 Under 40. (No. 1).

The Yahoo CEO rates x3 because she is the first CEO in a parade of bosses to produce a turnaround strategy that appears to be working. Since joining Yahoo from Google in July of 2012, the 38-year-old engineer has bought two dozen startups (including Tumblr for $1.1 billion), recast the corporate culture, and lifted Yahoo’s user base to 800 million–while doubling Yahoo’s stock.

Besides Mayer, six other Fortune MPW earned a place on the Businessperson of the Year list. Burberry chief Angela Ahrendts, who is moving to Apple next year, is No. 4. TJX CEO Carol Meyrowitz ranks No. 17. Harriet Green, who saved British-based Thomas Cook from the brink, is No. 23. Carolyn McCall, CEO of low-cost European airline EasyJet , is No. 30. DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman ranks No. 43. And self-made Chinese real-estate mogul Zhang Xin is No. 46.

Meanwhile, we had some fun ranking the 25 Most Powerful Female TV Characters–applying the Fortune MPW ranking criteria to the stars of hits like Scandal and Nashville and Mad Men. Which of Sterling Cooper’s femme fatales, Peggy Olson or Joan Holloway, possesses more power? Fortune tells.

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By Patricia Sellers
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