Best advice at Fortune’s powerful women dinner

May 26, 2015, 4:00 PM UTC
Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York City
May 18th, 2015 - New York, NY, USA Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner in New York City. Conversation Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo! Inc. Interviewer: Pattie Sellers, Fortune Editor at Large, Exec. Director MPW/Live Content, Time Inc. Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women
Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer shared advice she got from Google co-founder Sergey Brin: “Don’t forget to be bold.”

Princeton women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart, who is one of Fortune‘s 2015 World’s Greatest Leaders, said, “Life is about who you are and who you help.”

Another woman on Fortune‘s Greatest Leaders list, Save the Children CEO Carolyn Miles, shared her formula for success: “Don’t worry too much about where you’re going. Pay attention to where you are.”

That was just some of the wisdom imparted last week at Fortune‘s 2015 “Most Powerful Women Evening with…” dinner in New York City. The invitation-only gathering included other well-known guests such as Martha Stewart and Katie Couric, who laughed as Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers grilled Mayer on how she measures her return on investment in Couric, who last year joined Yahoo at an annual salary reportedly exceeding $5 million.

In the wake of the news that Verizon is buying AOL for $4.4 billion, Mayer talked about why a Yahoo-AOL pairing never happened.

Also, the evening featured 19 rising-star leaders from across the world who came to the U.S. in April as part of this year’s Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership. Each year since 2006, this month-long program has paired emerging international women leaders with Fortune MPW Summit participants, who host them at their companies for two weeks.

Here’s the full transcript of Pattie Sellers’ on-stage interview with Mayer.

And here’s a look at the powerful forces that came together for the Fortune MPW evening…

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CityFortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers interviews Yahoo CEO Mayer. Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York City Participants in this year’s Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring program with Martha Stewart Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CityFrom left: Accenture chief marketing officer Roxanne Taylor, Fortune assistant managing editor Leigh Gallagher, Marissa Mayer and Pattie Sellers Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CityDina Habib Powell, head of Impact Investing at Goldman Sachs and president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CityCourtney Banghart, head women’s basketball coach at Princeton, shares the best advice she ever got. Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CityYahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CityFortune editor Alan Murray and Katie Couric, Yahoo global news anchor Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

 

Fortune Most Powerful Women Dinner - New York CitySave the Children CEO Carolyn Miles Photograph by Stuart Isett for Fortune Most Powerful Women

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