Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Lumen president and CEO Kate Johnson invests $1 million into the company in a show of confidence, Ivanka Trump takes the stand in her father’s civil fraud case, and female CEOs run 7% of businesses on the new Fortune 500 Europe. Have a great Thursday!
– A new 500. For the first time ever, Fortune released the Fortune 500 Europe this week. The list ranks the continent’s biggest companies by revenue, breaking out the region’s businesses from the Fortune Global 500, which measures the largest companies worldwide.
The list is revealing. As my colleague Peter Vanham writes, it shows a market that is a “throwback to the 20th century, when energy and automotive industries dominated the global economy, and companies were led by men.” Rather than a top 10 that includes major tech businesses, as is the case in the United States’ Fortune 500, the top of the Europe list is dominated by six energy and three automotive businesses. You’d have to return to the late 1990s in the U.S. to find a Fortune 500 that looks anything like 2023’s Fortune 500 Europe, Peter writes.
The Fortune 500 Europe has 35 companies led by female CEOs, or 7% of the total list. That’s behind the U.S., where women run 10.4% of businesses on the Fortune 500, but slightly ahead of the Global 500, where women lead 5.8% of companies.
The top woman-led company on the list meets at the intersection of those two trends. The French energy company Engie, led by CEO Catherine MacGregor, is ranked No. 18. with $109 billion in revenue. Next up is Dublin, Ireland-incorporated Accenture, led by CEO Julie Sweet. Then there’s Danish energy business Energi Danmark Group, which got a new CEO, Louise Hahn, this past August. The British telecom Vodafone Group is the fourth-largest woman-led company in Europe, under CEO Margherita Della Valle.
Other familiar women-led businesses on the Fortune 500 Europe include Emma Walmsley‘s GSK, Helena Helmersson‘s H&M, Debra Crew’s Diageo, and Leena Nair’s Chanel. Many of these executives were featured on Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women list last month.
Overall, Germany has the most businesses represented on the Fortune 500 Europe, with 90 total. It’s followed by the U.K. with 76, France with 71, and the Netherlands with 37. In total, businesses on the list account for 83% of Europe’s GDP. And while the region’s most influential industries differ from those in the U.S. or China, its impact on the global economy is undeniable. European regulators set the bar on sustainability, data privacy, and antitrust practices.
See the full Fortune 500 Europe here and the full list of Fortune 500 Europe female CEOs below:
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune's newsletter for and about the world's most powerful women. Today's edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Confidence capital. Kate Johnson, president and CEO of Lumen, is investing $1 million of her own money into the telecommunications company to disprove doubtful investors. Lumen’s stock has dropped nearly 90% over the past two years amid restructuring efforts, but Johnson, once the U.S. president of Microsoft, thinks investors are overreacting. Wall Street Journal
- Ivanka on the stand. Ivanka Trump testified on Wednesday in her father’s civil fraud case in New York that she played no role in her father's allegedly inflated financial statements and didn't know that he claimed a net worth of $4 billion to ensure better terms for a 2011 loan. (The state alleges that Trump was worth $1.6 billion at the time.) The trial will determine penalties for the judge's earlier finding of fraud. Bloomberg
- She's the man. New research from a sociologist at Cornell University found that women in computer science jobs make about 86.6 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. One way to close the gap? Treat women like high-achieving men. Fortune
- A Philly first. Philadelphia voters on Tuesday elected Democrat Cherelle Parker as the city's first female mayor. Parker says she plans to use her 17 years of local government experience to combat violence in the city. NBC
- She shoots, she scores. Caitlin Clark is generating lucrative returns from her historic run as Iowa University’s star basketball player; she's in commercials for State Farm and struck a shoe deal with Nike. She’s also bringing in steady cash flow for her school, which has seen resale ticket prices skyrocket and attendance surge. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Tremendous appointed Dana Barrett as vice president of marketing.
ON MY RADAR
Women played an unprecedented role at the Pope’s Synod. Will it make any difference? The New Yorker
‘I felt safe and taken care of:’ Can midwifery startups change our broken maternity care? The Guardian
‘If not me, who?’ As Ukraine seeks troops, women prepare for the call New York Times
PARTING WORDS
"I’m going to continue to fight for accountability and transparency for my daughter."
—Kimberly Mata-Rubio, who lost her race for mayor of Uvalde, Texas this week. Her daughter was killed in the shooting at Uvalde's Robb Elementary.
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