Good morning! The richest woman in the U.K. made $199 million last year, investors bet on volleyball as the next big thing in women’s sports, and women kick off 2025 with a bang on the Fortune 500.
– More than 10%. The share of women running Fortune 500 companies has for the past several years typically hovered around 10%. But we’re kicking off the year with an unusual milestone: The share of women running these big businesses has clawed its way above 11%—hitting a record-high 11.6% this week.
That’s thanks to a few appointments over the past several weeks. On Monday, Ulta announced the promotion of COO Kecia Steelman to CEO, taking effect immediately. She takes over from departing CEO Dave Kimbell, running the $11 billion beauty retailer whose transformation cemented former chief Mary Dillon’s reputation as a successful CEO. (Dillon now leads Foot Locker, making her one of three women to ever run two Fortune 500 companies.)
On Monday, Deanna Strable’s tenure as CEO of Principal Financial Group became official. Principal had announced the company lifer’s promotion from COO to CEO of the $13.6 billion business in November. Meanwhile over at S&P Global, the promotion of Martina Cheung to CEO of the $12.5 billion company took effect in November.
Taken together, these changes pushed the Fortune 500 above the 10% hurdle—with 58 women in these jobs. But this may not represent lasting change. Another announcement that contributed to this milestone was at Intel, where the struggling chipmaker’s drama late last year gave exec Michelle Johnston Holthaus the title of interim co-CEO. The company is searching for a full-time chief. At least one current CEO, too, has already announced plans to leave; longtime Ross Stores CEO Barbara Rentler will step down in less than a month.
Still, it’s worth noting that inch by inch women are claiming more big-business CEO jobs. Most of them are internal hires, promoted thanks to their proven track records at their businesses—the way that 76% of all the female CEOs in the Fortune 500 got their jobs.
Between the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Fortune 500, the share of women running these companies didn’t budge from 10.4%. So after a year of stagnation, to jump to almost 12% seven months later feels like an achievement worth celebrating.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Fake images, real consequences. The U.K. will make it a criminal offense to create or share nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake images. Tech platforms that enable the creation of such images will also face tougher scrutiny, the government said. Reuters
- Top dollar. Denise Coates, founder of sports betting company Bet365 Group, is the richest woman in the U.K. and one of the world’s highest paid executives. She earned around £159 million ($199 million) last year and serves as Bet365’s majority shareholder and co-CEO. Bloomberg
- Set up for success. Investors have their eyes—and money—on women’s volleyball, looking to build on the momentum women’s sports had in 2024. League One Volleyball, which has raised $160 million in total funding, starts its season today, and the Pro Volleyball Federation’s second season begins Friday; the Federation has raised over $150 million. Axios
- Bouncing back. Last week, General Motors and Ford Motors reported their best U.S. sales of new vehicles since 2019. General Motors, with CEO Mary Barra, stayed in its spot as the top-selling automaker in the country. CNBC
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Marathon Capital, a clean economy-focused investment bank, named Jen Zhao COO, investment banking. Most recently, she was the firm’s chief strategy officer.
Infotech, a software solutions provider for infrastructure construction, appointed Shelly Nooner as chief product officer.
LivaNova, a medical technology developer, named Natalia Kozmina CHRO. Most recently, Kozmina was EVP and CHRO of Convatec Group.
Zeta Global, a marketing cloud powered by AI, named Pamela Lord president of customer relationship management. She was most recently group vice president and general manager at Oracle.
Wise Platform, a payments infrastructure platform, appointed Lauren Langbridge as commercial director for North America. Most recently, she was VP and general manager EMEA and APAC at Paddle.
The Hartford, an insurance provider, appointed Annette Rippert to its board of directors. She was CEO of the strategy and consulting group at Accenture.
ON MY RADAR
Boycott Costco over its DEI efforts? Good luck with that Bloomberg
How Arian Simone overcame her greatest fear and helped entrepreneurs of color fight another day Inc.
Did a best-selling romantasy novelist steal another writer’s story? New Yorker
PARTING WORDS
“[T]here’s just such freedom in finding all the ways you like yourself, to grow to love your unique self. And it’s so hard to do.”
— Brooke Shields on what she knows at 59 that she didn’t at 20
