Good morning. Fortune has released its Most Powerful Women (MPW) list for 2025, featuring 100 businesswomen from companies around the world.
The list, compiled by Fortune editors, is based on company size and health, as well as each executive’s career trajectory, influence, innovation, and efforts to make business better. No. 1 is General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who is among several Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 CEOs represented.
As strategic partners to the CEO, the role of CFOs has also evolved far beyond traditional financial stewardship and reporting. Finance chiefs are now expected to be operational leaders, business partners, and key drivers of growth and innovation.
Meet the 10 CFOs on the Fortune 2025 MPW list:
—Meng Wanzhou, deputy chairwoman, rotating chairwoman, CFO of Huawei, No. 10
Meng Wanzhou, daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, is Huawei’s CFO. Meng’s terms as chair have coincided with the release of Huawei’s new iPhone-beating smartphones. Huawei is now part of China’s chip plans as Washington tries to limit China’s access to foreign-made semiconductors. Nvidia now considers Huawei a “strategic competitor.” The company reported $118 billion in revenue for 2024, close to its 2020 record.
—Susan Li, CFO of Meta Platforms, No. 41
At age 39, Susan Li is among the youngest finance chiefs in the Fortune 500, but she spent nearly two decades at Meta, helping guide the company to a market cap exceeding $1 trillion. Li joined Meta (then Facebook) in 2008 and became CFO in 2022 after serving as vice president of finance. Li will oversee the company’s full-year 2025 capital expenditures, projected to be in the range of $64 billion to $72 billion, with a significant portion directed toward infrastructure hardware and data-center investments to support its AI efforts.
—Colette Kress, CFO of Nvidia, No. 44
Colette Kress has led Nvidia through unprecedented demand for products like Blackwell GPUs, which power AI-related computing tasks. She joined Nvidia as CFO in 2013 after senior finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft. During Kress’s tenure, Nvidia has become one of the world’s most valuable companies, with its market cap reaching a high of almost $3.5 trillion and currently hovering near $3 trillion. For fiscal 2025, Nvidia posted record results, with revenue reaching $130.5 billion—more than the $60.9 billion earned the previous year.
—Anat Ashkenazi, SVP and CFO of Alphabet and Google, No. 51
Anat Ashkenazi became CFO of Alphabet and Google in July 2024. One of her strategic priorities as finance chief of the $2 trillion company is to integrate AI within its processes to boost efficiency and productivity, with cost reductions helping to fund AI innovation. Ashkenazi will oversee Alphabet’s investment of approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025. She previously had a 23-year career at Eli Lilly and Company, culminating in her appointment as CFO in 2021. Ashkenazi supported the development of groundbreaking weight loss drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.
—Amy Hood, EVP and CFO of Microsoft, No. 56
As Microsoft’s first female finance chief, Amy Hood is tasked with ensuring a historic AI investment spree keeps the world’s most valuable company a step ahead. Microsoft is set to shell out $80 billion during its current fiscal year. During her 12 years as EVP and CFO, revenue has more than tripled and is expected to hit $275 billion this year, per Visible Alpha.
—Julie Gao, CFO of ByteDance, No. 81
ByteDance may be the world’s most important social media company—what other startup could claim to be going toe-to-toe with U.S. presidents? Amid a geopolitical battle over its TikTok unit’s future in the U.S., CFO Julie Gao is keeping an eye on the Chinese startup’s monster finances. A hotly anticipated IPO is likely also on Gao’s mind. ByteDance is one of the planet’s most valuable startups, with investors valuing it as high as $312 billion.
—Sinead Gorman, CFO of Shell, No. 86
Sinead Gorman stepped into the role of CFO at Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, in 2022. Since joining Shell in 1999, Gorman also served in other key finance leadership positions, including EVP of finance for Upstream. In 2024, cash flow from operations was $54.7 billion, the second highest in Shell’s history. Adjusted earnings were $23.7 billion, and revenue and other income amounted to $289 billion.
—Png Chin Yee, CFO of Temasek, No. 87
Png Chin Yee is chief financial officer for Temasek, Singapore’s massive state investment company. Png joined Temasek in July 2011, serving in roles such as head of financial services and senior managing director for China investments. For its most recent full financial year, which ended March 2024, Temasek increased its net portfolio value to $301 billion.
—Melanie Kreis, CFO of DHL Group, No. 97
A trained physicist with a master in business from INSEAD, Melanie Kreis joined the logistics specialist DHL Group in 2004. She soon made a name for herself leading the €5.5 billion acquisition of U.K. logistics firm Exel and later the phased, multi-year sale of DHL’s Postbank retail lender to Deutsche Bank. Kreis was promoted to the C-suite in 2014 and two years later became CFO. Last year Kreis helped DHL outgrow rivals FedEx and UPS to become the largest by revenue, at €84 billion.
—Kathryn Mikells, SVP and CFO of Exxon Mobil, No. 99
Kathryn Mikells joined Exxon Mobil in 2021 as SVP and chief financial officer. She previously spent six years as CFO of London-based Diageo. Mikells is Exxon’s first official CFO; before her appointment, the finance duties were shared across a range of executive roles. Mikells is the first woman to join the management committee of Exxon. For the full year 2024, Exxon Mobil reported total revenue of $349.6 billion, up 1.5% year over year.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Kathy Arcano was appointed CFO of Second Front Systems (2F), a software company. Arcano brings over two decades of financial leadership experience scaling SaaS and venture-backed organizations. Arcano joins Second Front following executive finance roles at multiple technology firms, most recently as VP of finance at Flock Safety. Her experience spans FP&A, procurement, and strategic finance.
Jennifer Bright was appointed CFO of enVVeno Medical Corporation (Nasdaq:NVNO), a medical device company, effective May 19. Bright brings more than 25 years of financial and leadership experience built across several commercial-stage medical device and pharmaceutical companies including Biolase, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Apria Healthcare, Smile Brands, and Teleflex Medical. She succeeds Craig Glynn, who will continue to be available to the company in an advisory capacity.
Big Deal
Global private equity and venture capital investments in commercial services firms are lagging compared to last year, but are poised to accelerate in the near-term driven by the sector’s resilient market fundamentals, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence’s latest report.
The commercial services sector includes companies that provide a variety of essential business solutions including human resource outsourcing, health and safety management, consulting, legal, and accounting services.
Going deeper
“The first U.S. credit downgrade triggered a ‘flight to quality.’ Will the latest cut from Moody’s do the same?” is a new Fortune report by Greg McKenna.
From the report: “Long-term bond yields ticked higher after Moody’s became the last credit agency to remove the U.S. from its top rung of borrowers. Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt in 2011 caused Treasuries to rally as investors paradoxically sought safety in government bonds. The situation today appears different, however, with fears about growing deficits and looming tax cuts intensifying.”
Overheard
“The good news is that there’s not a single job anywhere that AI can perform all of the skills required for that job. It doesn’t mean it won’t replace workers, but AI can’t completely replace a job.”
— Indeed CEO Chris Hyams told the audience at Fortune’s Workplace Innovation Summit on Monday, describing the findings of Indeed’s labor economists.
