Good morning! Taylor Swift buys back her masters, PBS sues Trump, and the 2025 Fortune 500 is here.
– 55 out of 500. The 2025 Fortune 500 is out this morning—and women run 11% of companies on this year’s list. Of the 500 businesses that claim spots on the ranking of the largest U.S. companies by revenue, female CEOs lead 55 of them. After two years at 10.4%, 11% is a slight increase.
My colleague Nina Ajemian (who curates the second half of this newsletter each day!) has a rundown of this year’s female Fortune 500 CEOs. After Karen Lynch’s exit from CVS Health in October, GM is the largest Fortune 500 company, at No. 18, helmed by a female CEO—Mary Barra.
As readers of this newsletter likely know, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list published about two weeks ago. This is the first time the Fortune 500 and MPW list have come out around the same time, so it’s worth a reminder of how these two cohorts are different. The MPW list is an editorial ranking, in which Fortune editors rely on data, and other factors like influence, to choose the 100 Most Powerful Women working in business around the globe. The Fortune 500 is U.S.-based and relies solely on numbers; only 21 of the 55 female Fortune 500 CEOs made this year’s MPW list.
What stands out to me about this year’s Fortune 500 is a trend among new female CEOs. It’s become exceedingly rare for Fortune 500 companies to choose women as outside CEO hires. All of the newly-named female Fortune 500 chiefs in the past year were promoted into their jobs—at Ulta Beauty, Principal Financial, U.S. Bancorp, Marathon Petroleum, Albertsons, S&P Global, and Freeport-McMoRan.
Is that aligned with broader executive hiring trends, or are companies scared to bet on women without an internal track record? Reply to this email to tell me what you think—and read more from Nina here.
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.
The new Fortune 500 ranking is here
In total, Fortune 500 companies represent two-thirds of U.S. GDP with $19.9 trillion in revenues, and they employ 31 million people worldwide. Last year, they combined to earn $1.87 trillion in profits, up 10% from last year—and a record in dollar terms. View the full list, read a longer overview of how it shook out this year, and learn more about the companies via the stories below.
- IBM was once the face of technological innovation, but the company has struggled to keep up with the speed of Silicon Valley. Can a bold AI strategy and a fast-moving CEO change its trajectory? Read more
- This year, Alphabet became the first company on the Fortune 500 to surpass $100 billion in profits. Take an inside look at which industries, and companies, earned the most profits on this year’s list. Read more
- UnitedHealth Group abruptly brought back former CEO Stephen Hemsley in mid-May amid a wave of legal investigations and intense stock losses. How can the insurer get back on its feet? Read more
- Keurig Dr. Pepper CEO Tim Cofer has made Dr. Pepper cool again and brought a new generation of products to the company. Now, the little-known industry veteran has his eyes set on Coke-and-Pepsi levels of profitability. Read more
- NRG Energy is the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, gaining 68% on the back of big acquisitions and a bet on data centers. In his own words, CEO Larry Coben explains the company’s success. Read more
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- You belong with me. Taylor Swift bought back the rights to the master recordings of her first six albums, whose 2019 sale inspired her to rerecord her early albums. “This was a business deal to them,” Swift said of Shamrock Capital’s offer, “but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: my memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams.” The Guardian
- Against the Amendment. Days after NPR’s lawsuit, Paula Kerger’s PBS has also sued the Trump administration, alleging that cutting public media’s federal funding violates the First Amendment and federal law. The White House maintains that its actions are lawful. Washington Post
- Deal inked. The New York Times, headed by CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, has signed a licensing deal with Amazon, in which its editorial content will be used to train Amazon’s AI platforms; this the first GenAI licensing agreement the news organization has made. The agreement follows the Times’ copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023. TechCrunch
- Moms’ mental health. The mental health of mothers is declining, with only 25.8% of mothers reporting “excellent” mental health in 2023 versus 38.4% in 2016. While authors of this new study said mental health worsened in all socioeconomic subgroups, reported mental and physical health was significantly poorer for single moms, parents with kids covered by public insurance, and parents with lower education levels. Fast Company
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Microsoft named Lisa Monaco president of global affairs. She was deputy attorney general and homeland security adviser under former President Joe Biden.
Scholastic named Sasha Quinton president and Jackie De Leo publisher and chief merchant of the company’s new children’s book group. Previously, Quinton was Scholastic’s school reading events president. De Leo was chief merchandising officer at Barnes & Noble.
Prove, an identity verification platform, appointed Ashley Kiolbasa as CMO. She most recently served as VP of marketing at Skipify.
Tradeweb Markets named Sherry Marcus head of AI. Most recently, she was director, applied science at Amazon Web Services.
ServiceLink, a mortgage services provider, appointed Liz Green as SVP of valuation solutions. Most recently, Green was Head of Digital Solutions at Candescent Capital Ventures.
ON MY RADAR
Trump created a new Dem superstar: LaMonica McIver Axios
How TheSkimm, once deemed ‘the Ivanka Trump of newsletters,’ grew into a must-read for political leaders on the left—and right Vanity Fair
The business of Ballerina Farm Business of Fashion
PARTING WORDS
“I hope no one thinks their life is over at 30.”
—Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker on what she wants younger generations to know
