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How the youngest female CEO in the Fortune 500 navigates political turmoil

Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 26, 2026, 11:10 AM ET
London helms the largest U.S. provider of Medicaid health coverage.
London helms the largest U.S. provider of Medicaid health coverage.Theo R. Welling for Fortune

The youngest female CEO to run a Fortune 500 company is running not just any Fortune 500 business—it’s in one of the most complex industries at the center of today’s most pressing political challenges.

Recommended Video

My colleague Diane Brady has a new piece in the latest magazine issue of Fortune on Sarah London, who leads the managed care insurer Centene. Centene is an almost $195 billion-in-revenue company and is the country’s largest Medicaid insurer. Half of its revenue comes from Medicaid; the rest is split between Medicare and Marketplace plans.

The Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid spending—more than $900 billion over 10 years, part of the One Big Beautiful Bill—are London’s responsibility to navigate. Not to mention that legislation’s reduced eligibility for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans.

London became CEO of Centene four years ago, at 41. She’s still the youngest female CEO in the Fortune 500 today; no one has swooped in to claim the title.

Read more in Diane’s story about leading a major business through political upheaval.

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. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

My full interview with Alix Earle is out now. Yesterday, I wrote about my experience meeting the the mega-influencer as she prepared to launch her first brand of her own, Reale Actives. I just published her full Q&A, where we chat about how to break through as a creator today, what makes influencer marketing successful, and what brands are getting wrong. 

Meta and YouTube were found liable in a landmark social media lawsuit. The companies created products that were deliberately addictive and harmed young people, a jury found. The plaintiff, known as K.G.M., was awarded $6 million in damages; more significantly for these tech giants, the verdict opens the door to success in similar suits. I wrote about this case last month, after Mark Zuckerberg defended the use of "beauty filters" in court—one of the Instagram features experts said harmed teen and tween girls. Meta and YouTube say they plan to appeal. 

The International Olympic Committee just banned trans women from women's sports. "Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females," the IOC said in a statement. Athletes will be required to take a one-time gene test. The new rules apply to LA 2028. 

Two new media deals in women's sports. CBS Sports signed a multi-year deal for 20 regular-season WNBA games, adding to the media rights the league already negotiated with ESPN, NBC Sports, Prime Video and Versant. Plus the Women's Sports Network  signed on as an official media partner to the NWSL. 

ON MY RADAR

Anne Hathaway opens up about ambition, aging, falling in public, and finding her own way forward Harper's Bazaar

How USAID birth control meant for Africa was ruined NYT

Apollo's pest: How Epstein courted all three billionaire founders Bloomberg

PARTING WORDS

"We have the idea that our lives are planned in order to be worthwhile. And that may be true in some cases, but I think our ability to respond to and learn from the unexpected is really much more likely to be helpful."

— Gloria Steinem, who just announced a new memoir. An Unexpected Life will be published in September. 

This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
About the Author
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

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