mpw asia-pacific

Six different countries are represented this year—but mainland China takes the lion’s share, with 11 spots on our 2015 list, up from 10 last year. Another big change: More and more of our MPWs are self-made businesswomen with no political connections or ties.
See this year's other Most Powerful Women lists:
<a href="http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Edition</a>
<a href="http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women-europe-middle-east-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EMEA Edition</a>

Kochhar has reshaped retail banking in India, building ICICI into the nation’s largest and most profitable private sector lender, with assets of $103 billion and profit of $1.8 billion last year. The 30-year veteran has gone after India’s unbanked villages, adding over 2000 rural and suburban branches. Kochhar, who made history six years ago as the first female boss of a private bank in India, wields serious global clout: she serves as President of the International Monetary Conference—a significant gathering of 70 CEOs of the world’s largest banks, along with finance ministers and central bank governors, hosted annually by the American Bankers Association. —Rupali Arora

Chanda Kochhar

Bhattacharya will soon begin the final leg of her three-year term atop SBI, the government-controlled bank. India’s largest bank, SBI accounts for nearly a quarter of all lending in the country. Bhattacharya, the first woman to head up the 209-year-old institution has focused on improving SBI’s finances—she inherited a number of bad loans —and modernizing the organization, both in terms of more female-friendly work practices and digital-age technologies. It’s a lot of responsibility: SBI and ICICI, the bank headed by #1 MPW Kochhar, were deemed “systemically important”—i.e. too big to fail—by the Reserve Bank of India in August. —Erika Fry

Arundhati Bhattacharya

Chua runs Singapore’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of $46 billion. Now she is reshaping the telecom giant to become a global player in cybersecurity. She recently snapped up US-based Trustwave for $810 million, strengthening the firm’s cloud-based portfolio and giving it an edge in threat intelligence technology. Expect more such investments in growth sectors: the chartered accountant is doubling down on digital marketing, premium video, and advanced analytics. Singapore Telecommunications is known as one of the best-governed and most transparent companies in the country. —Rupali Arora

Chua Sock Koong

Self-made and tough-as-nails, Dong has run Gree, a $22.5 billion air conditioning company—China’s largest—since 2001. During her 14-year tenure, the company’s stock has risen 2,300% and Dong has become a legend in China. She grew up in a working class family, became a lab technician and, when her husband died decades ago, a young widow. She then began selling air conditioners at Gree, and soon rose through the company (a journey she detailed in her autobiography Regretless Pursuit). Now among China’s most prominent business leaders, she is leading Gree on a much watched foray into her country’s smartphone market. —Erika Fry

Dong Mingzhu

The first female boss of a large Indian oil company, Vasudeva’s effort to turn around the state-owned, $36-billion-in-revenue firm is paying off: the one-time marketing director of the group pulled in a record profit of $245 million last year, up 37%, despite a global oil glut that has cut crude prices by more than half. The 37-year petroleum industry veteran used clever marketing strategies and effective treasury management to deliver an over 200% increase in stock market value since she took over last year. She is one of only 14 women to helm a <a href="http://fortune.com/global500/hindustan-petroleum-327/" target="_blank">Global Fortune 500 company</a>. —Rupali Arora

Nishi Vasudeva

Dang has run Genertec, a sprawling state-owned conglomerate that ranked <a href="http://fortune.com/global500/china-general-technology-426/" target="_blank">No. 426</a> on the 2015 Fortune <a href="http://www.fortune.com/global500/" target="_blank">Global 500</a>, since 2005. With 40,000 employees, the $27.8 billion enterprise’s activities include equipment manufacturing, engineering contracting and pharmaceutical manufacturing. In 2014, Genertec’s revenues increased 7%; profits climbed 6%. —Erika Fry

Li Dang

China’s cooling economy is an ominous sign for Chinese automakers, whose sales depend on middle-class buyers with extra money to spare. And while the slowing economy is pushing Chinese car buyers toward low-cost options like Great Wall Motor, analysts aren’t sure how long that momentum will last. Meanwhile, Wang is turning her attention to its biggest export market, Russia, and also to Zimbabwe, where sales more than doubled in the first six months of 2015. Wang, who has spent her entire career at Great Wall Motor, is the first and only female chief executive in the Chinese car industry. —Claire Groden

Wang Fengying

Under Lee’s leadership, the regional bank (majority-owned by HSBC) has emerged as one of the safest banks in the world. With $163 billion in assets—a very low percentage of which are rated non-performing—Hang Seng boasts a market capitalization of $35 billion, with first-half 2015 profit up 137%, to $2.6 billion. Lee, who started at HSBC in 1977, has kept the business local, concentrating on deposits; over half the adult population of Hong Kong has an account there. Lee is also an independent director of CK Hutchison Holdings and Swire Pacific, two of Hong Kong’s largest public companies. —Rupali Arora

Rose Lee Wai Mun

As the leader of the third-largest private bank in India, Sharma has focused on bringing Axis Bank into the digital future. This year, Axis launched Ping Pay, the first multi-social payment app in India, which allows friends to pay and charge each other electronically. She also oversaw a transformational IT project across the bank. Her steady hand helped Axis’ profit increase 18.3%, to around $1.1 billion, in the year ending in March. —Claire Groden

Shikha Sharma

Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, is coming off a big year. In July, the firm reported that its assets had reached a record $188 billion as of March 2015; total shareholder return for the year was 19.2%. Even so, Ho, who has been at the helm of Temasek since 2004, slid three spots in Fortune’s 2015 MPW Asia-Pacific ranking because she has been on sabbatical since April (she is due to return to work next month). Ho is married to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. —Erika Fry

Ho Ching

A former econ teacher who shuns the spotlight, Peng has two high-profile roles with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba. She is Chief People Officer—overseeing the 35,000 people working for the company—and CEO of Ant Financial, Alibaba’s financial arm, which was reportedly valued at $50 billion in June and is expected to go public in China within the next two years. Among Ant Financial’s six divisions is Alipay, an online payment business with 300 million users that handles more than 80 million transactions per day. —Erika Fry

Lucy Peng

Kwon made history in 2013 when President Park Geun Hye nominated her as the first female CEO of a Korean bank, the country’s fourth largest with $200 billion in assets and almost 13,000 employees. The English literature major has stemmed the mounting losses at the state-owned entity and delivered strong earnings, in part through expansion in the small and midsize loan market. The bank’s profits were up 20%, to $1.2 billion in 2014, and the IBK lifer is branching out overseas. Her goal: to become one of the world’s top 100 banks by assets in 2016. —Rupali Arora

Kwon Seon-joo

The property market may have cooled in China, but it still makes for good business. Longfor, the real estate firm Yajun founded with her (now-ex) husband in 1994, saw revenues climb 22% to $8.3 billion in 2014, while profits grew 13%. The company develops properties in 24 first and second tier Chinese cities, including lifestyle projects like its “Paradise Walk” malls. Longfor has worked to adjust to the slowing economy by strengthening inventory management. And Yajun assures investors that urban migration is a wave Longfor can ride for many years to come. —Erika Fry

Wu Yajun

For the past two years, then-Chairwoman Wang immersed herself in HTC’s day-to-day operations in hopes of turning around the smartphone company’s three straight years of declining sales. In March, she made her increased responsibilities official by taking over the company’s corner office. She’s doubling down on what HTC describes as “its third life,” as a personal technology company that makes devices for health, fitness and virtual reality. —Claire Groden

Cher Wang

It has been a year of highs and lows for Alibaba—and particularly Wu, the firm’s CFO of two years: since helping to lead the company’s much ballyhooed IPO in September 2014, the e-commerce giant’s share price has slid 31%. China’s unsettled markets have rattled investors, and slow consumer spending led Alibaba to lower its quarterly estimates in early September. Yet with a market cap of $165 billion, the company remains a juggernaut, and Wu, a 15-year veteran of KPMG who spent some of those years in Silicon Valley, is mission critical. —Erika Fry

Maggie Wu

As Hyundai Group Chairwoman, Hyun leads a complex empire of 20 affiliated, family-controlled companies—such groups are called chaebols in Korea—including Hyundai Merchant Marine and Hyundai Elevator (but not Hyundai Motor). Over the past year, she maneuvered to maintain control of her affiliates—which drew her into conflict with Schindler Elevator, a partnering shareholder—and continued her long-running efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula through tourism and economic collaboration (Though trips to the Mt. Kumgang tourist region, which the Group developed in North Korea, are on hold, the matter remains top of mind for Hyun.) —Erika Fry

Hyun Jeong-Eun

Since taking the reins of the firm’s Chinese operations in 2005, Christianson has helped Morgan Stanley do deals worth $293 billion over the past decade. A key player in Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO last year, she is now building the bank’s e-commerce presence in the country. The outspoken women’s rights advocate, a member of the Estée Lauder board, is also an influential voice overseas. And a recent <a href="http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/women-fashion-power" target="_blank">"Women Fashion Power” exhibit</a> at the Design Museum in London showcased one of her outfits—along with those of Diane von Furstenberg and Lady Gaga. —Rupali Arora

Wei Sun Christianson

Zhou, just 45, is China’s richest female entrepreneur and one of its most successful; the company she founded, Lens Technology, is the primary supplier of touchscreen glass covers for Apple and Samsung. She grew up raising pigs and ducks on a tiny family farm in Central China, dropped out of school to work in a watch lens factory in Shenzhen, and, at age 22, set up her own gig with $3,000 in hand. Today, Lens is a $2.3 billion-in-revenue business with a market capitalization of almost $7 billion. She took the company public in March this year, in China’s largest tech IPO in the first quarter of 2015, and the stock price has almost tripled since then. Zhou, who manages a workforce of over 60,000, is now working on creating a higher-end glass. —Rupali Arora

Zhou Qunfei

Last year GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt tapped Duan to oversee the industrial conglomerate’s portfolio of fast-growing China operations, with over 30 wholly-owned or joint venture companies ranging from aircraft engines to energy infrastructure. The dynamic 20-year group veteran, who started her career at the company, also continues to head the group’s health-care division in China, where she is repositioning the business to deliver customized offerings to an aging population (think next-gen imaging and portable diagnostic tools)—a critical growth driver for GE. —Rupali Arora

Rachel Duan

Though she is an heiress to the Samsung Group, Lee is a skilled and driven businesswoman in her own right. As the head of Hotel Shilla—the empire’s $2.6 billion hospitality company—Lee runs a line of luxury hotels and a fast-growing duty-free business, which she is now expanding overseas. Hotel Shilla’s profits increased 61% in 2014. Given her father's ailing health, many expect Lee’s powers to grow: at Samsung C&amp;T, the de facto holding company of the Samsung Group and South Korea’s largest conglomerate, she is an Adviser with the Trading &amp; Investment Group and President of the Resort &amp; Construction Group’s Management Strategy Division. —Erika Fry

Lee Boo-Jin

The reclusive chairwoman, known as the “Queen of Huawei,” has made the telecom company one of the world’s leading telecommunications hardware suppliers. This year, Huawei pivoted from low-end smartphone models to high-end phones with wider profit margins. Global sales of phones priced at more than $300 rose by 70% in the first half of the year, positioning Huawei as China’s premier smartphone company abroad. Wang is also spearheading the company’s continued international expansion in Europe and emerging markets like Myanmar, where the company controls roughly half the smartphone market. —Claire Groden

Sun Yafang

Since Alison Watkins took over Coca-Cola Amatil in March 2014, she’s been on a three-year $100 million cost-cutting campaign, reinvesting the savings in new products like mid-calorie Coke Life and Barista Bros drinks. It’s a good thing: last year, the beverage bottler’s profit dropped 25% amid shrinking sugary soft drinks sales. Now Watkins says the company is primed for a turnaround, based on expansion outside Australia as well as new low-calorie drinks and bottled water. Judging from Amatil’s mid-year earnings release, she’s off to a promising start: beverage volumes in Australia rose 2.8% after years in decline. —Claire Groden

Alison Watkins

A newcomer to the MPW list, Patel runs International Goldman Sachs Asset Management from Singapore, where she has emerged as one of the investment bank’s most public figures when it comes to discussing the global economy. Patel joined the investment bank in 2003 after a seven-year stint heading up Trading Strategy at Morgan Stanley. In previous roles at Goldman, she headed up Equities Distribution in Asia and derivative sales in the U.S. —Erika Fry

Sheila Patel

Esquel Group cranks out 100 million cotton shirts every year for the likes of J. Crew and Tommy Hilfiger—and Yang has run it since 1995. The private company increased its revenue by 6% last year. Lately, Yang and her daughter Dee Poon, who runs the company’s PYE brand, have also become environmental activists, launching an initiative called the “Integral Conversation” that aims to bring business leaders together to discuss sustainability. For Yang, it’s not just talk: the Esquel Group has reduced its own energy consumption by 43% and water use by 57% from 2005 to 2014. —Claire Groden

Marjorie Yang

The numbers weren’t pretty in 2014 for SOHO China, the high-profile commercial developer that Xin and her husband founded two decades ago. Known for its iconic, environmentally-friendly office buildings, revenues for the firm fell almost 60% last year and profits were down 45%, thanks in part to the Chinese market meltdown. Since September 2014, the company has lost roughly half its market value. But Xin, a regular at the likes of Davos, remains an influencer and SOHO is in the process of changing its business model. Earlier this year, it launched SOHO 3Q, a shared office space brand; it will have 11 locales by the end of 2015. —Erika Fry

Zhang Xin

Six different countries are represented this year—but mainland China takes the lion’s share, with 11 spots on our 2015 list, up from 10 last year. Another big change: More and more of our MPWs are self-made businesswomen with no political connections or ties.