Tsai (Patty) Pei-Chun

She was only 32 in 2012, when Tsai took charge from her father, the founder of Pou Chen, now the biggest branded footwear maker in the world, with $8.5 billion in revenues. The Wharton graduate took on a sweeping overhaul of the business, steering it through a downturn and returning it to profitability last year. The scale of the business is staggering; the group employs over 400,000 workers producing about 300 million shoes annually for high profile customers like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Under Armour, and New Balance, in factories around the world. Vietnam, Worth noting: the Puma shoes that helped propel Usain Bolt across the finish line in Rio this year were made entirely at one of Tsai’s factories. Tasi also helped resolve a workers strike in Vietnam last year, solidifying her clout.