Most Powerful Women International

most powerful women international

This is the 17th year Fortune has ranked the Most Powerful Women in business outside the U.S. Banco Santander group executive chairman Ana Botín repeats again as No. 1 in 2017, though she is joined on this year’s list by 11 newcomers. The 50 global businesswomen here represent 17 countries and many industries. By Christina Austin, Laura Entis, Erika Fry, Polina Marinova, and Claire Zillman. <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/09/25/most-powerful-women-in-business-international/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here </a>for our methodology.
<a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to see the U.S. Most Powerful Women list.</a>

As group executive chairman of Banco Santander, Europe's largest bank by market capitalization and No. 73 on Fortune's Global 500 this year, Botín oversees a global operation with 200,000 employees, 13,800 branches, 131 million customers, and a presence on every continent but Antarctica. She has helmed the company (and topped this list) since 2014, when she was appointed after the sudden death of her father. Botín, who has worked to upgrade Santander's technology and service, has proved a capable steward ever since; this year, profits are up 24% for the first half of the year, and the bank's stock price has risen 31%. The executive also completed the acquisition of struggling Banco Popular in June, a feat of deal-making that gives Santander the edge in its home Spanish market.

Ana Botín

Walmsley catapults to the No. 2 spot after taking the top job at GlaxoSmithKline, the $38 billion pharmaceutical giant in April. The executive, who spent the previous two years running GSK’s consumer healthcare business—a $10 billion portfolio of popular over-the-counter brands that includes Sensodyne and Flonase—experienced some early wins. This month, the drugmaker secured regulatory approvals for its shingles vaccine (a potential blockbuster) as well as an inhaler to treat chronic lung disease. Walmsley, a former L’Oreal exec, has also begun reshaping the broader company; in July, she announced plans to eliminate 33 of GSK’s drug development programs and 130 non-core brands.

Emma Walmsley

In her second year as CEO of the world's biggest non-state owned electricity company, Kocher continued to carry out her three-year transformation plan that calls for the sale of approximately $18 billion worth of assets to further concentrate Engie's portfolio in contracted and regulated businesses like energy services and grids. In mid-2017, the company was ahead of schedule, having achieved nearly three-fourths of that sales goal. One big deal came in May 2017, when Engie offloaded a majority stake of its exploration and production business to Neptune Oil &amp; Gas for $3.9 billion. Investing in renewable energy is also part of Kocher's effort to revamp the company, and in March it announced its acquisition of Britain's Keepmoat Regeneration, a company that renovates buildings for local authorities, for $405 million.

Isabelle Kocher

Dong Mingzhu is sometimes called “the Iron Lady,” and it’s with good reason. She rose through the ranks at China’s largest air conditioning company—she got her start selling window units after the death of her husband—to become the boss in 2001. She admitted earlier this year that she hasn’t taken a day off from the job in more than two decades. In recent years, she has focused on diversifying the business and wading into electric vehicle and smartphone markets. But, the AC market hasn’t chilled just yet: Profits rose 16% at the company last year, and Gree’s stock is up 54% in 2017.

Dong Mingzhu

Kochhar has led India’s largest private lender for eight years, and under her stewardship ICICI Bank has thrived. In the 12 months ending September 7, 2017, the bank’s market capitalization rose 20.2% to nearly $30 billion. Revenue climbed 9.1% in 2016. Kochhar also proved a smooth operator during crisis. Her bank was quick to respond last November when the government announced its surprise demonetization of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes (an overwhelming majority of the currency in circulation), partnering with retailers and small businesses to facilitate digital payments.

Chanda Kochhar

Chua Sock Koong leads $12 billion Singtel, Southeast Asia’s largest telecom provider. Though the 138-year-old company has been tested recently by increasing competition, Singtel added 38 million mobile customers last year across Asia, Australia, Africa, and the U.S. The firm is also working to double down on international markets and cyber security operations. Although Chua is one of Asia’s most powerful women today, she remembers when she used to get mistaken for a secretary. "When I was younger, I remember stepping into many meetings, particularly in Asia, where people would immediately assume I was the secretary standing by to serve the tea," she said in an interview last year. "But you learn to laugh these things off."

Chua Sock Koong

Huawei overtook Apple this year to become the world's second-largest producer of smartphones, and the $75 billion company is already the world's largest producer of telecom equipment. Sun, the company's longtime chairwoman has served in that capacity since 1999. But this year, her presence was more visible than most. She was one of a select few executives in Chinese President Xi Jingping's delegation at Davos, and in a meeting with top government leaders from Rwanda to Brazil. And of course, Huawei also had a stellar year, with revenue up 32% in 2016.

Sun Yafang

Big tobacco companies like Imperial continue to face strong headwinds due to health concerns about smoking. To steady the company against that pressure, Cooper oversaw the formation of a joint venture with state-owned China National Tobacco in January 2017. The deal gives Imperial, the world’s fourth-biggest tobacco company, a foothold in the world’s largest tobacco market; every third cigarette sold is smoked in China. The JV boosted Imperial’s long-term earnings potential, but also fueled long-simmering speculation that it’s a takeover target in an industry that continues to consolidate. Cooper, meanwhile, earned the top compensation among female CEOs of FTSE 100 companies in 2016, raking in 5.5 million pounds or about $6.7 million. The Imperial board had wanted to pay her even more, but it pulled a potential 54% raise from a vote in January after sensing shareholder blowback.

Alison Cooper

The general manager of China's largest SUV maker had a strong year in 2016. The automaker's sales jumped 23% in 2016, and profits were up 24%. With China looking to reduce pollution and the gas-guzzling vehicles that produce it, Great Wall has articulated long-term plans to produce more environmentally friendly vehicles. Wang also has big ambitions overseas; the company is sorting out plans for a North America plant, and reportedly mulling an acquisition of Fiat Chrysler's Jeep brand.

Wang Fengying

As CEO and executive director of Temasek, Singapoe's influential state investment firm, Ho oversees a broadly diversified $197 billion portfolio that has stakes in everything from Alibaba and Ctrip (see No. 38) to Verily, Google's life sciences arm and plant-based meat-maker Impossible Foods. Total shareholder return for the fund was 13% in 2016. Ho, an engineer who has helmed Temasek since 2002 with one brief hiatus, is also the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong; that role gave her some unwanted attention this summer when a family spat broke out on Facebook and spilled into headlines around the world between PM Lee and his siblings.

Ho Ching

As CEO of Nestle's sprawling AOA region, Martello oversees a $15 billion division that spans 92 countries and enlists 110,000 employees. In that role, she's helped the world's largest food company get back on its feet after a food safety scare in India in 2015,involving its popular Maggi noodle product,plunged the business into crisis. Since taking the job in the midst of that turmoil, Martello, a former Walmart exec who previously served as Nestle's CFO, has refreshed 25% of senior leadership in the region. It seems to be working: Sales in the once-struggling region were up 5% in the first half of 2017. A member of Alibaba's board for a couple years, Martello joined Uber's troubled slate this summer.

Wan Ling Martello

In July, Mahe a star engineer at Apple was named the tech giant's first-ever vice president and managing director of Greater China. The region that includes the world's second largest economy is vital to Apple,it generated 18% of the company's revenue in the most recent quarter. But Mahe took over the region as sales there slipped for the sixth consecutive quarter, raising the stakes of the latest iPhone release. The new role, based in Shanghai, also constituted a homecoming for Mahe. The Mandarin speaker was born in China but had lived in Canada and the United States since age 16.

Isabel Ge Mahe

Barra's responsibilities at Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), the $117 billion drug store juggernaut (No. 37 on the 2017 Fortune Global 500), are vast. Under her purview as co-COO is the $22.5 billion Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division, which saw its revenues nearly double in 2016, and the 2,000 overseas stores that comprise WBA's international division. She has also been managing WBA's $5 billion acquisition of Rite Aid and the company's partnership with wholesaling giant AmerisourceBergen, in which WBA has a 23.9% stake. Barra, an Italian who trained as a pharmacist, got her start in the drug store business decades ago, running her own shop. It was acquired by Stefano Pessina the man who is now her partner and the CEO of WBA.

Ornella Barra

Dang has been at the helm of China General Technology, the sprawling state-owned conglomerate known as Genertec, since 2005. The $22 billion firm—whose activities include equipment manufacturing, trade and engineering contracting, pharmaceuticals, construction, and real estate—had a tough 2016, with 20% and 21% declines in revenue and profit, respectively.

Li Dang

Alibaba, often referred to as the “Amazon of China,” continues to expand at breakneck speed, posting revenue gains of 47.9% last year. Meanwhile, its stock has increased by around 75% in the last past 12 months. Now in her fourth year as CFO of the Chinese giant, Wu has followed through on previous assurances that the company’s bracing growth rate is sustainable. Now, she’s thinking bigger picture: While e-commerce makes up the majority of Alibaba’s revenue (the company accounts for 11% of all retail sales in China), Wu has stated it will continue to invest in “long-term growth opportunities.” Alibaba already has its fingers in a few of those, including everything from supermarket chains to logistical delivery services. 
 
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Maggie Wei Wu

Barclays Africa is a very different bank than it was when Ramos took the reins there in 2009. In her eight years at the firm, the Portuguese-South African economist has skillfully led the company's transformation, completed earlier this year, from Barclays subsidiary to standalone entity with 11.8 million customers and a presence in 12 countries. Though recession in South Africa has tested the bank locally, it added 2.5 million customers and now counts on foreign markets for nearly a quarter of its revenue. Ramos, the only woman to helm one of the 40 largest companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, earlier this summer joined the prestigious Group of 30,a select body of economists that includes Ben Bernanke and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney,where she is also the only woman.

Maria Ramos

It's hard to imagine a more tumultuous environment than Turkey in 2016, but Sabancı Holding, one of that country's oldest and largest conglomerates, more than weathered the storm. The $11.5 billion group, which operates in 16 countries and whose activities span financial, energy, and manufacturing industries, achieved 12% and 19% revenue and profit growth, respectively, in local currency last year. Güler, the company's chairman since 2004, also serves on the board of Siemens and is the guiding force behind Sabancı University, one of Turkey's top college institutions. An active philanthropist, Güler is also an outspoken advocate for gender equality in the country.

Güler Sabancı

Peng, one of Alibaba’s 18 cofounders, held a series of high-profile positions at China’s largest online retailer—including chief people officer—before leaving to lead Ant Financial. The online payments company, originally Alipay, was spun off from Alibaba in 2011; Ant, its parent company was established  in October 2014. It’s a big job—Ant was recently valued at $74.5 billion—and it’s one that Peng stepped away from late last year when Eric Jing was appointed CEO. Peng remains Executive Chair, and in that capacity she is in charge of talent cultivation, culture, and globalization opportunities.

Lucy Peng

The journalist-turned-real estate developer Wu co-founded Longfor with her ex-husband in 1993. Post-divorce, she alone now helms the $8 billion property giant that has built apartments and malls in 32 cities across China. The company, which has struggled in recent years due to China's sluggish real estate market, bounced back in 2016 with 9.3% revenue growth. Through Sept. 20, Longfor's stock was up 123% this year. Though the company anticipates some volatility in the industry in the near term, Longfor, which recently launched co-working spaces and a new brand of apartment complexes aimed at China's white collar workers, is banking on broader urbanization and migration trends.

Wu Yajun

As the president of Ardian, Senequier oversees the world’s fourth-largest private investment company in terms of private equity assets under management. The French financier founded the firm 21 years ago as part of the AXA Group before spinning it off in 2013 as an independent entity. In the last 12 months, Ardian has increased its assets under management from $55 billion to $62 billion. It also is the largest private equity firm run by a woman, and Senequier is the only female member of Ardian’s eight-person executive team.

Dominique Senequier

This summer, following resignation rumors, Sharma was reappointed to serve another three-year term as the head of India’s Axis Bank. The announcement capped a tumultuous time for the private lender, India’s third largest, which has reported consistent drops in quarterly profits, and was the subject of acquisition rumors (reported interested buyers included ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank). Now that she has been reconfirmed as CEO, Sharma can focus on beefing up the bank’s digital services, which includes expanding its digital payments app’s reach. In July, she announced that Axis Bank had acquired Freecharge, a digital payments company.

Shikha Sharma

The trailblazing Saudi CEO has run her family’s multibillion-dollar business—a sprawling conglomerate whose activities span from finance to manufacturing to real estate—since 2003. A mainstay on corporate boards and at Davos, Olayan, who otherwise keeps a low profile, made a rare public appearance in May at the U.S.-Saudi Forum, where she spoke of both the promise, and the inherent challenges, of her government’s Vision 2030 plan. Another sign of Olayan’s quiet, continuing influence: This year, Saudi Arabia got two new female finance CEOs—one as the head of the country’s stock exchange; the other, the first to lead a commercial bank in the country.

Lubna Olayan

Laury is in the midst of a plan make over the parent company of European home improvement stores B&amp;Q, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Depot that she's headed since 2014. But so far, the project appears to be, as one columnist put it, a botch job. A big aspect of the revamp was unifying 90% of the company's product range, up from 4%, across its retail chains. But that process is proving challenging and disruptive since it's prompted discounts on discontinued items and because it affects so much retail floor space. Such hiccups have prompted speculation that rather than pursuing a centralization effort, Kingfisher would be better off breaking up.

Véronique Laury

After seven years as the helm of EasyJet, McCall will depart to take a high-profile top spot at the U.K. television network ITV later this year. That’s not until January, however. In the meantime it’s rough going at EasyJet, which saw its profits tumble 28% after a year of challenges, including the pound’s weakness, cooling demand following terror attacks, and a series of air traffic control strikes. At ITV, new obstacles await, most notably advertisers’ increasing penchant for social media marketing in lieu of traditional television ads. The company’s investors seem to believe she’s up for the challenge, however: Shares were immediately up following news of her appointment.

Carolyn McCall

It’s been a blockbuster couple of years for Didi Chuxing in general, and for Liu specifically. As president of the ride-hailing service, which completed more than 20 million rides a day in 2016, she spearheaded Didi’s acquisition of Uber’s China business last year. Since then, Didi has zoomed to a $50 billion valuation following a $5.5 billion funding round in April, which it’s using to aggressively expand into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Despite the business demands, Liu makes time to advocate for creating diverse work environments, founding the DiDi Women’s Network to support and promote female employees.

Jean Liu

This summer, Keith was named head of P&amp;G’s $11.4 billion global beauty business, which includes popular brands such as Pantene, Olay, and Old Spice. Previously Keith, who has been at the company nearly 30 years, served as P&amp;G’s president of global skin and personal care division, driving growth in the sector even as overall sales have struggled. She reports directly to CEO David Taylor in her new position.

R. Alexandra Keith

Previously Vodafone’s regional CEO overseeing its Africa, Middle East, Asia, and Pacific markets, Timuray became the telecom giant’s chief commercial operations and strategy officer last year. Now based in London, Timuray previously served as general manager of Danone Turkey, before joining Vodafone in 2009 as CEO of its Turkey division. Since coming on board at the British telecom, she’s made the recruitment, promotion, and wellbeing of female employees a top priority. Case in point: In 2015, Vodafone became one of the few companies to offer a fixed, 16-week maternity leave for all of its employees, no matter where they are based.

Serpil Timuray

McKinstry has a habit of making history. She’s the first female, and the first American CEO of Wolters Kluwer, the $5.1 billion global information services company she has helmed for 14 years. She’s long been the only woman to run a large publicly listed company in the Netherlands, and she’s also currently the longest-sitting CEO in the country. Wolters Kluwer, which operates in 40 countries and employs 19,000, counts as customers 90% of U.S. academic medical centers, 80% of Fortune 500 companies, and all 100 of the U.S.’s top accounting firms. The company had a solid 2016: In local currency, sales edged up 2%, and profits jumped 15%. McKinstry—who serves on the boards of Abbott, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Columbia Business School—also joined as a director at Accenture last year.

Nancy McKinstry

Uhl was catapulted from a relative unknown to CFO of the $240 billion British-Dutch multinational oil and gas company in March 2017. Uhl, a U.S. citizen, has worked for Shell in various finance leadership capacities since 2004, most recently serving as executive vice president of finance for the integrated gas unit. In taking the CFO job, Uhl inherited Shell's massive debt burden that ballooned with its $54 billion acquisition of BG Group, a British oil and gas company, in 2016. And she took on the challenge of fulfilling Shell's plan to sell $30 billion worth of assets by 2018.

Jessica Uhl

In the position since 2014, Duan is the first-ever woman to head GE China, as well as the first-ever native Chinese person to hold the role. The market, which employs more than 23,000 and took in well over $9 billion in revenue in 2016, is key to the American conglomerate’s growth strategy. Last year, Duan, a 21-year GE veteran, pursued business opportunities with Chinese engineering and construction companies under China’s Belt &amp; Road initiative, tripling GE’s revenue from the sector in China to $2.3 billion, up from $700 million in 2015.

Rachel Duan

Fox-Martin debuts on this list after being tapped in May as co-president of global customer operations for SAP, the $24.3 billion German software firm. The Irish exec, who previously headed up SAP's Asia-Pacific region now oversees the company's activities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Greater China, a roughly $11.9 billion business. (Her counterpart, Jennifer Morgan, runs the Americas and Asia Pacific regions and landed on Fortune's MPW "<a href="http://fortune.com/2017/09/21/most-powerful-women-ones-to-watch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">On Our Radar</a>" list.) She is also a member of SAP's executive board. Since joining SAP in 2008, Fox-Martin has spearheaded a number of initiatives to promote gender equity within the company, including an equal pay campaign in the Asia-Pacific regions and an effort to ease professional women's transition back into the workforce after a career break like childbirth.

Adaire Fox-Martin

Ealet continues her role as one of the most senior women at Goldman Sachs and one of the highest-profile women in global finance. Her career at the investment bank reached a new pinnacle last year when she was named an executive director on the Goldman Sachs International board. Since joining Goldman as a commodities trader in 1991, Ealet has rocketed up the firm’s corporate ladder, moving from managing director in 1997 to commodities head in 2007 to her current position as co-head of the company’s global securities division five years ago.

Isabelle Ealet

CEO of the Belgian telecom since 2014, Leroy keeps chipping away at a goal of cutting approximately $110 million in costs by 2018 by simplifying the company’s business operations. Proximus continues to post revenue declines in its legacy voice businesses, plus it endured a regulatory change in June that eliminated roaming fees for users traveling in the European Union. At the same time, Proximus is investing in its entertainment offerings. In May, it renewed its deal for rights to the Jupiler pro football league for three season, and in March it began offering a Netflix subscription through some of its television packages.

Dominique Leroy

As Royal Mail continues to contend with falling letter volume, Greene has looked to bolster other aspects of the business. In the last 12 months, the company, whose history spans 500 years, has made a concerted push into U.S. parcels with two deals in the business-to-business delivery space—a $13.3 million purchase of Postal Express, which is focused in the Pacific Northwest, and a $90 million acquisition of Golden State Overnight, a California company. The new assets are part of Royal Mail’s European-based logistics arm that has propelled revenue growth recently as its U.K. postal division has slumped.

Moya Greene

Cairns is one of eight C-suite members at Mastercard, and—as manager of all territories outside the U.S. and Canada—she’s responsible for over 65% of the company’s total business. That means that as Mastercard’s revenue increased 11.5% in 2016, Cairns oversaw at least $7 billion in sales. Cairns also expanded her influence outside the company, becoming chair of ICE Clear Europe, the U.K. clearing house of Intercontinental Exchange, in early 2017.

Ann Cairns

Mann heads the Consumer Health Division of Bayer, the $52.3 billion German pharmaceutical firm. That puts her in charge of a stable of well-known over-the-counter brands like Aspirin, Aleve, Claritin and Alka-Seltzer that generated nearly $7 billion in sales last year, up about 18% from 2015 and more than 65% from 2011 when Mann took charge. That new heft has come from acquisitions, she has completed three major ones in the past four years, as well as organic growth for the business, which now spans roughly 160 countries and employs almost 13,000. Mann also holds the distinction of being the first woman in Bayer's 150-year history to hold a seat on the company's management board.

Erica Mann

When Tans joined Booking.com in 2002, the online travel site was a small start-up in Amsterdam. Today, she is CEO—she became boss in April 2016—and Booking.com, which generates the lion’s share of Priceline’s $10.7 billion in annual revenues, employs 15,000 people in 199 offices in 70 countries worldwide. Previously President and COO, Tans, in the past three years, has doubled the size of the organization as well as the number of accommodations on the platform to 1.3 million, more than any of its competitors. Tans is also making a push into China, which means forging a partnership with that country’s online travel leader Ctrip (led by No. 38 on this list).

Gillian Tans

In November, Sun was appointed CEO at Ctrip, a China-based travel services company with a market cap of more than $27 billion. Though revenues are still relatively small at $2.9 billion, the company, which is China’s biggest online travel site, is growing fast—that sales figure was up 67% from 2015. Sun has served in various executive roles at the company since 2005, including chief operating officer and co-president. The company has several programs to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2017/02/08/passion-and-purpose-ctrip-ceo-jane-sun-talks-about-chinas-travel-boom-ageing-threat/3/#166ab3a6648c">benefit female employees</a>: an 8,000 yuan “gift” for new mothers, free taxi rides to pregnant workers, and summer camps at its headquarters for staff who have preschool-aged kids.

Jane Jie Sun

A seasoned investment banker with roots in Beijing, Christianson has become one of Asia’s most influential dealmakers; The Morgan Stanley executive, who is also a US trained lawyer, met with more than 300 CEOs of international and Chinese domestic companies in the past 12 months alone. Christianson, who joined the financial firm in 1998, has continued to grow the company’s franchise in China: The bank increased its ownership stake in Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities, its China securities joint venture, from 33.3% to 49% earlier this year.

Wei Sun Christianson

The Samsung heiress is known as a smart and savvy business operator in her own right, and it shows. Hotel Shilla, the global hospitality and duty-free affiliate she's been building, grew revenue and profits, 11.4% and 47.2%, respectively, in 2016. Lee, who serves on the board of the Chinese conglomerate CITIC, is also likely to become more influential in the family chaebol, the vast Samsung business, now that her brother, currently in charge, is serving a five-year jail term in South Korea for bribery.

Lee Boo-Jin

This spring, Han Seong-sook replaced Kim Sang-hun as Naver’s chief executive, becoming the first women to lead South Korea’s largest Internet company. While Naver, which took in $3.5 billion last year, is best-known as a search engine and mobile app company, Han is aggressively expanding into new areas, earmarking hundreds of millions for investments in AI and automated driving technology. Earlier this month, Han found herself in hot water after Naver provided favors, including internships, for the children of top Korean legal officials.

Han Seong-Sook

Gonzalez debuts on this list as the first woman, and youngest-ever individual to lead Nissan Mexico (or any other country unit, for that matter), a $6 billion-plus business for the Japanese automaker. The young exec has long been a rising star; in her previous role a VP of Nissan Mexico’s sales, marketing and dealer network development, Gonzalez set an all-time sales record in the industry and achieved 25.7% market share for Nissan Mexico.

Mayra Gonzalez

In July, Gonzalez became the first woman to occupy a C-suite position at one of the Walmart’s international companies. A seven-year veteran of the retailing giant—she was previously CFO of Walmart Chile and later a VP at Walmex—she now manages 760 employees and revenues of $29.6 billion for Walmex, which operates in 6 countries in Central America. Prior to joining Walmart, Gonzalez did stints in the auditing departments at American Express and General Motors.

Olga Gonzalez

As Louis-Dreyfus has taken an increasingly active role in the family business she took over after her husband’s 2009 death, other members of the Louis-Dreyfus clan have decided to exit the business, triggering a shareholder agreement clause that forces Louis-Dreyfus to buy out most of their remaining shares. The development will increase Louis-Dreyfus’s stake (via a trust called Akira) in the holding company that controls Louis Dreyfus Co., one of the world’s largest commodities traders, from 80% to 96%. The business at the core of LDC, meanwhile, is under continued pressure due to bumper harvests that have sent crop prices plummeting. As a result, LDC has announced plans for divestments and strategic partnerships for other parts of its business, the first of which came in July when it sold its African fertilizer business to Helios Investment Partners, a private equity firm.

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus

Tsai, a low-profile exec who landed on <a href="http://fortune.com/40-under-40/pei-chun-tsai-15/">Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list</a> this year, has been at the helm of Pou Chen since 2012. The Taiwanese company, founded by her father decades ago, has a market cap of $3.9 billion and revenues of more than $8 billion—making it the world’s largest manufacturer of athletic and casual footwear.

Pei-Chun Tsai

Even amid pressure from the likes of Airbnb, Whitbread’s Premier Inn hotel chain has proved resilient, reporting nearly 5% growth in comparable sales in the first quarter of its 2017 fiscal year, and bouncing back quickly from dips in bookings after the London and Manchester terrorist attacks. But the other major arm of the conglomerate—its Costa Coffee chain—hasn’t fared as well under threats from artisan cafes and drooping consumer confidence; the company that Brittain has headed since December 2015 says it’s exploring more seasonal beverages to stay competitive.

Alison Brittain

Outflows continued for M&amp;G in the full year that ended in March, but assets under management climbed about 8% in that same time frame. Richards took over M&amp;G’s top post in June 2016, mere weeks before the U.K. would vote to leave the European Union. Richards has steered the fund company—the asset management arm of U.K. insurer Prudential—through Brexit’s wake, deciding in late 2016 to expand its operations in Luxembourg in an effort to retain clients on the European continent after Britain’s split from the bloc in March 2019. Nevertheless, Prudential announced in August that it was merging M&amp;G with its European insurance business to save costs amid other consolidation in the funds sector. Richards will remain CEO of M&amp;G and will become deputy chief executive of the merged entity M&amp;G Prudential.

Anne Richards

A newcomer to this list, Kreis became CFO at the $65.8 billion German logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL Group in October 2016. It's a good moment for DHL's financials: The company recently achieved its seventh consecutive quarter in which the firm recorded an all-time quarterly high. Much of that success is due to e-commerce, which helped boost the firm's top and bottom lines for the first half of the year by 5.8% and 6.2%, respectively. Curiously, the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal has also given the company some charge; its StreetScooters, or electric delivery vans, are now in high demand. Kreis, a McKinsey alum with a graduate degree in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, previously served as CFO for DHL Express.

Melanie Kreis

Estimated to be the richest self-made woman in the world, Zhou, who dropped out of school at 16 to work on the floor of a watch lens factory, now runs the company that makes screens for iPhones (among other smart devices). She founded that company, Lens Technology, at age 22 and she took it public in 2015. Though Lens, which operates 32 factories and employs 74,000, had a rough 2016 with sales and profits sliding 17% and 26% respectively, the firm’s stock is up 27% year to date. Last year, Lens also became the first Apple supplier to commit to using 100% renewable energy in its operations—a milestone it says it will reach by the end of 2018.

Zhou Qunfei

As the CEO of VietJet, a Vietnam-based low-cost carrier, Thao has had a big year. Perhaps best known for her controversial “bikini campaign” featuring flight attendants clad in skimpy swimwear, Thao is the only female billionaire in all of Southeast Asia, with an estimated fortune of $1.6 billion. She took her fast-growing airline public in February in a $167 million IPO, which valued the company at more than a billion dollars, the third-largest listing for a Vietnamese company. In the first half of 2017, VietJet generated roughly $84.7 million in group profit before tax, which is a 44.7% increase year over year.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao

This is the 17th year Fortune has ranked the Most Powerful Women in business outside the U.S. The 50 global businesswomen here represent 17 countries and many industries.