Chua Sock Koong

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."