Nancy McKinstry

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.