Maureen Chiquet

While privately held Chanel keeps a low corporate profile, its brands are anything but. The legendary fashion house sold $4.1 billion in beauty products last year, according to Euromonitor--and that figure doesn't even include the company's iconic clothing. Chiquet, a former president of Banana Republic, became CEO in 2007 and has pushed to keep the 105-year-old company fresh, enlisting stars like Brad Pitt for ad campaigns, renovating its boutiques, and launching 12 new collections last year.