Beth Comstock

Since being named GE’s first female vice chair a year ago, Comstock has led the 124-year-old, $117.4 billion company’s efforts to adapt to the digital world. She heads up the Business Innovations group, where she focuses on creating partnerships, developing business models, and discovering new markets; GE Lighting, where she is shifting from traditional lighting products to LED; and GE Ventures, which invests $200 million a year in a portfolio of over 90 companies and which should generate external revenues of more than $2.4 billion this year.