Heather Bresch

It’s been a turbulent time for Bresch, a nearly 25-year vet of the generic-drug company. In August she was accused of price gouging after having quintupled the price of Mylan’s EpiPen. Pressure from users of the lifesaving allergy treatment—which she had also helped build into Mylan’s first billion-dollar drug—created a firestorm. But Bresch scored a win a few weeks earlier with her $7.2 billion acquisition of Swedish pharmaceutical firm Meda. The deal adds 25% to Mylan’s $9.4 billion in annual revenues, for total sales of $11.8 billion. That follows mixed results in last year’s three-way hostile takeover battle, in which Mylan blocked an unwelcome offer from Israeli rival Teva but failed in its bid for Ireland-based Perrigo.