Most Powerful Women

most powerful women

This is the 20th year we’ve published Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list. Our 2017 ranking is comprised of 26 CEOs controlling $1.1 trillion in market cap, seven newcomers, one returnee, and nine women in the tech industry. Here are the names behind the numbers.
<a href="http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women-international" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to read the International Edition of our Most Powerful Women list.</a>

Roaring into No. 1 for her third straight year, Barra remains in the driver’s seat even as crosstown rival Ford ousted CEO Mark Fields in May. Proving that GM won’t be counted out in this era of disruption, she beat Tesla’s much-hyped Model 3 to market with the Chevrolet Bolt EV, which launched in 2016 with a battery that can outlast Tesla’s; it’s now the top-selling non-luxury pure electric car. Barra also has her eyes on a driverless future: After acquiring self-driving tech startup Cruise Automation last year, GM has begun testing autonomous Bolts, and its new car-­sharing service Maven is offering deals to Uber and Lyft drivers. The stock is starting to respond, climbing 25% over the past 12 months, and revenue ticked up 9% in 2016—GM’s biggest sales growth in years.

Mary Barra

PepsiCo filled the long-­vacant role of president in July, sparking talk that the CEO might be heading toward retirement. But Nooyi claims she has no plans to step down, and why should she? While revenue was flat in 2016, profits jumped 16%, and the stock has outpaced most of its Big Food brethren as the industry tries to adjust to massive consumer shifts. Nooyi has responded by moving the portfolio toward healthier fare. The company recently launched a premium water line and in 2016 acquired kombucha maker KeVita. 
Read our Q&amp;A with Nooyi from our Oct. 1, 2017 issue titled "<a href="http://fortune.com/2017/09/21/most-powerful-women-pepsico-indra-nooyi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PepsiCo’s CEO Opens Up About Trump, Amazon, and That Kendall Jenner Ad</a>."

Indra Nooyi

While President Trump has called Lockheed’s F-35 fighter-jet program too expensive, the Commander-in-Chief remains an invaluable—if fickle—ally for the company, which counts 
the U.S. government as its biggest customer. The contractor is also a prime beneficiary of the White House’s defense budget increase, as well as new arms deals with the likes of Saudi Arabia: Lockheed’s stock price has risen some 26% over the past year, handily beating the S&amp;P, while revenue jumped 17% in 2016.

Marillyn Hewson

Fidelity posted $15.9 billion in revenue in 2016—its fourth consecutive record year—while assets under administration climbed some 11%, to $5.7 trillion. Yet it is still struggling to stop the bleeding from its actively managed equity mutual funds; investors pulled $58 billion out of the products last year. In response, Johnson, who assumed her father’s chairman title in 2016, is goosing other parts of the business—­lowering fees on passive ­investing products and allowing customers to track their Bitcoin holdings.

Abigail Johnson

Facebook’s blockbuster 2016 ad revenue growth (57%, to $26.9 billion) propelled the company—and its stock price—to new heights under Sandberg. While Facebook and its Internet peers grappled with how to handle fake news and online hate groups, the fiery political environment pushed Sandberg to speak up more frequently about issues important to her, including women’s health and immigration reform. Her book about grief and the loss of her husband, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1524732680/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=fortune028-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1524732680&amp;linkId=d3a3be2fec8b83937033cc6499a74d68" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Option B</a>, topped the bestseller list this spring.

Sheryl Sandberg

The pressure on Rometty keeps growing—as IBM’s revenue continues to shrink. In July the tech behemoth reported that sales had contracted yet again, marking its 21st consecutive quarter of decline. Earlier, in May, famed investor Warren Buffett sold off a third of his company’s shares in IBM, sending the stock tumbling. But there are bright spots too. Revenue from newer businesses like analytics, cloud, mobile, and security now account for 45.6% of sales, up nearly five percentage points from the year before. 
For more on Rometty, read Fortune’s 2014 feature “<a href="http://fortune.com/2014/09/18/ginni-rometty-ibm/">IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Gets Past the Big Blues</a>.”

Ginni Rometty

Nearly two years after cleaving HP in half in the biggest split by revenue in corporate history, Whitman has continued trimming divisions off the piece she still runs. That’s meant that sales for HPE, which specializes in servers and networking systems, are still decreasing, even as its profits have started growing again. Still, five years since unveiling her plan to rescue HP, Whitman—who was a finalist for the Uber CEO job—is now under pressure to deliver on the promised results, namely revenue growth. 
Read our profile of Whitman from our Oct. 1, 2017 issue titled <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/09/22/hp-hpe-meg-whitman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"HPE’s Meg Whitman Won’t Be Uber’s CEO. But She Could Be the First Female President."</a>

Meg Whitman

As co-CEO, Catz is leading a major expansion: hiring 5,000-plus new engineers, salespeople, and other staff to beef up the enterprise tech giant’s cloud business. The division, Oracle’s ­fastest-growing, brought in $4.6 billion in the company’s last fiscal year, up 60% from the one prior. Catz also spearheaded the 2016 $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite, the largest deal in Oracle’s history. In her spare time she oversees a $3.5 billion company investment in STEM initiatives and was on President Trump’s transition team.

Safra Catz

Novakovic now runs a government contractor a third more valuable than it was a year ago, benefiting from a political environment favorable toward military outfitters. Still, sales fell slightly in 2016 as defense spending shifted toward aircraft and weapons systems and away from the boots-on-the-ground technology in which the company specializes. But Novakovic’s push to expand cybersecurity capabilities has been a boon, helping GD land new contracts and rec­ord operating earnings and margins last year. 
For more on Novakovic, read Fortune’s 2015 feature “<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/11/phebe-novakovic-general-dynamics/">The Spy in General Dynamics’ Corner Office</a>.”

Phebe Novakovic

When Porat was told her nickname at Google is “Ruth Vader”—thanks to her relentless focus on the bottom line—her response was, “That’s fantastic!” Wall Street thinks so too: Since she became CFO in May 2015, shares have jumped more than 70%; it’s currently the world’s second-most-­valuable company after Apple. And while the Morgan Stanley vet’s discipline is seen as a major reason behind the end of some of its moonshot projects, she insists she is more focused on investment than cost cutting. 
For more on Porat, read our 2016 feature “<a href="http://fortune.com/google-cfo-ruth-porat-most-powerful-women/">The Wall Street Veteran Who’s Helping Google Get Disciplined</a>.”

Ruth Porat

Good became the first female chief of Duke Energy, the nation’s largest utility, in 2013. She has unloaded billions in overseas assets to refocus the company on surefire profitmakers like natural gas, completing a $4.9 billion acquisition in the sector late last year. Going forward, Good plans to steer the company even further away from coal and aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40% from 2005 levels by 2030. Over the next 10 years, Good says Duke will invest $11 billion in gas and renewable energy projects.

Lynn Good

Though she oversees an $81 billion operation, ­Foulkes is struggling to keep customers in the habit of buying general merchandise when they visit a CVS to pick up a prescription. Comparable sales of so-called front-store items fell 1.5% last year and continue to decline as Foulkes’s efforts to enhance beauty and health care offerings have not been enough to replace the tobacco products it dropped three years ago. She is facing enormous pressure in what her boss, CVS Health CEO Larry Merlo, calls a “rebuilding year.” 
For more on Foulkes, read our 2015 profile “<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/11/cvs-health-helena-foulkes/">The Change Agent inside CVS</a>."

Helena Foulkes

Since being persuaded by Tim Cook to join Apple in 2014 (she previously led British fashion brand Burberry), Ahrendts has been heads down on the tech behemoth’s largest store redesign in 15 years. In May the company launched its long-awaited “Today at Apple” initiative, which seeks to supplement public education through free courses on everything from coding to music production to photography. Apple’s highest-ranking woman, she oversees 60,000 retail employees and is responsible for the in-store experiences of a more than a million daily customers. Research firm eMarketer estimates that the combined revenue from in-store and online sales is nearly $50 billion. Ahrendts was the second executive after Cook—and the only woman—to take the stage at September’s keynote, where she spoke at length about Apple’s “town squares”—the new moniker for its retail stores. 
Read Fortune’s 2015 feature “<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/10/angela-ahrendts-apple/">What the Heck Is Angela Ahrendts Doing at Apple</a>” for more on the company’s SVP of retail.

Angela Ahrendts

YouTube came under attack this spring, when advertisers revolted after discovering their ads next to offensive content from one of the platform’s homegrown stars. Wojcicki navigated the scandal deftly, winning back many disgruntled customers. Despite increased competition as rivals like Apple and Snap pour money into video streaming, YouTube remains king of online video ads. Analysts estimate it’s on track to drive $10 billion to $15 billion in revenue this year, making the unit a key growth driver for Google parent Alphabet.

Susan Wojcicki

Under Griffith’s watch, Progressive has moved into the home insurance market and persuaded customers to buy multiple policies from the company, increasing premiums sold by 14%, to $23.4 billion in 2016. This bundling strategy has allowed Progressive to keep its rates relatively low and grow revenue, helping boost its stock price by nearly 50% over the past 12 months. Still, last year profits dropped some 18% to just over $1 billion—and now the insurer could be impacted by the 2017 hurricane season.

Tricia Griffith

Since 31-year company vet Engelbert took the helm 2½ years ago, the professional services firm has grown at a steady pace. Deloitte’s revenue has increased nearly 6% year over year to $18.6 billion, and the company has added 6,000 new employees. Engelbert’s focus this year has been on positioning Deloitte, which already serves 80% of the Fortune 500, as an “innovation catalyst.” To that end, she has established a number of strategic partnerships with big tech companies, including Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and HP.

Cathy Engelbert

During Nicholson’s tenure, the world’s largest car rental company has grown its revenue to more than $22 billion across its three major brands—Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent A Car. For a sense of scale, the company employs 100,000 people, and has locations in 90 countries (next up, Vietnam). Enterprise is one of the largest recruiters of university graduates in the U.S. and is still staffing up: The company has plans to expand its van-pooling service and truck rental business.

Pam Nicholson

Campbell runs Home ­Depot’s three U.S. operating divisions—a roughly $87-billion-in-sales business that’s on fire. In August the company topped earnings estimates for the 13th quarter in a row and upped its guidance for the second time this year. It was Home Depot’s highest-ever quarter by revenue and a period that saw online sales tick up 23%. The 32-year company veteran has also played a critical role in the retailer’s push into e-commerce, working to streamline operations for the more than 40% of digital sales picked up at its stores. 
For more on Campbell read, our 2016 feature “<a href="http://fortune.com/ann-marie-campbell-home-depot-most-powerful-women/">How Home Depot’s Ann-Marie Campbell Rose from Cashier to the C-Suite</a>."

Ann Marie Campbell

Williams made history this year by becoming the first Latina CEO on the Fortune 500. In March the Cuban-born immigrant took the helm of PG&amp;E, California’s largest utility, after running its electric unit for nearly a decade. Under Williams, the $17.7 billion enterprise reached its most recent target of generating a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020—years ahead of schedule. Now she’s tasked with leading the utility’s makeover from pure energy supplier to administrator by enabling the flow of electricity to and from customers who are generating their own from sources like solar panels. 
Read “<a href="http://fortune.com/2017/06/15/fortune-500-pge-geisha-williams/">PG&amp;E’s Bolt of Energy</a>” from June for more on Williams.

Geisha Williams

Reed became Sempra’s first female CEO in 2011 and has overseen a 128% increase in its share price since, vs. 64% for the S&amp;P’s utilities index. And the growth is still coming. In August, Reed made the $10.2 billion energy giant’s largest deal ever—paying $9.5 billion for Texas’s Energy Future Holdings. Notably, her bid beat out Warren Buffett’s. The company also now draws half of its energy through hydro, solar, and wind power, and one of its subsidiaries owns the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage facility.

Debra Reed

Lynch, who oversees businesses that account for more than 95% of Aetna’s revenues, suffered a blow this year when a federal judge blocked the insurer’s acquisition of Humana—an integration the executive would have helped lead. Despite the companies’ decision to call off the merger, Aetna’s stock reached a record high this year. The share price was buoyed by the company’s decision to withdraw from all state Obamacare exchanges by next year, a move intended to reverse last year’s dip in profits.

Karen Lynch

Peterson has expanded her reach at the world’s largest health care company, adding medical devices to a portfolio that includes brands ranging from Band-Aid to Tylenol. She now oversees some $40 billion in revenue—more than half of J&amp;J’s total. She’s been on an acquisition tear, shepherding six deals in the consumer business in the past 18 months and 23 in medical devices during the first half of 2017. The moves are meant to help transform J&amp;J, whose stock has underperformed the S&amp;P over the past 12 months. 
Read our July 2016 feature “<a href="http://fortune.com/johnson-and-johnson-global-500/">Can Big Still Be Beautiful</a>?” for more on how Peterson is helping to transform Johnson &amp; Johnson.

Sandra Peterson

Last year’s scandal over Mylan’s 500% price hike of the EpiPen, a potentially lifesaving allergy treatment, tarnished Bresch’s reputation, but it didn’t hurt her business as much as some expected. The company grew revenue 18%, to more than $11 billion in 2016, and forecasts growth of up to 13% this year, in part thanks to its acquisition of Swedish drugmaker Meda. But the EpiPen debacle took its toll in other ways: The company coughed up a $465 million settlement fine, prompting profits to drop 43%. 
For more on Bresch, read Fortune’s 2015 feature, “<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/11/mylan-ceo-heather-bresch/">Why Wall Street Loves to Hate Mylan’s CEO" </a>and<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/11/mylan-ceo-heather-bresch/"> "</a><a href="http://fortune.com/2016/09/08/epipen-mylan-ceo-heather-bresch-fortune-mpw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why the CEO Behind the EpiPen Controversy Remains One of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women</a>."

Heather Bresch

JPMorgan Chase just had the most profitable year in its history, earning $24.7 billion in 2016. (The stock is up 37% over the past 12 months.) The woman reporting this news to investors was Lake, the company’s financial chief. With an office right next to CEO Jamie ­Dimon’s, the 18-year company ­veteran continues to be a major force within the firm. In addition to overseeing the bank’s finances—she has stepped up her game as a mentor and role model for other female executives within the bank. This year she became the operating committee sponsor of Women’s Interactive Networks, the firm’s largest resource group.

Marianne Lake

Synchrony made news in August when Berkshire Hathaway revealed a big stake in the company. Warren Buffett’s vote of confidence has been a breath of fresh air for the lender and white label credit card issuer, whose stock had been feeling the pain of the retail industry’s doldrums (Synchrony partners with the likes of Gap and J.C. Penney). Now Keane, who oversaw the company’s 2014 split-off from General Electric, is looking to expand its online bank—which increased deposits 20% last year, to $52 billion.

Margaret Keane

Microsoft’s first female CFO played a leading role in driving the tech stalwart’s stock to surpass its 1999 high for the first time this past year. The onetime banker is now the financial yin to CEO Satya Nadella’s yang, shepherding the company’s dramatic push into cloud computing, with profits up 26% in the last fiscal year. Hood has not only helped the Azure cloud business challenge Amazon, but also presided over acquisitions such as ­LinkedIn, which contributed $2.3 billion to the company’s $90 billion in revenue.

Amy Hood

JPMorgan Chase’s asset and wealth management business, led by Erdoes, hit a record $2.5 trillion in client assets in 2016. In addition to bringing in $12 billion in revenue last year, ­Erdoes is building out a long-term strategy to serve investors in China, one of the bank’s key markets. As of last September, her division is the first non-­Chinese asset management enterprise in Shanghai’s free trade zone. Along with Marianne Lake (No. 24), she continues to be a front-runner to succeed CEO Jamie Dimon.

Mary Callahan Erdoes

McKenna is playing a crucial role as Walmart amps up its battle against Amazon. As COO of the $308 billion U.S. business, she’s preparing for an e-commerce world by fast-tracking the rollout of an online grocery pickup program to almost 1,100 locations by the end of January. In test mode: a high-tech vending machine for online orders and a ­program that has store employees delivering some digital purchases. In August the U.S. business had its 11th quarter in a row of a rise in customer store visits.

Judith McKenna

Ross delivered a stellar year amid a tumultuous period for retail. As apparel brands declared bankruptcy and retailers closed, Rentler added 87 stores and increased revenue and profits. So far Ross’s off-price model—selling branded goods up to 60% below regular prices—has proved mostly immune to the e-commerce threat rocking the rest of the industry. The upward trend continues into the current fiscal year as Ross, with nearly $13 billion in annual sales, beat expectations for the first two quarters.

Barbara Rentler

Promoted to head Boeing’s $29.5-billion-in-revenue Defense, Space &amp; Security division in 2016, Caret is following the same path as the airplane maker’s current CEO, Dennis Muilenburg. Though her unit’s revenue has shrunk—in part because of a slowdown in big-ticket orders from its largest customer, the U.S. Department of Defense—its operating profits grew 15% in the first half of 2017. The recent earnings boost has helped make Boeing the best-performing stock in the Dow Jones industrial average this year.

Leanne Caret

Like the rest of Big Food, Campbell is struggling to adjust to consumers who want healthier fare. This year Morrison agreed to acquire a small organic food company and launched new products like a cookie line made with simple ingredients. It’s not just shoppers putting Campbell under pressure. Retailers have pushed packaged food companies to lower prices as supermarkets spar with Amazon and discounters. Morrison has yet to turn the tide; Campbell reported its 11th straight quarter of flat or declining sales in August. 
Read our 2015 article “<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/05/21/the-war-on-big-food/">The War on Big Food</a>” for more on how Morrison is responding to a changing consumer.

Denise Morrison

The first woman to helm a major U.S. energy explorer, Hollub’s first order of business when she took the reins at Occidental last April was cutting costs. The company has shed 25% of its assets since 2013, ­refocusing on the Southwest’s oil-rich Permian Basin. In the past two years, it halved what it spends per barrel in the region, while increasing output. The industry has struggled as oil prices have languished, but Hollub managed to turn a profit in the past two quarters—a first for the company since 2015.

Vicki Hollub

Once an assistant Best Buy store manager, Ballard is now one of the retailer’s highest-ranking executives. Having overseen its U.S. brick-and-mortar sales for several years, in March she added oversight of e‑commerce, putting her in charge of some 90% of the company’s $39.4 billion in revenue. The promotions are a sign of Ballard’s hand in Best Buy’s turnaround. Its 37% bump in profits last fiscal year took Wall Street by surprise, and the stock’s 60% surge over the past 12 months has made it a top performer. 
For more on Ballard, read our 2015 piece “<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/10/25/best-buy-turnaround/">Meet the Women Who Saved Best Buy</a>.”

Shari Ballard

After two years running Reynolds American’s largest subsidiary, Crew became the company’s CEO in January, succeeding former chief Susan Cameron in the first female-to-female chief transfer of power in the S&amp;P 500 since 2012. Crew’s move to the corner office, however, came in the midst of the company’s ­acquisition by British American Tobacco. Crew now ­reports to BAT’s CEO, though she remains at the helm of Reynolds, which becomes BAT’s largest profit center—with net income up 87% to $6.1 billion last year.

Debra Crew

Murphy’s division has now posted five years of record growth and controls $2.2 trillion in customer assets. She has also expanded her influence within Fidelity, becoming head of a unit tasked with developing innovative products and markets—vital to the company’s long-term success as it seeks to expand beyond its signature actively managed equity funds. In her role running Fidelity’s digital offerings, Murphy recently grew its Amazon partnership and added investing resources aimed at millennials and women.

Kathleen Murphy

Since becoming KPMG’s U.S. chairman and CEO in July 2015, Doughtie has kept the company on a steady upward trajectory, with revenue increasing 9.4% to $8.6 billion in fiscal 2016. In January, she debuted KPMG’s biggest-ever capital investment, the development of a $400 million, 55-acre learning and innovation facility in Orlando. The Big Four firm’s first female CEO, she continues to lead the KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit, an initiative focused on getting more women into the C-suite.

Lynne Doughtie

After her predecessor, ­Carrie Tolstedt, was blamed for Wells Fargo’s phony accounts scandal, the job of repairing the problem division has fallen to Mack, who previously led the bank’s retail brokerage. Mack has been cleaning house, shutting down more branches, and publicly doing damage control. That became more difficult when Wells Fargo revealed in August that it had discovered another 1.4 million accounts it believes may be fake, on top of the 2.1 million it previously estimated its agents had set up without authorization. 
For more on Wells Fargo read "<a href="http://fortune.com/2017/06/11/wells-fargo-scandal-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inside Wells Fargo’s Plan to Fix Its Culture Post-Scandal</a>." 
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Mary Mack

Accenture’s North America business grew 11% to $15.7 billion in revenue in 2016, Sweet’s first full year leading the region. In February, she revealed a plan to create “innovation hubs”—and 15,000 new jobs—in 10 U.S. cities, a departure for a company that has a history as a leader in outsourcing. Sweet, who reports to CEO Pierre Nanterme, has pledged to spend $1.4 billion on workforce training by the end of 2020. Meanwhile, she has raised her profile by attending CEO meetings with President Trump.

Julie Sweet

P&amp;G is in the crosshairs of activist investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, which—with its roughly $3 billion stake in the consumer goods giant—is waging the biggest proxy fight in history for a seat on its board. That means the pressure is on for Tastad, who oversees P&amp;G’s largest region—representing almost half of the company’s revenue. P&amp;G has tried to ignite its sluggish growth by cutting costs. It has also shed more than 100 brands in order to focus on core ones like Tide and Pampers.

Carolyn Tastad

Van Kralingen leads a recently formed division aimed at developing new, vertical-specific businesses and technologies. That includes initiatives in hot areas like blockchains, which many of IBM’s biggest customers are dabbling in. It’s a necessary move: The tech company, with profits down 10% last year, needs all the new sources of business it can get. The longtime IBM exec is CEO Rometty’s go-to when she needs someone to run an emerging operation, so in July van Kralingen was given the additional role of overseeing all of the company’s industry sales and consulting teams. The combined roles give her reach into every top account, regardless of sector.

Bridget Van Kralingen

Hanlon started her career at Home Depot as a cashier in 1985 and today runs its roughly $30 billion Northern Division. Since taking on the job in 2015, she has boosted sales without ­adding a single store to the region’s base of 795 locations. The do-it-yourself home-improvement giant has cashed in on the booming housing market rebound, prompting customers to spend big to spruce up their properties. Investors like what they see. The stock has outperformed the S&amp;P over the past 12 months.

Crystal Hanlon

It says a lot about its faith in Goodman that Sycamore Partners, Staples’ new private equity owner, decided to keep her in place after the recent close of its $6.9 billion deal for the chain. The 25-year Staples veteran took the helm in 2016 soon after regulators scuttled its attempt to buy Office Depot. She’s been trying to make the company less reliant on its dwindling retail business, focusing instead on corporate clients and closing dozens of stores—efforts that will likely be easier outside of Wall Street’s klieg lights.

Shira Goodman

Taubert is responsible for more than 30% of J&amp;J’s $72 billion in revenue with her oversight of the health care titan’s pharma business in North America and Latin America. Expect the size of her operation to grow as J&amp;J completes its $30 billion acquisition of bio­pharma company ­Actelion. Taubert advocated for the deal, which will add a sixth business unit to J&amp;J’s pharma operations—this one focused on pulmonary hypertension. She also joined J&amp;J’s management committee this year, upping her influence internally.

Jennifer Taubert

Manning, an MPW “On Our Radar” pick in 2016, moved up to the big leagues this year after succeeding Greig Woodring to become Reinsurance Group of America’s first female CEO in January. Groomed for the role since being appointed president in 2015, Manning helped lead one of the world’s largest life and health reinsurance companies to the most successful year in its 44-year history, growing 2016 revenue nearly 11% to $11.5 billion. The stock has responded with a 28% surge over the past 12 months.

Anna Manning

Buck took the reins in March after 12 years at Hershey, a period in which she pushed the iconic candy­maker to look beyond chocolate—including spearheading its acquisition of Krave jerky. Her latest promotion into the top job became effective just six months after Mondelez dropped its unsolicited bid for the confectionery company. Now Buck must prove that Hershey is better off alone as it faces a changing consumer landscape. It may be an uphill battle. Sales rose less than 1% last year to $7.4 billion.

Michele Buck

It’s been quite the run for Mulligan, who returns to this list after a three-year hiatus. Not only has the CEO increased the number of Guardian customers by 400% since 2012—from 5 million to 25 million—but she also managed to achieve record revenue of $12.9 billion in 2016 and expand to India and Canada over the past two years. Her influence is growing beyond the insurance world as well: She joined fellow CEOs in meetings with the White House to discuss infrastructure, workforce development, and tax reform.

Deanna Mulligan

Even in an increasingly challenged traditional TV landscape, Hammer’s star continues to rise. In 2016 her division increased in both profit and revenue for the 13th consecutive year. Some 113.5 million weekly viewers tuned in to watch the 137 original programs available on her channels, which include Syfy and USA Network—the latter airs The Sinner, currently the No. 1 new series on cable. And Hammer’s not going anywhere: She recently renewed her contract with NBCUniversal, which will take her into her seventies.

Bonnie Hammer

Dillon is the victim of her own success. Despite regularly outperforming most retailers in sales growth, shares of Ulta took a beating this summer on fears the chain can’t keep up its torrid run forever—at least not with Sephora going toe to toe with it, and Amazon poised to jump more aggressively into beauty. Still, with ­double-digit percentage sales growth each quarter, and Ulta lining up more coveted brands, Dillon keeps coming up with moves that have made Ulta a rare retail Cinderella story. 
Read our piece from last year on “<a href="http://fortune.com/ulta-beauty-mary-dillon/">How Ulta and Mary Dillon Are Winning the Beauty Battle</a>."

Mary Dillon

The toy company CEO took the top job in February 2017 and has since been busy bringing in fresh tech ­talent, including a chief technology officer. Given her Silicon Valley background, it’s no surprise: Georgiadis spent nearly a decade at Google, most recently running sales and operations for the search giant’s Americas business. But turning the 72-year-old Barbie-maker into a tech-centric manufacturer will take more than a few hires. Mattel’s 2016 revenue came in at $5.5 billion, down 4% from the prior year.

Margo Georgiadis

In addition to running ­marketing and analytics, Finucane chairs BofA’s ­Environmental, Social, and Governance committee, leading the bank’s efforts to do well by doing good. She oversaw a record $15.9 billion in clean energy financing in 2016, as well as an additional $1.6 billion of loans dedicated to injecting capital into low-income areas. It’s been a good year for BofA’s shareholders—profits jumped 13% last year, and the stock has surged more than 55% over the past 12 months.

Anne Finucane

Witherspoon is on a tear, y’all. First the actress launched her production company, Pacific Standard, which went on to pump out hits like Gone Girl, Wild, and Big Little Lies. Next up: Draper James, her ­Southern-oriented lifestyle brand, which debuted in 2015 and has garnered backing from VC heavy hitters such as Forerunner Ventures founder Kirsten Green, who also sits on the company’s board. The retail startup now has stand-alone stores in Nashville; Dallas; and Lexington, Ky.; and just struck a deal to sell its wares in select Nordstroms. Now she’s partnering with Otter Media, a joint venture between AT&amp;T and the Chernin Group, on Hello Sunshine, a content company that includes Pacific Standard and creates everything from digital and social shorts to TV shows to films. The company, which extended its development deal with ABC Studios earlier this year, has a host of projects in the works.