Julie Sweet

Sweet rockets up our list after becoming Accenture’s global CEO in September. In her new role, she oversees more than $40 billion in revenue and almost 500,000 employees. Sweet has had a rapid rise at the consulting and tech company; she joined in 2010 as general counsel and compliance chief and was tapped to lead North America in 2015. As CEO of that region, Sweet drove nearly half of Accenture’s total revenues and propelled its expansion into growth areas like cloud and security. Now, Sweet says, it’s “full steam ahead” on Accenture’s current strategy—including more big acquisitions like its April purchase of ad agency Droga5.