As the world gears up to celebrate International Women's Day on March 9, this gallery reveals some interesting and less known facts about a few women leaders among many who have created waves in the corporate world with their achievements, leadership and panache.
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Andrea Jung, former CEO and current chairman of Avon.ReutersKraft Foods CEO Irene Rosenfeld said the company's entry into the energy-drink market with MiO provides a "perfect platform" for Kraft.
ReutersYet another Fortune 500 CEO, Carol Bartz is known for her candid, unsentimental and ocasionally brutal ways of dealing with people and situations. To the Internet giant, Carol brought an acute, no-nonsense business sense that played a key role in seeing it through the most challenging of circumstances.
Before joining Yahoo!, Carol was Chairman, President, and CEO at Autodesk, the world's largest producer of design software for use in architecture, engineering and building construction, where she is credited with introducing several strategies that saw the company’s revenue rising substantially during her tenure. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from William Woods University.
An iron woman in both private and public life, Carol survived a bout of breast cancer soon after she joined Autodesk. It is reported that she only took a month off work for a mastectomy and reconstruction; after that she returned to her new job full-time, while undergoing chemotherapy sessions simultaneously for seven months. Life’s tests made her even more disciplined which has aided her achievements both in personal and professional life.
ReutersAfter holding several senior positions in the company, Indra Nooyi was appointed as the CEO of the food and beverage multinational in 2006 and later assumed the role of Chairman in 2007. The Indian born American executive is considered to be the chief architect of PepsiCo's multi-year growth strategy, Performance with Purpose, which is focused on delivering sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet. She has been in the news recently for spearheading Pepsi Refresh – a social media campaign that seeks ideas from consumers and plans to share $20 million in grants to good causes and “great ideas.”
Ms. Nooyi is also associated with a large number of associations in diverse fields – serving on the boards of various business councils, The Consumer Goods Forum, Catalyst, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, Grocery Manufacturers Association and even the U.S. Soccer Federation. She is also a Successor Fellow of Yale Corporation and was appointed to the U.S.-India CEO Forum by the Obama Administration.
#50 among the Fortune 500 CEOs, and the third woman on the list, Indra Nooyi holds an MBA from premier Indian B-school, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a Master of Public and Private Management from Yale University. On various occasions, the leader has talked about the deep impact that her paternal grandfather has had on her work and philosophy, especially his edict that an individual should always remember that what he does not know is more important than what he does!
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