From the pinnacles of power by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers
Type Size  -  +
September 30, 2008, 12:11 pm

Most Powerful Women: The list about the list!

We’ve spent the last three months slicing and dicing the accomplishments and career histories of the most powerful women in business — far too many facts and figures to fit into our Most Powerful Women package in the magazine. Here are 10 intriguing facts that we couldn’t find space for in print:

Youngest woman to ever appear on the list: Marissa Mayer, VP of Search and User Experience at Google (GOOG). At 33 years old, she lands in the No. 50 spot. Before Mayer, the youngest MPWoman ever was Sallie Krawcheck, age 37 in 2002 when she was CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein and debuted at No. 42.

Highest-profile dropoff: Krawcheck, who last week quit her CEO post at Citigroup (C), where she was chairman and CEO of Global Wealth Management.

Highest-ranking returnee: Safra Catz, co-president of Oracle (ORCL) at No. 16. Catz last appeared in 2005, at No. 49. She has impressively overseen 40-plus acquisitions and earned her way back to a top spot.

Highest-ranking newcomer: Susan Chambers, EVP of the Global People Division at Wal-Mart (WMT). Wal-Mart is not only the largest company in the world, it also employs the largest private workforce (over two million!), earning Chambers her spot at No. 25.

Non-CEOs in the top 10: Susan Arnold, No. 7, president of global business units at Procter & Gamble (PG); Oprah Winfrey, No. 8, chairman of her Harpo Inc. multimedia empire; and Ursula Burns, No. 10, president of Xerox (XRX). Burns will likely become CEO of Xerox next year, with Anne Mulcahy staying on as chairman.

Biggest leap at the top: Ellen Kullman, up from No. 25 to No. 15. Last week, she was named president and CEO designate at DuPont (DD). Other major jumps: Heidi Miller, who heads J.P. Morgan Chase’s (JPM) treasury and securities services unit, from No. 27 to 17, and TJX (TJX) CEO Carol Meyrowitz, from No. 31 to 19. Her low-price retail chains are winning over shoppers in this sagging economy.

Consumer-goods bosses in the top 10: PepsiCo. (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi (No. 1), Kraft (KFT) CEO Irene Rosenfeld (No. 2), Avon (AVP) CEO Andrea Jung (No. 6), P&G’s Arnold (No. 7), and Sara Lee (SLE) CEO Brenda Barnes (No. 9).

Only MPWoman who doesn’t run a major business or direct the strategy of a corporation: securities analyst Meredith Whitney (No. 35). Oppenheimer & Co.’s hugely influential market mover made the August 18 cover of Fortune for her prescient predictions of plummeting bank stocks.

Blasted off the list: Morgan Stanley (MS) co-president Zoe Cruz (No. 16 last year) and VMware (VMW) CEO Diane Greene (No. 22 last year) were fired.

One woman worth watching, still: Erin Callan, whom we identified as a 2007 “woman to watch,” lost the CFO job at Lehman Brothers (LEH) in June and found refuge at Credit Suisse (CS), where she now heads the firm’s global hedge fund business. Callan didn’t make our list this year, but she certainly knows power, as she demonstrates in her first interview since leaving Lehman. Read Katie Benner’s exclusive Q&A. – Jessica Shambora

CNNMoney.com Comment Policy: CNNMoney.com encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law. Please note that CNNMoney.com may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material. All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors and commenters. By submitting your comment, you hereby give CNNMoney.com the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, cablecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comment(s) and accompanying personal identifying information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity. CNNMoney.com Privacy Statement.
Esther Wojcicki Esther Wojcicki: The last newspaper generation
Journalism teacher and newspaper adviser at Palo Alto High School
John Wood John Wood: Andrew Carnegie, version 2.0
Founder & Executive Chariman of Room to Read
Doreen Lorenz Doreen Lorenzo: How to innovate in turbulent times
President, frog design
Powerful women's predictionsGoogle's Marissa Mayer, Goldman Sachs' Dina Powell and analyst Meredith Whitney share their industry outlooks. Watch
Ballmer: Economy has resetMicrosoft CEO says we're not in a recession -- rather, a "reset" and will grow from a lower level. Watch
Pattie SellersPatricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
Subscribe to Postcards: RSS feed | email newsletter

Jessica ShamboraJessica Shambora started with Fortune as a reporter in June of 2008, following a stint as assistant editor at Travel+Leisure Golf. Shambora has written for Sports Illustrated, SI Latino, Women's Health, and Triathlete. She is a frequent contributor to Postcards.
Every year Fortune and the U.S. State Department sponsor the Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership, which brings rising-star women from developing countries to the U.S. to work closely with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them CEOs Andrea Jung of Avon, Ann Moore of Time Inc., and Anne Mulcahy of Xerox.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time.† - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges.• Disclaimer
Powered by WordPress.com.