Postcards

How the power players do it - by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers

The 2010 Most Powerful Women ... and 2011?

September 29, 2010: 12:56 PM ET

By Patricia Sellers

The 2010 Fortune Most Powerful Women list is out!

You can check out the entire MPWomen package here.

This includes the full ranking of 50 MPWomen in U.S. Business, our D.C. Power List and more.

PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi is No. 1 on our U.S. list for the fifth year in a row. Kraft Foods' (KFT) Irene Rosenfeld is right behind her, at No. 2.

I went on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning to unveil the rankings and noted that beyond these two powerful women execs, there's a pattern here: The consumer packaged-goods industry is welcoming to top-level women. Perfect evidence: the news, just out, that Denise Morrison is set to become CEO of Campbell Soup (CPB).

Campbell announced yesterday that Morrison, currently an SVP who runs a $5 billion piece of the company, will be EVP and COO, effective this Friday. She's a virtual shoo-in to succeed CEO Doug Conant when he retires next July. And already looking ahead to the 2011 Fortune MPWomen list, I envision that when Morrison makes the cut, we will have our first sister act. Morrison's sister is Frontier Communications (FTR) CEO Maggie Wilderotter, who jumped to No. 40, from 50th place, in this year's rankings.

The list criteria, in case you're wondering, is four-fold: the size and importance of the woman's business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of the woman's career, and social and cultural influence -- which puts Oprah Winfrey (No. 6) high on the list. (Watch for my exclusive cover story on Oprah, online tomorrow.)

How did Wilderotter make the leap up the list this year? She pulled off an $8.6 billion acquisition of Verizon (VZ) assets that she had been eyeing for years. That deal makes Frontier the largest rural communications company in the U.S.

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About This Author
Pattie Sellers
Patricia Sellers
Editor at Large, Fortune

Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.

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MPWomen go Global

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 Ursula Burns of Xerox.

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