Postcards

Google's Marissa Mayer on her dinner for the President

By Patricia Sellers

At 35, Marissa Mayer is the youngest person ever to make Fortune's Most Powerful Women list. Clearly, she isn't slowing down.

Last week, over dinner in Silicon Valley, Mayer told me about her new job at Google (GOOG). The company's first female engineer and until recently its VP of Search Products and User Experience, Mayer is now overseeing Google's local and location services--key to its growth strategy. In addition MORE

Can Meg Whitman win in California? Maybe

by Patricia Sellers

I'm just back from a week in California and still on vacation--technically. But I'm speaking about my favorite topic, Women and Power, tonight in Boston and have a couple more speaking gigs next week. So I'll check in on Postcards occasionally.

Speaking of Women and Power, whip-smart Karen Tumulty, who used to write for TIME and is now at the Washington Post, emailed me this story about Meg Whitman MORE

President Obama's speech to Fortune's Most Powerful Women

by Patricia Sellers

If you'd like to see President Obama speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit last week, here he is on video on the White House website.

This was the first time we had a President of the United States speak at our conference. He was quite moving. And funny too--when the Presidential seal fell off the podium mid-speech.

That was a first too! David Axelrod, the President's senior advisor, MORE

Apple stock at $300: Watch out, Exxon Mobil

by Patricia Sellers

This morning, as Apple (AAPL) shares neared $300, a Postcards reader, gslusher, weighed in on a post that Jessica Shambora, my Fortune colleague, wrote in October 2009 about the world's largest stock-market capitalizations. Amazing to see how Apple, in less than a year, has vaulted just behind Exxon Mobil (XOM)...on its way to be THE most valuable company?

1. Exxon Mobil $329.44 billion

2. Apple $272.73 billion

3. Microsoft (MSFT) $214.87 MORE

Trouble at the top: My own private car crisis

Guest Post by Cindy DiPietrantonio, Chief Operations Officer, Jones Apparel Group

You can only imagine how I was feeling last week when I came home from the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Inspired. Empowered. After three days in Washington, D.C., where we heard from Hillary Clinton, CEOs like Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo (PEP) and Carol Bartz of Yahoo (YHOO), Warren Buffett (BRKA), and even the President of the United States, I MORE

Obama loses his seal: Photo of the week

By Patricia Sellers

My favorite photo of the week. On Tuesday evening, President Obama spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. All was going smoothly...until suddenly, CRASH! The Presidential seal fell off the front of the podium.

The President handled the mishap with great panache, joking "All of you know who I am. But I'm sure there's somebody back there that's really nervous right now. Don't you think? They're sweating bullets MORE

The biggest emerging market: Women

By Patricia Sellers

Yesterday, Fortune wrapped up its Most Powerful Women Summit -- the three-day event that I'm lucky enough to chair -- with Senator Olympia Snowe in the early morning and Hillary Clinton and Avon CEO Andrea Jung just before noon. Warren Buffett (BRKA), our honorary Most Powerful Guy participant, was sitting next to me watching the show from the front row. Yesterday I shared with you some choice lines MORE

Warren Buffett's wisdom for Powerful Women

By Patricia Sellers

It's hard to believe Warren Buffett. A month ago, the guy turned 80 years old. Last week he was in China with his billionaire pals Bill Gates and Charlie Munger. Last Thursday, he flew home to Omaha, slept a little -- even though his internal time clock never went out of whack, he says. Since Monday, he's been with us in Washington at the Fortune Most Powerful MORE

Most Powerful Women gather in Washington

By Patricia Sellers

The Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit began with a bang last evening. Writer/director Nora Ephron interviewed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi before an audience of more than 400 women leaders and a few good men.

Warren Buffett (BRKA) and Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein were at my dinner table. Before dinner I chatted on stage with the two winners of this year's Golman Sachs-Fortune Global Women Leaders MORE

Oprah doesn't want to be Michael Jackson: the back story

by Patricia Sellers

"Oprah's Next Act,"--the new cover of Fortune--hits newsstands nationwide today. A related Postcard, "Oprah confesses and conquers her fear," that I posted last Thursday refers to something she said in the profile—"I don't want to be Michael Jackson"—and wow, has this post drawn a tornado of angry comments.

I'm not sure whether the rancor is directed mainly at me or at the queen of media, but mostly it comes MORE