Last we heard from media and presentation coach Mary Civiello, she weighed in on lessons from the Oscar-winning The King's Speech. She's back in the movie theater studying another icon of British history: Margaret Thatcher, portrayed by Meryl Streep in Iron Lady. Civiello knows of what she speaks: She works with executives at such companies as Morgan Stanley (MS), American Express (AXP), DreamWorks Animation (DWA), Merck (MRK) and Fortune's parent, MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 29, 2011 9:36 AM ET
Yesterday's Postcard asking if corporate women will ever be as powerful as corporate men prompted lots of discussion and a bit of inspiration.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg chimed in again, advising me to take credit and own my power. (Um, didn't I first chide Sandberg to own her power, according to Ken Auletta's New Yorker profile?)
Hilary Rosen, also quoted in yesterday's Postcard, pinged me to say that years ago when she MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 28, 2011 10:32 AM ET
Over Christmas weekend, Sheryl Sandberg emailed me, sounding a bit distressed.
Referring to a big story about Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Sunday's Washington Post (WPO), the Facebook COO asked if I'd been misquoted in saying that I believe women will never have 50% of the top jobs in corporate America. "Don't depress me!" Sandberg wrote.
Sorry, Sheryl, the Post quoted me correctly.
I do, in fact, believe that women won't ever—ever!--reach parity MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 27, 2011 9:48 AM ET
This past summer, when Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg emailed me about Clara Shih, we at Fortune knew to keep a lookout.
"I think she is awesome," Sandberg wrote in her email.
Sure enough, Starbucks (SBUX) yesterday named 29-year-old Shih, a social-media entrepreneur, to replace Sandberg on its board of directors.
A 29-year-old on the Starbucks board?!
Starbucks is bulking up on social-media expertise at a time when boards of most Fortune 500 companies desperately MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 15, 2011 1:20 PM ET
Women are losing power in corporate America.
Besides the news that struggling Avon (AVP) is looking to replace Andrea Jung as CEO, there is Catalyst's annual census, released this morning, showing that women hold 14.1% of executive positions in Fortune 500 companies today, vs. 15.6% five years ago.
The trend isn't a good one, especially if you consider that companies with more women at the top tend to perform better financially, according MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 14, 2011 6:43 AM ET
Credit: Asa Mathat
When Rosie O'Donnell met Vosges Haut-Chocolat founder Katrina Markoff at this year's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the two women hit it off instantly. On a panel featuring top entrepreneurs, Markoff said that she started her company 13 years ago because she saw a need to innovate in chocolate (the chocolate bacon bar, Vosges' best seller, constitutes that) and "to bring peace to the world through chocolate."
"And MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 12, 2011 12:44 PM ET
Great leaders are made, not born.
Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski drilled that point home when he came to New York this week to accept Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year award. Speaking to an audience that included a few other champions--Chris Evert, Wayne Gretzky, Sugar Ray Leonard, and the University of Tennessee's Pat Summitt, who is SI's Sportswoman of the Year--Coach K told a story that explained who gave him what MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 9, 2011 9:52 AM ET
Even as Pattie Dunn died at age 58 after a long battle with cancer, she lived a full life. Her life started as an urban fairy tale: When I met her for the first time in 1999, Dunn told me about growing up as the daughter of a Las Vegas impresario and a showgirl, starting her career as a secretary at Wells Fargo (WFC), and rising through the banking world MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 6, 2011 3:31 PM ET
Mobile/local/social is the web's sweet spot right now. And Google's Marissa Mayer is in the middle of it.
Credit: Asa Mathat
We told you how Mayer engineered the acquisition of Zagat. That could turn out to be a very smart deal if Google gets us searching and sharing and mapping our ways to restaurants even more than we do today.
At the Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner in Silicon Valley last week, MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 5, 2011 11:21 AM ET
Photo Credit: Asa Mathat
Marissa Mayer has been a pioneer in the unofficial "Geek is Chic" movement. Google's (GOOG) first female engineer, who is now the company's VP in charge of all things local, has appeared in Vogue, rocked the cover of Fortune's 40-Under-40 issue, and been nominated for Vanity Fair's 2011 International Best Dressed List. She is an angel investor in female-founded companies like Minted and One King's Lane. MORE
Colleen Leahey, Reporter - Dec 1, 2011 11:59 AM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
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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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
