The biggest news about the 2011 Fortune Most Powerful Women list is that we have a new No. 1: Kraft Foods (KFT) CEO Irene Rosenfeld bumped PepsiCo's (PEP) Indra Nooyi to the No. 2 spot.
But when I went on CNBC this morning to reveal the new rankings, the Squawk Box anchors seemed most interested in who fell off our top 50 Power list. First and foremost to leave the list: Carol Bartz, whom the Yahoo (YHOO) board fired in the most unceremonious style two weeks ago. Thanks to co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin for generously plugging my interview with Bartz, one day after her ouster. (If you missed the zesty Bartz story, you can read it here.) And if you want to see what I said about who's up, down, and new to the Fortune MPW list, here's the clip from CNBC.
Tonight's CNBC documentary hosted by David Faber, Untold Wealth: the Rise of the Super Rich, talks about the widening gap between "haves" and "have-nots" in America. In 1985, there were only 13 billionaires in the U.S. Today there are more than 1,000, and hundreds of thousands of multi-millionaires.
This calls to mind a conversation that Pattie Sellers (Postcards' main author) and I had yesterday with a well-known chief executive. We were MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jun 26, 2008 5:33 PM ET
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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
