Postcards

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

Power Point: Men and power

July 24, 2008: 7:45 AM ET

"Power is more important to men."

- Shelly Lazarus told me this a decade ago, soon after she became chairman and CEO of ad giant Ogilvy & Mather. Now she's planning to step down as CEO after guiding Ogilvy through the most dramatic shifts in strategy that the industry has ever seen. Pragmatic, unpretentious, and all about the work as she built long-lasting relationships with clients like Ford (F), IBM (IBM), and American Express (AMXP), Lazarus stayed at WPP-owned (WPGGY) Ogilvy longer than she had planned. Also a director at General Electric (GE) and Merck (MRK), she's one of a few who has been on Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business list every year since its 1998 launch -- and also on a growing tally of women due to drop off this year. Are women losing power in corporate America? See Jessica Shambora's post on top women in tech.

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About This Author
Pattie Sellers
Patricia Sellers
Senior Editor at Large, Fortune
Executive Director of MPW/Live Content, Time Inc.

Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo," "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), and "Remodeling Martha" (Martha Stewart). She has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" package every year since its launch in 1998. Pattie is Executive Director of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business and beyond. She oversees MPW programs that enable women leaders to extend their influence and empower the next generation—such as Fortune MPW Entrepreneurs and the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Beyond her Fortune duties, she is also developing Live Content across Time Inc. Pattie grew up in Allentown, PA, graduated from the University of Virginia, and started at Fortune in 1984. Her blog, Postcards, is about how power players lead, manage others, and navigate their careers.

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The Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership brings rising-star women from countries around the world to the U.S. for three-week mentorships with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them Ursula Burns of Xerox, Laura Lang of Time Inc., Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, and Tory Burch.

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