Wall Street Journal's women to watch in Europe and in the world

EU anti-trust chief Neelie Kroes is the highest ranking European woman, at number three, to feature in The Wall Street Journal’s annual 50 Women to Watch report, published today in all editions of The Wall Street Journal.

The report features female business leaders around the globe who have achieved noteworthy successes in business and those who are poised to play important roles in a wide variety of industries in the years to come.

Leading the global list is Angela Braly, president and chief executive of US health benefits company, WellPoint Inc. Second is Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo Inc.

Listed third, Dutch-born Neelie Kroes is one of two Europeans making top ten ranking in the report. Mrs Kroes, 66, as EU anti-trust chief, has shown particular devotion to stamping out cartels, this year levying heavy fines on makers of beer, lifts and zips. She was also a key force behind an EU proposal to open up the region’s monopoly-ridden energy markets.

The second European to feature in the top ten is Dutch-born Clara Furse, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange. At number six, she is the first female to head up the LSE in its 300 year history. Now she plays a vital role in shaping the way stocks and other financial instruments are traded in an increasingly unified Europe.

One further European features in the report. At number 33, French-born Delphine Arnault Gancia is a member of the board of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

However, many European companies are represented on the list, including Alcatel-Lucent, Anglo American, Burberry and Wolters Kluwer. The complete list of the 50 Women to Watch can be found in Editors’ Notes.

In addition to the global ranking, The Wall Street Journal Europe has identified a list of Ten Women to Watch in Europe, which recognises Europe-based women who are having an impact in business now or who will be influential in the years ahead. The full list of the Top Ten Women to Watch in Europe can also be found in Editors’ Notes.

Carol Hymowitz, senior editor of management issues for The Wall Street Journal, added: “Women are leading change by moving into powerful positions in virtually every industry and have been successful in moving their companies forward in the business world.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’S GLOBAL 50 WOMEN TO WATCH 2007 (Deleted “Top”)

1. Angela F. Braly, president and chief executive, WellPoint Inc.
2. Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive, PepsiCo Inc.
3. Neelie Kroes, antitrust chief, European Union
4. Zoe Cruz, co-president, Morgan Stanley
5. Sheila Bair, chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
6. Clara Furse, chief executive, London Stock Exchange
7. Anne Mulcahy, chairman and chief executive, Xerox Corp.
8. Patricia Woertz, chief executive, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.
9. Margaret C. “Meg” Whitman, president and chief executive, eBay Inc.
10. Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive, Kraft Foods Inc.
11. Mary Sammons, chairman and chief executive, Rite-Aid Corp.
12. Susan Arnold, president, global business units, Procter & Gamble Co.
13. Amy Woods Brinkley, global risk executive, Bank of America Corp.
14. Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Hewlett-Packard Co.
15. Ursula Burns, president and chief operating officer, Xerox Corp.
16. Patricia Russo, chief executive, Alcatel-Lucent SA
17. Susan Decker, president, Yahoo Inc.
18. Safra Catz, president and chief financial officer, Oracle Corp.
19. Sheryl Sandberg, vice president, global online sales and operations, Google Inc.
20. Andrea Jung, chairman and chief executive, Avon Products Inc.
21. Charlene Begley, president and CEO, GE Enterprise Solutions, General Electric Co.
22. Melinda Gates, co-chair, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
23. Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor, People’s Bank of China, and administrator, State Administration of Foreign Exchange
24. Diane Greene, chief executive, VMware Inc.
25. Ellen Kullman, executive vice president, DuPont Co.
26. Cynthia Carroll, chief executive, Anglo American PLC
27. Amy Pascal, co-chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment
28. Angela Ahrendts, chief executive, Burberry Group PLC
29. Lorraine Bolsinger, vice president, General Electric Co.
30. Melanie Healey, group president, feminine and health care, Procter & Gamble Co.
31. Wei Sun Christianson, China chief executive, Morgan Stanley
32. Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa, president, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Wealth Management
33. Delphine Arnault Gancia, member of the board, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
34. Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, economy minister, United Arab Emirates
35. Maureen Mahoney, partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
36. Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman, Hyundai Group
37. Dottie Mattison, senior vice president, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
38. Janice Fields, executive vice president and chief operating officer, McDonald’s USA
39. Deborah Wahl Meyer, chief marketing officer, Chrysler LLC
40. Toni Hoover, senior vice president, Pfizer Inc.
41. Nancy McKinstry, chief executive and chairman of the executive board, Wolters Kluwer NV
42. Julia Stewart, chairman and chief executive, IHOP Corp.
43. Manisha Girotra, managing director and chairperson, India, UBS AG
44. Carolyn Reidy, president and chief executive-designate, Simon & Schuster Inc.
45. Erin Callan, chief financial officer-designate, Lehman Brothers
46. Sharon Hom, executive director, Human Rights in China
47. Denise Morrison, senior vice president and president-North America soup, sauces and beverages, Campbell Soup Co.
48. Andrea Wong, president and chief executive, Lifetime Entertainment Services
49. Carol Tomé, chief financial officer and executive vice president, corporate services, Home Depot Inc.
50. Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer, Service Employees International Union


TEN WOMEN TO WATCH IN EUROPE 2007 (listed alphabetically)

Rachida Dati, Justice Minister, French government
Rachida Dati, the daughter of North African immigrants, is the public face of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s drive to appeal to multiracial France and ease tensions in its troubled suburbs.

Belinda Earl, Chief Executive Officer, Jaeger
Belinda Earl has injected much needed energy in British fashion brand Jaeger during her tenure as chief executive officer. In 2004, Ms. Earl inherited an ailing brand that had fallen off the fashion map. She first started updating Jaeger’s collections making them more fashion forward. She also launched the Jaeger London brand for men and women to tap into a younger market.

Rona Fairhead, Chief Executive, Financial Times Group
Rona Fairhead’s innovative thinking has been key to the Financial Times Group, a division of Pearson LLC. Ms. Fairhead, who was appointed chief executive in May 2006, oversees the Financial Times, Pearson’s international business newspapers and financial magazines, as well as its interest in Interactive Data Corp.

Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister, French government
Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister, is seeking to challenge London’s dominance as the center of the European financial world.The 51-year-old, who was formerly agriculture and trade minister, has set up a committee of senior industry figures to promote Paris as a financial superpower.

Shelly Lazarus, Chief Executive Officer, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
Shelly Lazarus has been providing strong leadership in the increasingly competitive advertising world for more than a decade. Ms. Lazarus, 60 years old, has been a trusted adviser to CEOs of the world’s largest companies, and her ability to market the firm has been her biggest strength, allowing her to draw in big-name clients such as American Express Co. and Unilever PLC.

Natalie Massenet, Founder, Net-a-porter Ltd.
In 2000, as the Internet-stock bubble was bursting and everyone thought that online luxury shopping was dead, Natalie Massenet went against the grain and setup the online fashion retailer Net-a-porter.com.

Marjan Oudeman, Managing Director, Corus Group’s Dutch steel-making operations
Marjan Oudeman is one of few women who has made it to the top ranks of the world’s booming steel industry.

The 49-year-old Dutch native is managing director of the Dutch steel-making operations of Corus Group PLC. India’s Tata Steel Ltd, the fifth biggest-steel company globally, recently paid $12.7 billion for the Anglo-Dutch Corus Group.

Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, European Union
A self-declared crusader for consumers, Viviane Reding has been shaking things up as the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

Ms. Reding, 56 years old, is the mastermind behind the price caps on mobile-operator roaming rates that have helped consumers save money while traveling abroad. Now she wants to launch a radical overhaul of the rules governing the telecommunications industry that she says complicate cross-border business.

Dominique Reiniche, President of European Union group, Coca-Cola Co.
Dominique Reiniche cut her teeth in the soft-drink business in one of the hardest parts of the business: bottling. Since 2003, the Parisian has run its European Union operations, one of Coca-Cola Co.’s biggest profit centers. She is also one of the highest-ranking women at the Atlanta beverage giant and the only female running an operational unit; she is one of two women among the company’s 15 top executives.

Kate Swann, Chief Executive, WH Smith
Moving 215-year-old British bookstore chain WH Smith in a new direction has been a big part of Kate Swann’s job. Ms. Swann, who joined WH Smith in 2003, immediately put in place a recovery plan that included redirecting the bookstore chain away from the highly competitive entertainment market of CDs and DVDs and back toward its core products: books and stationary.

FACT FILE:
Founded in 1983 and based in Brussels, The Wall Street Journal Europe forms part of the world’s leading business news franchise, which also includes The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web.

Together, these publications have a paid circulation of 2.7 million, providing business leaders around the world with unsurpassed coverage of global business news, edited from a local perspective – and hold 31 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism.