Whether it’s banking, finance, investing or business, there are women out there absolutely killing it in an industry dominated by men. These women are making major money moves, shattering glass ceilings and are growing their own green, too.
I’ve rounded up 21 fierce, financial women that you ought to know!
Powerful Women in Banking & Finance
1. Janet Yellen
Janet Yellen is kinda a big deal. She’s the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a position she’s held since 2014. Yellen has hiked interest rates, and in turn, probably affected the rates you pay on things like credit cards and mortgages; that’s how dang powerful she is. She’s the first female Fed Chair, and her four-year term is ending in February.
2. Christine Lagarde
Christine Lagarde holds the position of managing director at the International Monetary Fund, which is an organization of 189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. And you thought your job was stressful! Lagarde was re-elected in 2016 to serve a second, five-year term.
3. Sallie Krawcheck
Sallie Krawcheck is the CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, an investing platform designed for female investors. Krawcheck founded the company after she realized the investing industry has been “by men, for men,” according to Ellevest’s website. In her past life, she was the CEO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, in case you were wondering just how impressive someone’s resume can get.
4. Cathy Bessant
Cathy Bessant is the chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America and was named American Banker’s Most Powerful Woman in Banking for 2017. Bessant began at the bank as a corporate banker in 1982 and has since risen through the ranks, racking up an impressive track record at Bank of America. She previously held v. important roles there, including president of Global Corporate Banking and chief marketing officer.
5. Barbara Desoer
Barbara Desoer is the CEO of Citibank, a role which she has held since 2014. She’s also a member of its board of directors and has served as the co-head of Citigroup’s global women’s initiative, Citi Women. Other achievements? In 2012 and 2014, Citi had failed the Federal Reserve’s big-bank stress test, but since Desoer took over for the 2016 tests, Citi has passed in each of the last two years, American Banker reports.
6. Ramona Ortega
Ramona Ortega is the founder and CEO of My Money My Future, which is an online financial planning platform, giving Latinas the tools and confidence they need to achieve wealth. Ortega “founded MDMF with the understanding that Latinos have a different set of values and beliefs about money management and they are seeking information and advice that reflects their cultural experience,” according to her LinkedIn page. The platform offers budgeting tools, personalized financial advice, and step-by-step plans to help guide consumers through every financial decision. Ortega is also the VP of strategic partnerships for the Latino Startup Alliance.
7. Abigail Johnson
Abigail Johnson is the chairman and CEO of Fidelity Investments, which touts 26 million individual investors, 24.9 million brokerage accounts, and $6.2 trillion total customer assets. NBD. Johnson’s grandfather founded the massive mutual fund in 1946, and she took over as CEO in 2014. Her net worth is an impressive $17.2 billion, according to Forbes.
8. Ellen Alemany
Ellen Alemany currently serves as the CEO and chairwoman of CIT Group, a role she has had since April 2016. Alemany is a veteran banker with decades of experience and even came out of retirement to take on the new leadership position. She ranked third in American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking list this year.
9. Margaret Keane
Margaret Keane serves as the president and CEO of Synchrony Financial, a consumer financial services company, a position she has held since 2014. Keane has often talked about issues that hit home for many fierce, financial females, like how women are represented in her company and diversity in the workplace. Under her leadership, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought a 17.5 million share stake in the company.
Powerful Women in Investing
10. Kirsten Green
Kirsten Green is the founder and managing director at Forerunner Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm. Green helped raise over $250 million from leading investors and has invested in companies like Dollar Shave Club, Birchbox, Glossier, Warby Parker, Bonobos, and Zola. She’s been named in Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World 2017, was TechCrunch’s VC of the Year for 2017 and ranks on Forbes’ 2017 Midas List. Jealous yet? I am.
11. Cindy Whitehead
Known as the woman behind the “female Viagra”. Cindy Whitehead has sold two companies for over $1.5 billion, and serves as the founder and CEO of The Pink Ceiling, which is described as a “cross between a VC firm, an ‘incubator’ and a consulting enterprise.” The Pink Ceiling works with female-friendly startups, and the firm’s first partnership was in 2016 with Undercover Colors, a startup developing wearable nail technology to detect date rape drugs in spiked drinks.
12. Mary Meeker
Mary Meeker currently serves as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and is ranked sixth on Forbes’ highly-coveted Midas List, making her the highest ranking female venture capitalist on the list. Meeker ranks so highly on the Midas List, “due to shrewd bets on Chinese commerce site JD.com, Square, Spotify, Facebook, Airbnb, and Houzz,” Forbes reports.
13. Amy Nauiokas
Amy Nauiokas is the founder and president of Anthemis, a digital financial services investment and advisory firm, as well as the founder and chair of Archer Gray, a media production, finance, and investment company. Her early investments include stellar successes like Zoopla, Climate Corporation and Simple. Previously, Nauiokas served as the CEO and managing director of Barclays Stockbrokers, where she grew revenue by 40 percent in under two years.
14. Ann Miura-Ko
Dubbed by Forbes as “the most powerful woman in startups,” Ann Miura-Ko is a partner at Floodgate, a venture capital firm specializing in micro-cap investments and startups. A few of Miura-Ko’s notable investments include some pretty female-friendly companies, like Refinery29, Lyft, Chloe and Isabel, and ModCloth. She made her debut on Forbes’ Midas List in 2017, ranking 77th.
15. Rebecca Lynn
Rebecca Lynn is a regular on Forbes’ Midas list and was called “one of the most successful VCs in Silicon Valley,” in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. She had three big exits in 2014, and her most notable deal was of peer-to-peer lender Lending Club. This year, Lynn ranked 44th on Forbes’ prestigious Midas List, making her the second-highest ranking female on the list. She’s currently a partner at Canvas Ventures.
Powerful Women in Business
16. Mary Barra
Mary Barra is the chairman and CEO at a teeny, tiny company called General Motors… you might have heard of it. She began her career with GM back in 1980, and has since climbed the corporate ladder all the way up to the top spot. She’s been ranked Fortune’s Most Powerful Woman for three straight years and is in the fast lane to becoming a legendary money mogul.
17. Ginni Rometty
Serving as IBM’s chairman, CEO and president, Ginni Rometty is truly a force to be reckoned with. Under Rometty’s leadership, IBM recently beat out Amazon in 12-month cloud-computing revenue, $15.1 billion to $14.5 billion. When Rometty’s not busy beating out Bezos, she’s taking a stand on a number of controversial topics, like DACA.
18. Indra Nooyi
Indra Nooyi is the chairman of PepsiCo, the company that’s given you some of your fave snacks and sodas like Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana, and Gatorade. Nooyi has ruled as CEO of the PepsiCo empire for over a decade and has helped lead the company through a number of mergers and acquisitions. In 2016, her pay reportedly increased from $26.4 million to a casual $29.8 million.
19. Adena Friedman
Adena Friedman currently serves as Nasdaq’s President and CEO, a position she’s held since January. Friedman has a long history with Nasdaq and originally joined the company in 1993. Bloomberg Markets wrote that she’ll be described in history books as “the one who finally kicked through the thick glass ceiling that hung over Wall Street since its days under a buttonwood tree in the 1700s.”
20. Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman was the CEO of HP and oversaw Hewlett-Packard’s separation into two Fortune 100 companies: Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. Whitman has even dabbled a bit in politics, serving as the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2010 gubernatorial race in California. She also currently serves as the director for The Procter and Gamble Company and Teach for America.
21. Margaret “Margo” Georgiadis
The coolest thing about Barbie? Its maker, Mattel, has a female CEO. Margaret Georgiadis served as Mattel’s CEO. Before that, Georgiadis served as the president of Google Americas, and led the tech giant’s commercial operations and ad sales in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America for six years.