Top Five Female CEOs

For centuries, women were not allowed to work, let alone hold positions of power. However, this all changed when Katharine Graham became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company in the world. Now, women are taking the world by storm and many occupy the most powerful position in a company: Chief Executive Officer, or CEO. Here are five female CEOs of very popular and successful companies.

1. Mary Dillon, CEO of Ulta Beauty: Mary Dillon became CEO of Ulta Beauty in 2013. She was the former CEO of U.S. Cellular before Ulta. Mary Dillon worked very hard to help Ulta become a brand known all over the world. She has been featured on the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list and has also earned many awards for her philanthropic efforts. Mary Dillon had to work very hard to achieve her dreams. She worked many jobs to pay for college and eventually got her bachelor's degree and kick-started her career.

2. Michele Buck, CEO of Hershey’s: Michele Buck became the CEO of Hershey’s in 2017. Before starting her career at Hershey’s, Michele Buck worked at Kraft and even was the Vice President of the company. Once she was appointed CEO, Michele worked very hard to help expand the company, She did this by purchasing Amplify Snack Brands which helped Hershey’s enter the snack and healthy food section of the market. Michele attended undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania and got her Masters Degree at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

3. Ginni Rometty, Former CEO of IBM: Ginni Rometty became the first female CEO of IBM in 2012. She entered IBM as a systems engineer and later got promoted to manager. She helped buy and integrate a consulting business that helped expand IBM. During her time as CEO, Ginni Focused on Cloud Computing and analytics. She was also a part of the White House’s Business Advisory Panel in 2017. She attended Northwestern University under a scholarship from General Motors and also received an honorary degree from North Carolina State University.

4. Ursula Burns, Former CEO of Xerox: Ursula Burns was the CEO of Xerox from 2010 to 2016. In 2015, under Ursula Burns, Xerox made 16 billion dollars in revenue by helping the company move off of just paper copiers. Ursula first joined Xerox in 1980 as a product developer and quickly jumped to executive assistant and then Vice President. She was the first African American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Ursula attended Brooklyn Polytechnic University for her undergrad and Colombia for her masters. She also headed the White House’s National STEM program in 2009 under President Obama.

5. Indra Nooyi, Former CEO of PepsiCo.: Indra Nooyi became the CEO of Pepsi in 2006 and stepped down in 2018. Indra Nooyi started her career in Pepsi in 1994 at the age of 39. Before becoming CEO she was the Chief Financial Officer, Vice President, and also served on the Board of Directors. Indra helped restructure Pepsi by selling off Yum! Brands which included Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. This gave the company enough money to expand and buy more businesses in the future. She also helped acquire Tropicana, Quaker Oats, and Gatorade, which made PepsiCo very competitive in the market and also increased the shares. Indra helped rebrand PepsiCo to include healthy products as well.