Good morning and happy Most Powerful Women day! Of course, every day in this newsletter is MPW day—but today, we’re launching the
2026 edition of the Fortune Most Powerful Women list.
Now in its 29th year, the ranking highlights the leaders commanding boardrooms, markets, and industries. And for the first time since 2024, we have a new
No. 1.
Citigroup chair and CEO Jane Fraser has ascended to the top spot, five years after she got Citi’s corner office. Fraser broke Wall Street’s glass ceiling when she became the first woman CEO of a major bank in 2021. Her rise exemplifies how this list tracks not just who has an impressive title, but
what they are doing with it—with hard business metrics to back that up. (Last year’s No. 1, GM chief Mary Barra, is at
No. 2 this year.)
The women on this list are leaders at 94 companies with a combined 11.8 million employees and $7.3 trillion in annual revenue. They hold 180 board seats and work across 20 countries and territories. (Behind the U.S., the countries with the highest number of Most Powerful Women listees are China, with nine, and France and the U.K., with six each.)
The tech and finance industries dominate, but women are breaking through in other sectors, too—among them BP’s Meg O’Neill (
No. 16), Big Oil’s first female CEO, and Latriece Watkins (
No. 87), the new CEO of Sam’s Club. We chose these executives based on the size and health of their businesses or P&Ls, measured by both 12-month and three-year financial data. Plus, we evaluated their influence, innovation, career trajectories, and efforts to make business better.
Our 2026 list brought some striking trends into focus. The rise of women in AI is undeniable, exemplified by Fidji Simo (
No. 28), who has an expansive role at OpenAI as CEO of AGI deployment.
And take a close look at the CFOs on this ranking: Nearly every major player in AI has a female CFO leading its finance operations. These women—from Sarah Friar at OpenAI (
No. 90) to Amy Hood at
Microsoft (
No. 38)—are making spending decisions that will determine the future of their companies, this technology, and even the global economy.
We have features about several of these women (like
Dina Powell McCormick, now at
Meta and
No. 58 on the list, and Watkins
at Sam’s Club)—stay tuned over the next few days for more. Explore the full list
here and follow along
on social for
more takeaways!
Emma Hinchliffeemma.hinchliffe@fortune.comThe Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’
s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
