Fortune has released their 2023 edition of the Most Powerful Women in Business list today, with four Australians featured.
Representing Australia at the top is Shemara Wikramanayake, Managing Director and CEO of Macquarie Group, who is named as number nine on the list. She assumed the role in December 2018 in what AFR deemed “a seminal moment in Australian business” as she’s the first woman to ever lead the company.
Three other Aussies are named further down Fortune’s list , including Vanessa Hudson, who assumed the CEO job at Australia’s flagship carrier Qantas in September. She was the first woman to do so.
In the top three spots overall are three Americans– Karen S. Lynch, the President and CEO of CVS Health; Julie Sweet, the Chair and CEO of Accenture; and Mary Barra, the Chair and CEO of General Motors.
This is the third consecutive year that Lynch has landed the #1 spot as the highest-ranking Fortune Global 500 (#11) company in the world led by a female chief executive.
Fortune says the list is the “most comprehensive on record” and features 67 women with a CEO title in total. This includes some recent appointments such as Marghertial Della Valle, who became the CEO of British telecom Vodafone in April, and Sandy Ran Xu, who took over Chinese e-commerce titan JD.com in May.
“The business world is demanding change, and women leaders are meeting the moment,” writes Fortune, noting that as CEOs step down, women are being called to replace them in greater numbers than ever before.
In the first half of this year, 106 CEOs around the world left their jobs, and 13 per cent of their replacements were women. Still an unequal percentage but up from 2.4 per cent in 2018.
This is the first time Fortune has had a single worldwide list honouring 100 women, and many of the women named will be speaking at the publication’s “Most Powerful Women Summit in California next week.