Who are some of the women shaping business leadership today?
Business leaders today work across very different industries, markets and organisations. Looking at the people leading some of the world’s largest companies can give us a clearer view of who is influencing business decisions at the highest level.
From banking and automotive to technology and consulting, these leaders represent different parts of the business world and the challenges that come with leading major organisations.
Fortune’s 2026 ranking brings together women in senior roles across these industries and provides a closer look at some of the most prominent names in business today.
According to the ranking, these are the five women at the top of the list:
| Rank | Business Leader | Role | Company |
| 1 | Jane Fraser | Chair & CEO | Citigroup |
| 2 | Mary Barra | Chair & CEO | General Motors |
| 3 | Lisa Su | Chair & CEO | AMD |
| 4 | Julie Sweet | Chair & CEO | Accenture |
| 5 | Ana Botín | Executive Chair | Banco Santander |
Source: Fortune, Most Powerful Women in Business 2026
What Puts a Business Leader at the Top?
Fortune evaluates candidates across six areas: the size of the business they lead, the health of that business, innovation, influence, career trajectory and impact.
What is interesting from a business education perspective is the combination of these criteria. Leadership is not evaluated separately from the business itself. Financial performance matters, but so do innovation, decisions, influence, and the direction in which a leader takes an organisation.
For students learning about management, this provides a practical way to think about leadership. A senior position may give someone responsibility, but it is what happens under that responsibility that can ultimately be examined and evaluated.
Leadership Is Connected to the Whole Business
The five women on the list work across banking, automotive, technology, and consulting. Their industries may be different, but positions at this level require an understanding of much more than one area of business.
Decisions about strategy can have financial consequences. New technology can affect employees, operations and customers. Innovation can create opportunities while also requiring investment and organisational change.
This is one of the reasons business education covers different disciplines rather than treating leadership as a subject on its own. Finance, strategy, marketing, operations, technology and people management often meet when real decisions have to be made.
What the Ranking Shows About Business Today
The Top 5 also reflects the variety of industries where some of today’s most prominent business leadership is taking place.
The wider Fortune list extends much further. Its 100 women represent 94 companies across 20 countries and territories, and the businesses they lead collectively account for $7.3 trillion in annual revenue and 11.8 million employees.
These figures show the scale of responsibility carried by the leaders on the list. The companies they represent employ millions of people and operate across different markets, which makes their roles especially relevant when discussing leadership at a global level.
From Business Rankings to Business Education
Rankings alone cannot explain what makes someone an effective leader. They can, however, provide a starting point for looking more closely at how business performance and leadership are connected.
Why does one executive move higher in a ranking while another moves down? How much should financial performance matter? How do innovation and influence fit alongside traditional business metrics? And how should leadership be evaluated when companies operate in completely different industries?
These are also useful questions in business education, where understanding a company often means looking at both the numbers and the decisions behind them.
Final Thoughts
The five women at the top of Fortune’s ranking come from different industries, careers and areas of expertise, yet all hold responsibility at the highest levels of global business.
What stands out is not one shared path, but the range of knowledge, judgement and experience that senior leadership can require.
At PSM, this broader view of business is also part of how students are encouraged to approach management: by connecting different areas of business, looking at real examples, and understanding how decisions are made in practice.