Good morning! The richest woman in the U.K. made $199 million last year, investors bet on volleyball as the next big thing in women's sports, and women kick off 2025 with a bang on the Fortune 500.
- More than 10%. The share of women running Fortune 500 companies has for the past several years typically hovered around 10%. But we're kicking off the year with an unusual milestone: The share of women running these big businesses has clawed its way above 11%—hitting a record-high 11.6% this week.
That's thanks to a few appointments over the past several weeks. On Monday, Ulta announced the promotion of COO Kecia Steelman to CEO, taking effect immediately. She takes over from departing CEO Dave Kimbell, running the $11 billion beauty retailer whose transformation cemented former chief Mary Dillon's reputation as a successful CEO. (Dillon now leads Foot Locker, making her one of three women to ever run two Fortune 500 companies.)
On Monday, Deanna Strable's tenure as CEO of Principal Financial Group became official. Principal had announced the company lifer's promotion from COO to CEO of the $13.6 billion business in November. Meanwhile over at S&P Global, the promotion of Martina Cheung to CEO of the $12.5 billion company took effect in November.
Taken together, these changes pushed the Fortune 500 above the 10% hurdle—with 58 women in these jobs. But this may not represent lasting change. Another announcement that contributed to this milestone was at Intel, where the struggling chipmaker's drama late last year gave exec Michelle Johnston Holthaus the title of interim co-CEO. The company is searching for a full-time chief. At least one current CEO, too, has already announced plans to leave; longtime Ross Stores CEO Barbara Rentler will step down in less than a month.
Still, it's worth noting that inch by inch women are claiming more big-business CEO jobs. Most of them are internal hires, promoted thanks to their proven track records at their businesses—the way that 76% of all the female CEOs in the Fortune 500 got their jobs.
Between the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Fortune 500, the share of women running these companies didn't budge from 10.4%. So after a year of stagnation, to jump to almost 12% seven months later feels like an achievement worth celebrating.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
