#2 Virginia Rometty

Company:  IBM

Virginia Rometty is the Chairwoman and CEO of IBM, and the first woman to head the company. She joined the company in 1981 and held the positions of Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Sales, Marketing, and Strategy before  becoming president and CEO in January 2012. She has been named to Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" for eight consecutive years, ranking #1 for 2012, and she was ranked #15 on Forbes magazine's "World's 100 Most Powerful Women" for the same year. She was also named to the Time 100 in 2012, and was included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine in September 2012.

After graduation in 1979, Rometty went to work for General Motors Institute; in 1981, she joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1991. October 25, 2011, IBM announced that she was to be the company's next president and CEO, with Sam Palmisano stepping down but retaining his position as chairman. Rometty's appointment marks the first time a woman has been CEO of IBM. On September 26, 2012, IBM announced that Rometty is taking on the added role of chairwoman of IBM, as Samuel Palmisano retired last year.

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