Top 15 Women in Business 2008 –
"The Innovators"
By Joanne Cleaver

The March.April issue of PINK features the Top 15 Women in Business – "The Innovators" – PINK's exclusive list (sponsored by Ernst & Young) of the most influential women driving innovation (and revenue) in corporate America. Each day, these remarkable leaders use ideas to transform companies.

From Michelle Gass, just promoted to senior vice president of global strategy at Starbucks, to Union Pacific Railroad's Diane Duren, who developed a new train route that delivers millions in revnue annually, these women create meaningful change in their organizations – the kind that births new generations of products and has an immediate impact on the bottom line.

"The Innovators" are:
• Cathy Avgiris, Comcast
• Barbara Beck, Manpower
• Irene Chang Britt, Campbell Soup
• Laurie Brubaker, Aetna
• Diane Duren, Union Pacific Railroad
• Julie England, Texas Instruments
• Michelle Gass, Starbucks
• Mona Siu-Kan Lau, Ph.D., UBS
• Dijuana Lewis, Wellpoint
• Margery Mayer, Scholastic
• Seong Ohm, Wal-Mart
• Linda Sanford, IBM
• Nor Rae Spohn, Hewlett-Packard
• Donna Sturgess, Glaxosmithkline
• Padmasree Warrior, Cisco Systems

Methodology:
We asked for nominations from the Top 250 public companies and scoured membership lists of industry organizations and regional women's groups to find those who are known by those in the know. Then, we narrowed our list of candidates to those who we believe will soon be showing up in their companies' C-levels - women whose innovations and out-of-the-box thinking made a documented difference to their companies' profits, growth and customers.

Read this Ernst & Young-sponsored article in the March.April issue of PINK, on newsstands now.