11 of the Most Powerful Women in Tech Inline

  • Megan Smith
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    Megan Smith, CTO of the United States

    Smith is only the third person—and first woman—to hold the job of United States Chief Technology Officer. As CTO of the entire country, she’s tasked with expanding broadband access to the public and several other tech-related federal initiatives, such as improving healthcare.gov and cybersecurity. She also advises President Obama on all tech matters, such as when she recently pushed him to support net neutrality.

  • Sheryl Sandberg
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    Sheryl Sandberg, COO of facdbook

    Not only is she a top executive at one of the biggest companies in the world, Lean In, her 2013 best-seller, secured her a spot at the forefront of today’s feminist movement.

  • Susan Wojcicki
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    Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube

    We can thank Wojcicki for helping Sergey Brin and Larry Page launch Google, as their first office was actually out of Wojcicki’s garage. She was also the mastermind behind Google’s purchase of YouTube and now serves as the head of the video company. Wojcicki is also a staunch supporter of paid maternity leave and perhaps had a hand in Google now offering one of the most generous paid-leave policies in the country.

  • Marissa Mayer
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    Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo

    Before becoming the current president and CEO of Yahoo in 2012, Mayer helped develop several of Google’s most important products, including Google Maps and Gmail. Now the 39-year-old whiz is working hard on revitalizing Yahoo back to its former search-giant glory.

  • Angela Ahrendts
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    Angela Ahrendts, Senior Vice President, Apple

    As CEO of Burberry, Ahrendts helped transform the British fashion brand into a global empire. Apple was clearly impressed, and she joined the company as senior vice president of retail and online stores in 2014—just in time for the launch of the Apple Watch. She’s currently the only female senior executive at Apple.

  • Martine Rothblatt
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    Martine Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics

    It’s widely known that Rothblatt went by Martin before transitioning from male to female in the early nineties. Now as CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation, Rothblatt holds the distinction of being the highest-paid female CEO in the United States. The self-proclaimed futurist is also one of the leading minds in robotics and is famous for building a robot version of her wife, Bina.

  • Ursula Burns
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    Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox

    Before becoming Xerox’s CEO in 2009, Burns’s first job at the company was as a summer intern in 1980. Twenty-nine years later, she made history when she became the first African-American woman to serve as CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

  • Safra A. Catz
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    Safra A. Catz, CEO of Oracle

    Catz is often credited as being one of the highest-paid women in business—in 2011, it was estimated that she made well over $50 million as CFO and president. She’s poised to become even more successful as Oracle’s new co-CEO, after cofounder Larry Ellison stepped down from that position last September.

  • Amy Hood
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    Amy Hood, CFO Microsofts

    Another former Wall Street staple turned Silicon Valley convert, Hood worked at Goldman Sachs for many years before jumping ship to Microsofts in 2002. In 2013, she became Microsofts’s first female CFO.

  • Virginia M. Rometty
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    Virginia M. Rometty, CEO of IBM

    As chairman, president, and CEO of IBM, Rometty, who goes by “Ginni,” became the first woman to ever hold the top position at IBM. Her rise wasn’t meteoric, however; Rometty has been an employee at the tech company since 1981.