Who are the world’s most powerful women this year? They are the smartest and toughest female business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, philanthropists and CEOs making their mark in the world today. They’re women who are building billion-dollar brands, calling the shots in the financial markets, and crisscrossing the globe to broker international agreements and provide aid.
While has retained her number one ranking for topping this year’s list for the sixth consecutive year and eleven times in total, this year’s "Power Women" control nearly $1 trillion in annual revenues.
Merkel is followed by US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates, and General Motors CEO Mary Barra.
US First Lady Michelle Obama falls to #13, as her husband Barack serves his final year in office.
Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader and the first female to hold the role of First Minister, has been named among the world's most powerful women too“ becoming the second-highest ranked female in the UK only behind the Queen. She enters at number 50 on the global chart, which includes 51 women from the United States but just six from the UK.
There are 20 new names on this year's list, including world leaders, philanthropists, CEOs, billionaires, an editor-in-chief, company chairpersons, and three US Supreme Court justices.
Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres and Angelina Jolie all dropped out of the top 100, making way for women wielding political power, such as Myanmar's Aung Sun Suu Kyi and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
There is no mention of Samantha Cameron, wife of Prime Minister David Cameron, who is also an ambassador for the charity Save the Children. The Queen is the highest-placed British woman on the list, with her ranking rising from 41 last year to 29 in 2016.
Other notable entries on the list include Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, at number six, one place ahead of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey is 21st on the list, compared to 12 in 2015, while Anna Wintour, well-known for her role as editor in chief for Vogue magazine, is 28th.
The only Indians on the list include founder of Bio-con Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (#77), Chair-Managing director, State Bank of India, Arundhati Bhattacharya (#25), CEO-Managing director of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar (#40) and the chair of HT Media Shobhana Bhartia at #93.
