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Fortune‘s Global 500, a ranking of the world’s largest companies, was published earlier this week. And it broke a record — women are running more Global 500 companies than ever before.
Of the 500 companies on the list, 33 have female CEOs this year. That’s up from 28 last year — but 33 is still only 6.6%. It’s far behind the Fortune 500, the ranking of America’s largest businesses, where women this year ran 55 businesses, or 11% of the companies on the list.
The companies on the Global 500 total $41.7 trillion in revenue, more than one-third of the world’s GDP. It’s a higher revenue bar for a company to make the list than on the Fortune 500 — the smallest company on the Global 500 brings in $32.2 billion annually. On the Fortune 500, that cutoff was $7.4 billion this year. Women-led Fortune 500 companies are often smaller than the world’s giants — one reason the Global 500 lags behind the Fortune 500 in female leadership.
The highest-ranking woman-led Global 500 company this year is General Motors, led by CEO Mary Barra. (One reason she was No. 1 on our Most Powerful Women list earlier this year). GM is followed by Elevance Health, led by Gail Boudreaux; Jane Fraser’s Citigroup; and Sarah London’s Centene.
A handful of companies became women-led Global 500 businesses for the first time this year. Ding Xiangqun now runs the People’s Insurance Co. of China, the $86 billion-in-revenue state-owned insurer. Amanda Bardwell took over the $44 billion-in-revenue Australian supermarket chain Woolworths Group in September 2024. Emilia Esther Calleja Alor took over the Mexican utility CFE in October. Karin Rådström now leads Germany’s Daimler Truck Holding and Susan D. Morris is two months into running Albertsons.
Other notable female CEOs of non-U.S. Global 500 businesses include Sandy Ran Xu of JD.com; Magda Chambriad of Brazil’s Petrobras; and Catherine MacGregor of France’s Engie. And of course Accenture chief Julie Sweet (the company is incorporated in Ireland, and appears on the Global 500 rather than the Fortune 500). Fortune has a new story about the Accenture CEO out now alongside this list.
Written by Emma Hinchliffe for Fortune as “The share of female CEOs running Global 500 companies hits a record high of 6.6%” and republished with permission.
