--- description: There are 22 female CEOs — down from 27 last year — on the 19th Most Powerful Women list that Time, Inc. publication Fortune released Thursday morning. title: Here are the Ten Most Powerful Women in Business This Year image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f2de1ef5f2d6c17/6988a545524fc011c9df96b8/fortune-most-powerful-women-list-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here are the Ten Most Powerful Women in Business This Year  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 8, 2016 3:35 PM CUT  CEO of General Motors Mary Barra speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, DC, last October. CEO of General Motors Mary Barra speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, DC, last October.Paul Morigi—Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 8, 2016 3:35 PM CUT There are 22 female CEOs — [down from 27](http://fortune.com/video/2016/09/08/mpw-list-2016/ "undefined") last year — on the 19th [Most Powerful Women](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/ "undefined") list that Time, Inc. publication _Fortune_ released Thursday morning. Mary Barra, the CEO and Chairman of GM, topped the ranking, with Pepsi Co. CEO and Chairman Indra Nooyi following in second place. _Fortune_ releases the list of the most powerful business women every year. There are nine newcomers to the list in total (read about them [here](http://fortune.com/2016/09/08/fortune-most-powerful-women-newcomers-2016/ "undefined")). Ten women, including seven CEOs (such as Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer), [dropped off the 2016 list](http://fortune.com/2016/09/08/most-powerful-women-2016-dropoffs/ "undefined") for either stepping down from their posts or losing relative prominence. The list of 51 women also includes Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, and “bonus pick” Beyoncé. Check out the top ten below: 1. [Mary Barra](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/mary-barra-1/ "undefined"), CEO and Chairman of GM 2. [Indra Nooyi](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/indra-nooyi-2/ "undefined"), CEO and Chairman of PepsiCo 3. [Marillyn Hewson](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/marillyn-hewson-3/ "undefined"), CEO, Chairman and President of Lockheed Martin 4. [Ginni Rometty](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/ginni-rometty-4/ "undefined"), CEO, Chairman, and President of IBM 5. [Abigail Johnson](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/abigail-johnson-5/ "undefined"), CEO and President of Fidelity Investments 6. [Sheryl Sandberg](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/sheryl-sandberg-6/ "undefined"), COO of Facebook 7. [Meg Whitman](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/meg-whitman-7/ "undefined"), CEO and President of Hewlett Packard Enterprise 8. [Phebe Novakovic](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/phebe-novakovic-8/ "undefined"), CEO and Chairman of General Dynamics 9. [Irene Rosenfeld](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/irene-rosenfeld-9/ "undefined"), CEO and Chairman of Mondelez International 10. [Safra Catz](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/safra-catz-10/ "undefined"), Co-CEO of Oracle \[[_Fortune_](http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4483896/fortune-most-powerful-women-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4483896/fortune-most-powerful-women-2016/"},"headline":"Here are the Ten Most Powerful Women in Business This Year","datePublished":"2016-09-08T15:35:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:28:23.346Z","description":"Fortune just released its 2016 ranking of the 51 most powerful women","url":"https://time.com/4483896/fortune-most-powerful-women-2016/","keywords":["Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f2de1ef5f2d6c17/6988a545524fc011c9df96b8/fortune-most-powerful-women-list-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f2de1ef5f2d6c17/6988a545524fc011c9df96b8/fortune-most-powerful-women-list-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"fortune most powerful women list 2016","caption":"fortune most powerful women list 2016","creditText":"Paul Morigi—Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4483896/fortune-most-powerful-women-2016/","name":"Here are the Ten Most Powerful Women in Business This Year"}}]}] ```