(FORTUNE Magazine) – The wire-service photo from the World Economic Forum's recent Global Reconciliation Summit beside the Dead Sea in Jordan was a tutorial in power: Carly Fiorina leaning in close behind Colin Powell, whispering in the Secretary of State's ear. It's a scene she repeats over and over: Carly schmoozing with President Bush on economic issues; Carly giving Tom Ridge an earful on how to integrate large organizations; Carly making playful small talk with Nelson Mandela. This is a global stateswoman masquerading as a FORTUNE 500 business executive, so well known that just her first name suffices. (She was born, by the way, as Carleton, a male name passed down through generations of her father's family.)

Fiorina, 48, does much more than globetrot. This former English teacher, the first nonengineer to run Hewlett-Packard, arguably started the consolidation of the computer industry with the 2002 acquisition of Compaq for $19 billion. Critics ridiculed her for the move--one bad PC business merged with another bad PC business does not a good PC company make, they said--but she persevered in the face of a grueling shareholder battle. And whaddya know, with HP's profitability improving and its stock price finally inching over its pre-deal level, Fiorina is beginning to taste vindication. With tech-industry consolidation all the rage (think Oracle/PeopleSoft, Yahoo/Overture), she's even become something of a visionary. Says John Chambers (No. 21), CEO of Cisco Systems, where Fiorina has a board seat: "She's potentially one of the top CEOs of all America." --A.L.