According to Lynn Elsenhans' alma mater, Rice University, she did it all as a student: she was on the school's first women's intercollegiate basketball team, in the marching band, served on student government, and was the sports editor for the student newspaper. A case of foreshadowing, perhaps.
After graduating from Rice in 1978, Elsenhans headed to Harvard Business School, earned her MBA, and ended up at energy giant Shell. As the keys to the corporate kingdom came within her reach, Elsenhans realized that she and her husband would have to move to Europe if she wanted to stay at the company.
Around that time, Philadelphia-based Sunoco offered Elsenhans the CEO spot, making her the first female to run the oil giant. "It's a really good fit for me," she told Rice Magazine in 2008. "I worked for 28 years in the downstream part of the oil business -- oil and chemical products -- and that's what Sunoco does."
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