FORTUNE's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen
Fumiko Hayashi Rank: 10 (2004 rank: New to the list)
Company: Daiei Based in: Japan Title: Chairman and CEO
"I love people, I love flowers, and I love my work," says Hayashi, who was given the job of rescuing Japan's third-largest supermarket chain in May. Hayashi, 59, has spent most of her career selling cars—first as a saleswoman at Honda and eventually as president of BMW Tokyo. But she seems well suited for the job at Daiei, where 80% of the employees and a majority of the customers are women. Her best talent: listening to customers and making them want to buy from her. She'll need to sell a lot of vegetables to turn around a company that lost $4.5 billion last year on sales of $17 billion.
From the November 14, 2005 issue
Highest pay
These women are among the highest paid in corporate America. All of them are employed by companies with over $1 billion in sales that filed proxies by September 1, 2005.
Newcomer Charlene Begley heads up GE's plastics division and is the youngest of this group at age 39. She bumped last year's youngest gun, Citigroup CFO Sallie Krawcheck, now 40. But, on average, the Power 50 are in their late 40s.
