FORTUNE's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen
Kate Swann Rank: 20 (2004 rank: 10)
Company: W.H. Smith Based in: Britain Title: CEO
The $4.6 billion book, CD, and magazine retailer is reeling from stiff competition with Amazon.com, supermarkets, and low-cost bookshops. But Swann managed to turn a 2004 loss into a pretax profit of $118 million for the year ended Aug. 31, mainly by cutting costs. Still, same-store sales continue to decline. That may explain why Swann, 40, butted heads recently with Random House, demanding $4 million in penalties for late book deliveries.
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.
