FORTUNE's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen
Ofra Strauss-Lahat Rank: 42 (2004 rank: 45)
Company: Strauss-Elite Group Based in: Israel Title: Chairman
Last year Strauss-Lahat, 45, completed the biggest merger in Israeli history by adding Elite, a coffee-and-chocolate maker, to her third-generation family dairy business. Strauss-Elite became the second-largest food company in Israel, with 6,500 employees and $856 million in revenue. These days her acquisition ambitions are global. She recently snagged a Polish coffee brand that made Elite the world's eighth-largest coffee seller.
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.
