FORTUNE's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen
Chanda Kochhar Rank: 47 (2004 rank: New to the list)
Company: ICICI Bank Based in: India Title: Executive Director
Women seem to thrive at ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank. Three out of five executive board members are women, and 11 more head businesses. Kochhar, 43, who runs the $1.3 billion retail banking business, is the brightest star among them, having increased ICICI's customer base from two million to 14 million in four years, replacing Citibank as the market leader in credit cards. "We thought big from the beginning," she says.
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.
