FORTUNE's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen
Tomoyo Nonaka Rank: 5 (2004 rank: New to the list)
Company: Sanyo Electric Based in: Japan Title: Chairman and CEO
A former TV anchor, the 51-year-old Nonaka is one of two women appointed to head a FORTUNE Global 500 company in Japan this year—the first time a woman has been given such a lofty corporate position in that country. But the company Nonaka inherited is a struggling $23 billion electronics giant that lost $1.6 billion last year. She quickly introduced a restructuring plan, calling for the elimination of 10,000 jobs by January—the first layoffs in the company's history. And she said Sanyo will exit the DVD player and videocassette-recorder businesses.
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.
