Internet women feature in Forbes’ most powerful list

forbes logo Three internet women feature in Forbes.com’s list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, published this week.

Forbes’ annual list is composed by measuring ‘power’ as the combination of a woman’s public profile, calculated using press mentions, and financial ‘weight’. The financial component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money the woman controls. ‘Forbes considers that a chief executive controls the revenue of her business, while a head of state controls the country’s gross domestic product. The list is therefore a mix of politicians and businesswomen.

The internet women the list includes are:

# 20 Marjorie Scardino, Chief Executive, Pearson PLC

Marjorie Scardino is the only female chief executive in the FTSE 100 and Forbes 31st most influential woman in the magazine’s league table. She is owner of the financial Times and CEO of its parent company Pearson, overseeing a business that includes Penguin books and a US educational publisher.

US-born Scardino’s strategy with Pearson has been to diversify the business, expanding its digital operations and developing the FT as a global brand, and that is what previously got her on our database of female internet heroes.

# 50 Susan Decker, President of Yahoo

Susan Decker joined Yahoo in 2000 as its executive vice-president and CFO, a few months after the dot-com bubble was at its peak. She left a career as Director of Global Research and analyst behind.

Now as Yahoo’s President, she is responsible for its global business operations. She has also been credited with transforming the way advertisers on yahoo connect with their customers.

In 2005 she was the second-highest paid female executive in the United States, with a total compensation of US $24.3 million.

# 97 Virginia Rometty, Senior Vice-President IBM Global Business Services U.S.

Virginia Rometty Rometty has been part of IBM for 24 years. She became IBM’s VP in 2006. Prior to this, she was general manager of IBM Global Services.

She is a leader in IBM’s diversity initiatives, including the Women in Technology Council and the Women’s Leadership Council and is one of the senior vice president sponsors of the Women’s Executive Council at IBM.

The list is topped by Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Sheila Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and Indra K. Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo.