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#50 Mindy Grossman
ErnstandYoungGlobal via YouTube
Company: Home Shopping Network (HSN)
Age: 55
Grossman has been leading the multi-billion dollar company since 2006, and made the company public in 2008. During her tenure as CEO, she's also added an online video game channel, HSN Arcade, to "tap in" to the growing community of female gamers, according to Forbes.
#49 Gregg Steinhafel
Target
Company: Target Corp.
Age: 56
Steinhafel has been with the company for 33 years, though he has been the CEO for four. He has worked in retail since he was in grade school. His grandfather was an Austrian immigrant who opened Steinhafel's Furniture in Milwaukee in 1934. Steinhafel helped his grandfather in the store as a young child mopping floors and doing other chores. The Milwaukee native is a graduate of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
#48 Karl-Johan Persson
noamp22 via YouTube
Company: H&M
Age: 37
Swedish-born Karl-Johan Persson was named one of CNN Money's 40 under 40 in 2010. Persson became the CEO of H&M in 2009, but he had been with the family business, which was started by his grandfather, since 2005.
#47 Victoria Ransom
Flickr / leweb3
Company: Wildfire
Age: Unavailable
The native New Zealander is a long-time entrepreneur, having founded a travel company in her 20s with Wildfire co-founder Alain Chuard before getting her MBA from Harvard. A passionate traveler and adventurer, Ransom once spent six weeks with an Amazonian tribe, and five months living in a Brazilian favela village, according to her company bio.
#46 Chanda Kochhar
Wikimedia Commons
Company: ICICI Bank
Age: 50
Kochhar is the first female boss of ICICI Bank, India's second-largest bank; she took charge in May 2009. She started with the bank as a management trainee more than 25 years ago. Kochhar also has a flair for fashion; she wears the traditional sari to work, even designing some of them herself.
#45 Richard Branson
Wildaid
Company: Virgin
Age: 62
The 62-year-old is adventurous, thrill-seeking, and groundbreakingly fresh. He is the first person to ever build eight separate billion-dollar companies in eight different industries. Virgin, which began as a mail-order record retailer in 1970, opened a recording studio in 1972 and signed on classic rock-and-roll artists like the Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones.
#44 Bob Iger
Josh Hallet via Flickr
Company: Disney
Age: 61
Iger was appointed CEO of Disney in 2005, but has been with the Disney senior management team since 1996. Outside of Disney, Iger serves on the boards of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He was also appointed by President Barack Obama to the President's Export Council in June 2010.
#43 Bill McDermott
TheCDSatTuck via YouTube
Company: SAP
Age: 51
McDermott is a leader at work as well as in the community; in 2008, he was named "Idealist of the Year" by City Year Greater Philadelphia for his civic leadership and his "commitment to improving the community and the lives of those who live in Philadelphia." He received the Yitzhak Rabin Public Services Award in 2006 in recognition of his contributions as a civic leader who has shown a commitment to Israel's technological innovation.
#42 Vera Wang
Wikimedia Commons
Company: Vera Wang
Age: 63
Vera Wang is renowned for her elegant designs and great fashion sense. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Wang designed the Winter Olympics costumes for figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan in 1992 and Evan Lysacek in 2010. She also designs wedding and formal dresses for celebrities and public figures around the world, including Ivanka Trump, Chelsea Clinton and Khloe Kardashian.
#41 Arianna Huffington
Company: Huffington Post Media Group
Age: 62
Huffington, originally from Greece, started the Huffington Post in 2005 as a news and blog site, which quickly gained momentum. Today, the company reports out of the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Huffington has won a Pulitzer prize and has published 13 books.
#40 Ryan Seacrest
Company: Ryan Seacrest Productions
Age: 37
A great TV personality, Seacrest is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, where he also attended college, majoring in journalism at the University of Georgia. He is well-known for hosting the show "American Idol," and is the CEO of Ryan Seacrest Productions, a company whose credits include “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami," according to his bio on americanidol.com.
#39 Katrina Markoff
VosgesHautChocolat via YouTube
Company: Vosges Haut-Chocolat
Age: 39
Markoff trained at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in France, mixing strange ingredients with chocolate (curry, chili, wasabi). Her unique brand of chocolate is sold at Neiman Marcus and various wine shops as well as Walmart and Target since 2011. Markoff aims to encourage others "to explore the diversity of cultures, artists, traditions and movements" through her chocolate and baking mixes.
#38 Kevin Plank
Wikipedia
Company: Under Armour
Age: 40
An athlete himself, Plank founded Under Armour in order to provide other athletes with more form-fitting gear that is less uncomfortable when damp with sweat.
The former University of Maryland football player demonstrated his commitment to his company when he cut his salary from $500,000 to $26,000 after the company missed its sales goals in 2008.
#37 David Karp
Company: Tumblr
Age: 26
David Karp dropped out of high school at age 15 and one year later he was the CTO of a company called UrbanBaby. He considers himself "antischedule," except for board meetings, and rides to Tumblr's Manhattan office on his Vespa.
The young CEO also has great style; he modeled for a J.Crew suit ad this fall season.
#36 Lisa Gersh Hall
Company: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Age: 53
Before Martha, Lisa Gersh Hall co-founded Oxygen Media in 1988. Her professional experience covers a wide range of companies, including Hasbro, The Weather Channel, and NBC Universal. Gersh Hall began her role as the CEO of Martha Stewart Living in July of 2012. Gersh Hall received a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from the State University of New York Binghamton, and a law degree from Rutgers.
#35 Andrew Robertson
BBDO
Company: BBDO Worldwide
Age: 49
The advertising agency BBDO began as George Batten’s Batten Company in 1891, and merged with BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) in 1928 to become BBDO. Robertson joined BBDO in 1995, became President and CEO of BBDO North America in 2001, President of BBDO Worldwide in 2002, and CEO in May of 2004. The company has produced ads and commercials for many big name brands, including the M&Ms ad that aired during the 2012 Superbowl.
#34 Matthew Flannery
Christopher Marks via YouTube
Company: Kiva.org
Age: 35
Flannery is determined to change the world, one micro-loan at a time. The do-gooder began work on Kiva.org in 2004, and left his full-time job at TiVo for Kiva in 2005. Flannery graduated with a bachelor's degree in symbolic systems and a masters degree in philosophy, both from from Stanford University.
#33 Jason Kilar
Company: Hulu
Age: 40
Kilar has worked in the past with Amazon in some prominent leadership positions, working closely with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Kilar began his career at Disney in design and development. The Harvard Business School graduate says Hulu's mission is to "help people find and enjoy the world's premium content when, where and how they want it."
#32 Lori Senecal
Lori Senecal / Twitter
Company: Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners
Age: Unavailable
Senecal became CEO of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Parners (kbs+) in September 2009. kbs+ serves many notable clients, including BMW, Vanguard, PUMA, Victoria’s Secret, Rolls-Royce, and John Frieda, among others. Her company was involved in launching Justin Bieber's fragrance, "Someday."
#31 Daymond John
Wikimedia Commons
Company: For Us By US (FUBU)
Age: 43
John started out working for Run DMC and LL Cool J as a roadie. He said he "couldn't rap or sing" but he's always loved fashion. When starting FUBU, John had a lot of trouble getting investors at first. But he took out an ad in the New York Times seeking investors, and this was how he made a connection with the president of Samsung’s textile division. FUBU took in more than $350 million in revenue in 1998 alone, and since FUBU was launched John has totaled more than $4 billion in sales.
#30 Kazuo Hirai
Getty Images / Kevork Djansezian
Company: Sony
Age: 51
Hirai became CEO of Sony in April of 2012, inheriting the post from Sir Howard Stringer after four years of losses. But Hirai has the goal of making Sony strong again by "invest[ing] more in our core businesses, which we’ve identified as being the digital imaging space, games, and the mobile space." Hirai says he tries to get out in the field as much as possible, instead of limiting himself to the office. Hirai admits to being a video game nerd, especially for the game "Ridge Racer."
#29 Natalie Massenet
Company: Net-a-porter
Age: 46
Massenet's luxury fashion company is estimated to be worth 350 million pounds. As the CEO, she's also very fashionable. Massenet is "the daughter of an American journalist and English Chanel model," and former fashion writer for Tatler.Vogue has named her as one of the world's most glamorous women.
#28 Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter
Company: Rocawear
Age: 42
Jay-Z had a rough start in life, but he's made a name for himself as a rapper and musical artist, and now as a fashion mogul, with the success fo his clothing brand Rocawear. Jay-Z is married to Beyonce, who recently turned 31; the couple have an infant daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.
#27 Ben Lerer
Company: Thrillist Media Group
Age: 30
Lerer is the CEO of men's lifestyle brand Thrillist Media Group, which includes Thrillist.com and JackThreads.com. The growing company has been included in Inc Magazine's list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for three years running.
#26 Yash Birla
Mail Today via Getty Images
Company: Yash Birla Group
Age: 45
Yash Birla oversees 18 companies as the CEO of the Yash Birla Group, an Indian global industry commerce group with interests in various industries, such as electricity, textiles, steel pipes, and furnishings, to name a few.
The youthful-looking CEO makes regular appearances in the Bollywood tabloids and is a health-nut. Birla, who is a vegetarian, doesn't drink and works out daily. He told the Times of India that he likes larger muscles: "I like anything that stands out. I prefer a bigger look. It makes you look different."
