Carol Bartz

CEO of Yahoo!, received her B.S. in computer science at the University of Wisconsin. In her first year at Yahoo!, she's raised eyebrows. She pulled the plug on its search business for a 10-year deal with Microsoft, and, more recently, was under fire from investors after selling almost $2 million of her personal stock in the company.

Shona Brown

SVP of business operations at Google, got her B.S. in computer systems engineering from Carleton University and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Stanford. Brown came to Google in 2003 after 10 years at McKinsey & Co., where she was a partner and leader of global strategy. She remains an engineering academic, having taught in the industrial engineering department at Stanford and publishing in academic journals.

Ursula Burns

CEO of Xerox, received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and an M.S. in engineering from Columbia. It's a big year for Burns, who became the first African-American woman to run a big public company. But falling profits due to less black-and-white printing has reduced third-quarter expectations.

Lynn Laverty Elsenhans

CEO of Sunoco, received a B.A. in mathematical science from Rice University and an M.B.A. from Harvard. She expects to close a sale this month of Sunoco's retail heating oil and propane distribution business to Superior Plus Corp. for $82.5 million in cash.

Cynthia Carroll

CEO of Anglo American, received her B.S. in geology from Skidmore College and her M.B.A. from Harvard. Three years ago, her appointment shook up the male-dominated mining industry, and now she's trying to ramp up the number of women employed by the company.

Carrie Cox

EVP and president of global pharmaceuticals at Schering-Plough, received her B.S. in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. With a 20-year long career in the pharmaceutical industry, Cox is responsible for transforming her unit into a high-performing, profitable business.

Kathy Hill

SVP of development strategy & operations services group at Cisco, has a B.S. in mathematics from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She co-leads Cisco's Commercial Business Council, is responsible for mid-market strategy and oversees software and product development.

Ellen Kullman

CEO of DuPont, got her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from Northwestern. In an effort to streamline the business after the economic meltdown, Kullman announced last month that the five group vice president positions would be eliminated, and the company's 23 businesses would be pared down to 14. A new management structure will go into effect on Oct. 1.

Joanne Maguire

EVP of space systems at Lockheed Martin, got a B.S. in electrical engineering from Michigan State University and an M.S. in engineering from UCLA. Maguire leads a department of 18,000 employees that generated over $8 billion in sales last year from advanced technology like satellites, space flight systems and spacecraft. She worries, though, that the average citizen takes space for granted.

Linda Sanford

SVP of enterprise transformation at IBM, got her B.S. in mathematics from St. John's University and her M.S. in operations research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Sanford is a member of the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Engineering. At IBM, she's strategizing core business practices and revamping the IT infrastructure.

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Sherri Stuewer

VP of environmental policy & planning at ExxonMobil, has a B.S. and M.S. in engineering from Cornell University. Despite volatility in the world's energy markets and uncertainty in the current financial markets, Stuewer holds true to her core belief that "sustainability is an enduring issue that deserves our focus." She believes her "enormous" challenge at Exxon is to provide energy that will aid economic growth and reduce its environmental footprint by engaging businesses, citizens and government.

Ginni Rometty

SVP of global sales & distribution at IBM, has a B.S. in computer science and electrical engineering from Northwestern. Rometty is responsible for worldwide profits in 170 markets and the online sales force, which handles sales of all products and services.

Sherilyn McCoy

Worldwide chairman of the pharmaceuticals group at Johnson & Johnson, got a B.S. in textile chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. in chemical engineering from Princeton, and an M.B.A. from Rutgers. McCoy began at the company 27 years ago as scientist in R&D and advanced up the ranks. She currently holds four U.S. patents.