According to American Express’ report, as of 2019, the number of women-owned businesses is a total of nearly 13 million. Its share in all US businesses increased from 37% in 2014 to 42% in 2019. These firms generate $3.2 trillion of revenue.
But only 20% of all jobs in technology are held by women. One of the main reasons for holding women back in pursuing STEM career is the lack of female mentors.
Here is the list of TOP 10 the most powerful and inspirational women in tech industry in USA (based on Forbes’ List America’s Richest Self-Made Women):
1. Meg Whitman
- Currently is the CEO of Quibi (the short-form mobile video platform). She also is a member of Board of Procter & Gamble and Dropbox.
- Previously served as President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Best known as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay. During Whitman’s 10 years (from 1998 to 2008) with the company, she took it from 30 employees and 8 billion in annual revenue.
- In 2010 ran for governor of California as a Republican
- Age – 63
- Education – B.A. at Princeton University, M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.
- Net Worth – $3.8 billion
2. Judy Faulkner
- CEO and founder of Epic Systems, a healthcare software company, which she founded in 1979 Faulkner is a computer programmer
- Epic has never taken investment from venture capital or private equity, remains a privately held company and develops all its software in-house.
- The company supports the medical records of over 250 million patients
- Age – 76
- Education – bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Dickinson College, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Net Worth – $3.6 billion
3. Thai Lee
- Co-owner, CEO and president of SHI International, provider of technology products and services.
- The company reported by Forbes to be the largest woman-owned business in the US with $6 billion in sales and 3,000 employees worldwide.
- Lee and her now ex-husband paid less than $1 million for a software reseller with five employees and about as many customers in 1989, the predecessor to SHI
- Age – 60
- Education – Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College; Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
- Net Worth – $3 billion
4. Sheryl Sandberg
- Chief Operating Officer at Facebook since 2008
- Led the social media company from a 22.1 billion in profits in 2018
- Also founder of LeanIn.org, a nonprofit organization whose main mission is to help women achieve their ambitions and to create an equal world
- Was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google
- Age – 50
- Education – Harvard University (BA, MBA)
- Net Worth – $1.7 billion
5. Jayshree Ullal
- President and CEO of Arista Networks, a cloud networking company responsible for the deployment of Ethernet networking in the data center
- The company’s revenue in 2018 was $2.2 billion
- In June 2014, Ullal led Arista Networks to an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange
- Began her career with engineering and strategy positions at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Fairchild Semiconductor
- Born in London and raised in India
- Age – 58
- Education – Bachelor’s degree, San Francisco State University; Master of Science, Santa Clara University
- Net Worth – $1.4 billion
6. Safra Catz
- Co-CEO of Oracle Corporation since September 2014, a software firm.
- She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001.
- In April 2011, she was named co-President and Chief Financial Officer
- In 2018, Catz made $108.3 million in salary, making her one of the world’s highest-paid female executives
- Started her career as a banker
- Age – 57
- Education – Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School; Doctor of Jurisprudence, University of Pennsylvania
- Net Worth – $1.1 billion
7. Neerja Sethi
- Cofounded IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel with her husband Bharat Desai in 1980 with an initial investment of just $2,000
- IT firm Atos SE (France) bought Syntel for $3.4 billion in October 2018.
- Sethi did not join Atos after the acquisition
- Age – 64
- Education – Bachelor of Arts/Science, Delhi University; Master of Science, Oakland University; Master of Business Administration, Delhi University
- Net Worth – $1 billion
8. Marissa Mayer
- Google’s first female engineer and 20th employee
- During her 13 years at Google (1999-2012) she worked on different positions, including programmer, product manager, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, Head of the Local, Maps, and Location Services
- She was President and CEO of Yahoo in 2012-2017. In March 2017 Yahoo was sold to Verizon for $4.48 billion.
- In 2018 cofounded Lumi Labs, a technology studio that is focused on building consumer applications enabled by artificial intelligence.
- Age – 44
- Education – Bachelor’s degree and Master of Science, Stanford University
- Net Worth – $620M
9. Susan Wojcicki
- CEO of Youtube since 2014
- In September 1998, Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up office in Wojcicki’s garage.
- In 1999, became Google’s 16th employee as a first marketing manager
- Grew within Google to become senior vice president of Advertising & Commerce and led the advertising and analytic products
- Handled Google’s acquisition of Youtube in 2006 for $1.65 billion
- Age – 51
- Education – Bachelor’s degree, Harvard University; Master of Science, University of California, Santa Cruz; MBA, Anderson School of Management
- Net Worth – $490M
10. Therese Tucker
- The chairman, CEO and founder of BlackLine, an enterprise software company, which sells accounting-automation software.
- She founded the company in 2001
- In 2013 she sold a majority stake to private equity firms Silver Lake and Iconiq Capital at a $220 million valuation
- Speaker at different events on how young women can advance and navigate careers in enterprise tech.
- Age – 58
- Education – bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Illinois.
- Net Worth – $370M