Anne Lauvergeon is a French businesswoman and president of Areva. In 2008, she was ranked by the magazine Forbes as the ninth-most powerful woman in the world, third-most in Europe and most powerful in France.

Anne Lauvergeon is also President of the board of directors of École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy and is a director or board member of Suez, Total S.A., Safran S.A. and Vodafone

Irene Rosenfeld is the Chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods Inc..

Irene Rosenfeld was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods in June 2006. She assumed the additional post of Chairman in March 2007, following Altria Group’s spin-off of Kraft. Irene is a 25-year veteran of the food and beverage industry and has a long history of bringing a consumer focus and innovation to building businesses. She began her career at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in New York and later joined General Foods in consumer research.

Over the years, she advanced in a variety of leadership roles at Kraft. Among her many accomplishments, she led the restructuring and turnaround of key businesses in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the highly successful integration of the Nabisco acquisition. Irene also served on the senior team that led Kraft’s Initial Public Offering in 2001.

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Angela F. Braly is president and chief executive officer for WellPoint, Inc., a large US-based health care company, and is a member of the company's board of directors. She assumed those responsibilities on June 1, 2007, following several high-profile roles for the company.

Prior to her current position, Braly served as executive vice president, general counsel and chief public affairs officer for WellPoint. In that role, she was responsible for public policy development, government relations, legal affairs, corporate communications, marketing, and social responsibility initiatives.

She also had operational responsibility for the nation's largest Medicare claims processing business and the federal employee health benefits business. Ms. Braly was also a key strategist during WellPoint's acquisition of New-York based WellChoice in 2005.

As of April 2009, Braly had the 306th highest compensation for a US CEO, having earned $4.07 million, which is 74th among females. She owns $4.6 million worth of WellPoint stock, or .02% of the company. In 2007, Braly earned $14.86 million, mostly in stock options.

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Ho Ching is the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings (over US$100 billion in assets and owned by Singapore's Ministry of Finance) and the wife of the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong (son of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew). Ms Ho is also a Cantonese Singaporean.

She is the eldest child of four children of retired businessman Ho Eng Hong and Chan Chiew Ping. In 17 December 1985, she married Lee Hsien Loong, who later became Singapore's third Prime Minister in August 2004.

Ms Ho is Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings.

Cynthia Carroll is an American businesswoman. She is the chief executive officer of Anglo American PLC, a London, UK mining company, which, among other things, is the world's largest platinum producer.

On October 24, 2006, Carroll was hired by Anglo American, and joined the board in January 2007, becoming chief executive at the beginning of March 2007. She chairs Anglo American’s Executive Committee and sits on the Safety and Sustainable Development Committee. She is one of only three female Chief Executives of FTSE 100 companies and the first non-South African to hold the post with Anglo American.

In 2008, she was ranked by the magazine Forbes as the fifth most powerful woman in the world. She was ranked fourth by the same list in 2009.

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PepsiCo, one of the world's leading food and beverage companies. On August 14, 2006, Nooyi was named the successor to Steven Reinemund as chief executive officer of the company effective October 1, 2006. On February 5, 2007, she was named Chairman, effective May 2, 2007.

Forbes magazine ranked Nooyi third on the 2008 and 2009 list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Fortune magazine has named Nooyi number one on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in business for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In 2008, Nooyi was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.

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Sheila Colleen Bair is the Chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). She was appointed to the post for a five-year term on June 26, 2006 by George W. Bush. Bair will also serve as a member of the FDIC Board of Directors through July 2013.

In 2008 Forbes ranked her as the second most powerful woman in the world behind German chancellor Angela Merkel. Forbes described her FDIC office as "the last stop for capital-starved banks (and their insured customers) before going under."

Bair is a native of Independence, Kansas. Her father, Albert, was a surgeon. Her mother, Clara, was a nurse and a homemaker. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas. In 1978, she received a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law.

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The World’s Most Powerful Women 2009