This Is How She Does It: 8 Women CEOs Leading the Shecovery in 2021

Thirty-seven women hold Fortune 500 CEO jobs. Here are eight of those C-suite leaders putting women at the center of the pandemic recovery.

A recent report by Fortune states that a record number of women CEOs took over Fortune 500 companies in 2020. With 37 women CEOs, that is only 7.4 % of those holding the top jobs.

A quantamental research study by S & P Global shows “firms with female CEOs have produced superior stock price performance, compared to the market average.” Firms with high gender diversity on the board of directors result in better performance and profitability. And firms with female CEOs have higher gender diversity than the market average.

These eight leaders at the helms of Fortune 500 companies represent women key to recovery from the pandemic and the economic fallout from the last 18 months in this country and beyond.

1. Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boot Alliance.  Soon after Brewer came on as its new CEO in March 2021, Walgreens had an 8% increase in its stock price. She is the only Black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In 2012, she became the first woman and African American to hold the position of the CEO of Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart. Former Walmart President and CEO Mike Duke said, “I’ve also been struck by Roz’s servant leadership when I have visited stores with her. She always lets her team do the talking, with her focus being on how to better support their needs. She has strong strategic, analytical and operational skills and has successfully managed a large and complex business.”

2. Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup. The first woman to lead a major bank in the U.S., Fraser, 53, has been associated with Citi for 16 years. In March 2021, Fraser assumed her office as the CEO of Citigroup. In a CNBC interview, Fraser said, “We’ve been in the midst of a health crisis, and if we didn’t put our people’s health and safety first and understand what’s going on in their lives, honestly, I think we would have done a very poor job managing the bank through the crisis.”
A mother of two, Fraser announced in a Citi blog post  the introduction of “Zoom-Free Fridays” for a better work-life balance.

3. Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global. The groundreaking creator of Huffington Post, Huffington launched Thrive Global, a digital wellness content entity in November 2016, and is CEO.  A journalist, editor, author of 15 books, Huffington is on Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. According to  Forbes , Thrive Global was named one of The Top 10 New York City Startups to Watch in 2017, and LinkedIn listed it in 2018 as one of “The 50 most sought-after startups in the United States.” 

4. Linda Rendle, CEO of The Clorox Company. At 42, Rendle assumed the CEO role in September 2020 of the manufacturer of cleaning and home care products. During this pandemic, the demand for sanitizing and cleaning products has skyrocketed. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Rendle’s biggest challenge was to ramp up production to meet pandemic-fueled demand for sanitization products.  A Forbes report reveals that The Clorox Company increased its production of cleaning products by 50% during the pandemic.

5. Lori Ryerkerk, CEO of Celanese Corp. In 2019, Ryerkerk became CEO of the global chemical and specialty materials company, bringing with her three decades in the energy industry. In 2020, Lori became the CEO of the Year of D Magazine. When asked about her career starting as a chemical engineer at ExxonMobil, Ryerkerk said, “I was the only female hired the year that I joined. It’s not to say that Exxon isn’t a great company today, but at the time I started there, it was a very old-fashioned, male-dominated company. You didn’t talk about your family, and you certainly didn’t bring your kids into the office.”

6. Sonia Syngal, CEO of Gap Inc. Soon after  Syngal signed on as CEO in March 2020,  people began to avoid visiting malls due to the beginning stages of the pandemic. A Business Insider report states that Gap Inc. plans to close down 350 stores due to low traffic. By 2023, only about 870 stores will remain open in the US and Canada. “We’re quite optimistic. We do think there’s going to be this peacocking effect that happens, as people emerge from COVID and dress to impress others,” Syngal said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Syngal has said that traffic to their stores is likely to increase soon with increasing vaccination rates. The good news is, online sales have skyrocketed by nearly 95%. Gap Inc added almost 3.5 million new online customers. And it’s a whopping 165% increment from that of last year.

7. Carol Tomé, CEO of United Parcel Service.  Tomé took over as the CEO of the 113-year-old shipping company, UPS, in June 2020 when the pandemic hit and many customers preferred to order online. In an interview with CNBC, Tomé said, “We’re making UPS ‘Better, not Bigger.’ For me, success is a UPS that is more agile in the marketplace, even easier to do business with, aligns customers with our core competencies and importantly, is one of the best places to work.”
According to The Wall Street Journal report, the fourth-quarter sales of UPS rose to a record high of $24.9 billion. Also, operating profit increased by 26%, and shares rose by 4%.

8. Alyson Watson, Founder and CEO of Modern Health. Watson is at the helm of the mental health platform that provides one-on-one virtual and web-based programs. The demand for mental health services soared high during the pandemic as people started prioritizing mental health. “One of the things we’ve seen this past year is mental health has become a top priority for every employer across the board across every industry,” Watson said in an interview with CNBC.
As of February 2021, Modern Health is providing mental health support to more than 220 enterprises globally. Besides, its revenue has doubled since the company raised $51 million in Series C funding.

As for advice on aiming for the C-suite, Fraser, Citigroup CEO, tells CNBC, “The advice to everyone is, you can have it all, but don’t expect to have it at exactly the same time. Your career is going to be measured in decades, and you’ll probably have many careers in your life, so make sure that you really enjoy each period of your life and make the most of it.

Lyle D. Solomon is principal attorney for Oak View Law Group in Los Altos, California. Since 2003, he has been a member of the State Bar of California. In 1998, he graduated from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.