The leaders, founders, creators and innovators on the 2026 50 Over 50 Global list hail from 36 countries and territories and are leaving their marks on every sector of business, from aviation and architecture to minerals and mining. Several have broken records to become “the first” in a position; others have invented technological solutions and medical therapies that stand to help millions of lives. All are examples of resilience in an ever-changing global environment.
View the list: A-I
71 | Group Deputy CEO, National Bank of Kuwait | Kuwait
Shaikha Khaled Al Bahar
Shaikha Khaled Al Bahar was promoted to the Deputy Group CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait, one of the largest banks in the Middle East, in 2014. In 2024, her group across 13 countries—including the U.S., China, and France—brought in $1.6 billion and held $128.5 billion in assets. Al Bahar ran the bank’s first global leadership program for women, NBK RISE, and helped train 20 women for executive roles. During her 30 years in the industry, Al Bahar has overseen almost 10,000 people.
74 | Managing Director, Y.K. Almoayyed & Sons | Bahrain
Mona Yousuf Almoayyed
Mona Yousuf Almoayyed is the managing director of a family business that started as a humble roadside shop—selling tea, sugar and coffee—and today is a veritable conglomerate with business units devoted to cars, electronics, heavy equipment and industrial building operations. She first joined the business in 1974 and assumed her current position in 2000. Almoayyed also holds several board seats: she is the chair and founding member of the Migrant Workers Protection Society, chair of Ebdaa for Microfinance-Bahrain, and chair of the executive committee of the Arab International Women’s Forum.
55 | Director-Head, Nutrition Department, Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare | Nigeria
Ladidi Kuluwa Bako-Aiyegbusi
Longtime civil servant Ladidi Kuluwa Bako-Aiyegbusi is the director-head of the Nutrition Department at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare—a critical position in a country where acute malnutrition affects two million children and accounts for nearly half of all deaths of children under the age of five. Bako-Aiyegbusi’s solution to the malnutrition crisis is simple yet innovative: a bouillon cube fortified with iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamin B12. “If we’re successful, that would mean that the fortified bouillon seasoning cubes in so many Nigerian dishes would also contribute to improving the micronutrient content of the dishes in my country,” Bako-Aiyegbusi wrote in a Gates Foundation report in 2024.
52 | Coffee Producer & Real Estate Developer | El Salvador
Aida Batlle
Aida Batlle is a fifth-generation coffee producer who grows, processes and exports coffee from her family’s farms in El Salvador. In 2002, she assumed leadership of the family business and built a reputation for high-end, traceable coffee sold to international roasters including Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle. As price volatility, tariffs and supply-chain disruption reshaped the industry during the pandemic era, Batlle broadened her business. Since the early 2020s, she has taken a more hands-on role developing her family’s commercial and residential real estate holdings, creating a second business anchored in the same land as her farms. The diversification stabilized operations while sustaining agricultural production amid increasingly unpredictable global markets.
53 | CEO, Veolia | France
Estelle Brachlianoff
As much of the world races to upgrade its environmental infrastructure, Estelle Brachlianoff commands one of the few businesses capable of delivering sustainable solutions on a global scale. Through its three core businesses (water, waste, energy), the $48 billion company provides drinking water to 111 million people, treats 65 million tons of waste, and produces 42 million MWh of energy, giving Brachlianoff control over one of the largest platforms for sustainable infrastructure in the world. Brachlianoff became Veolia CEO in 2022, just before turning 50, after rising through the ranks of the Paris-based utility giant since joining in 2005 as a special advisor in its waste solutions division.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
51 | Actor | Spain
Penélope Cruz
The first (and so far only) Spanish-born actress to win an Oscar award for acting, Penélope Cruz is one of Hollywood’s most enduring talents. She made her TV debut at just 16 and had her first movie a year after that. Today, she is known for her roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (the film that notched Cruz her Academy Award in 2009), Ferrari and Volver. In March, she’ll appear in The Bride!, a Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed horror film that’s a reimagining of the Bride of Frankenstein. Cruz has said that she’s been asked about aging ever since she was in her twenties, but turning 50 was “a huge, beautiful thing… it means I’m here and I’m healthy.”
54 | Founding Partner, Passion Capital and NFG | United Kingdom
Eileen Burbidge
A computer scientist by training, Eileen Burbidge calls herself an “accidental VC.” Burbidge started her career at Verizon Wireless, Apple and Sun Microsystems, but it was a 2004 gig as an early employee at Skype that set her on a path towards venture capital. In 2007, Burbidge joined her Skype friends at Ambient Sound Investments, an Estonia-based venture capital firm; by 2011, she struck out on her own and cofounded Passion Capital. One of her most noteworthy investments so far has been a $2.5 million pre-seed investment in neobank Monzo, now valued at $5.9 billion.
60 | Singer & songwriter | South Africa
Yvonne Chaka Chaka
A beloved singer, songwriter and humanitarian from South Africa, Yvonne Chaka Chaka celebrated her 60th birthday in 2025 by releasing remixes of her top hits and serving as one of the headliners for December’s African Festival Concert in Accra. Chaka first started singing in the 1980s and by 1990 had earned the nickname “Princess of Africa” following a successful tour through Uganda. Around this same time, Nelson Mandela named Chaka as the first ambassador for his children’s fund. Over her four-decade career Chaka has released more than a dozen albums and has turned her “princess of Africa” moniker into both a nonprofit foundation and for-profit beauty company.
67 | Founder & Chair, Delta Shield for Investment | Egypt
Neveen El Tahri
Neveen El Tahri is one of the most influential women in business in Egypt. She started her career in 1980 as a teller for Chase Manhattan Bank’s Egyptian branch, and in 1994 became an entrepreneur when she cofounded a brokerage business with her brother-in-law. She went on to found a number of asset management and consulting businesses, and was the first woman to sit on the board of the Egyptian Stock Exchange. Today, she chairs Delta Shield Management, a financial consulting firm based in Giza, and 138 Pyramids, an early-stage VC business she established after the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. In 2021, El Tahri was appointed to a five-year term in the Egyptian Parliament.
74 | President, Marshall Islands | Marshall Islands
Hilda Heine
Hilda Heine was 64 when she first became president of the Marshall Islands in 2016, drawing on a long career as an educator, college administrator and former government minister. As the first woman to lead the Pacific island nation, Heine made climate change the defining issue of her presidency, using international forums including the United Nations General Assembly and global climate negotiations to press major economies to recognize sea-level rise as an immediate threat to the Marshall Islands’ sovereignty. She lost her reelection bid in 2020 but was victorious in her nation’s 2024 election, and since reassuming the role of president she is again sounding the alarm about the devastating effects of climate change to the Marshall Islands population.”We will be submerged by 2050 if the world doesn’t do its part,” Heine said in September.
62 | Founder, Heneghan Peng Architects | Ireland
Róisín Heneghan
When Giza’s Grand Egyptian Museum opened its doors to the public last November, it was the culmination of dreams decades in the making. In 2003, Róisín Heneghan and her small Dublin-based architecture firm beat out 1,500 other architects to win the contract for the world’s largest collection of Egyptian antiquities. The GEM spans more than 5 million square feet and is home to 100,000 artifacts, but Heneghan says that Giza’s famous pyramids, which sit just beyond the museum’s campus, factored into the museum’s final shape. “We designed the permanent galleries so that the pyramids can be seen when you’re in the galleries—so that in a way the pyramids become the largest piece in the collection,” Heneghan said recently.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
83 | Founder & Creative Director, Comme des Garçons | Japan
Rei Kawakubo
Rei Kawakubo founded Comme des Garçons in 1969, building one of fashion’s most influential independent houses. In 2004, at age 62, she launched Dover Street Market, a curated, designer-led retail concept that blends luxury shopping with exhibition-style presentation and has since expanded to cities including Tokyo, London, New York, Paris and Los Angeles. The platform has become a key launchpad for emerging designers alongside established brands. In 2017, Kawakubo was the subject of a rare solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, cementing her status as not just a fashion designer but a cultural icon.
55 | CEO, Qantas | Australia
Vanessa Hudson
Vanessa Hudson has navigated some turbulent skies at Qantas, the $16 billion (revenue) Australian air giant: She first joined the company in 1994, served as CFO during the pandemic—when global travel plummeted—and in 2023, was named the company’s CEO, taking over for her controversial predecessor. She’s the first woman to hold the role, but today Hudson has her eyes on the future—specifically, the launch of a new aircraft that she says “can fly further than anywhere in the world.” The Airbus-made plane is expected to debut later this year.
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71 | Professor of Immunology, University of Turku | Finland
Sirpa Jalkanen
Immunologist Sirpa Jalkanen has focused her research on the traffic of the cells that cause cancer and other harmful inflammations, and on therapies that can treat these illnesses. This focus has led to discoveries that have resulted in 11 approved patents and two biotech companies (BioTie Therapies and Faron Pharmaceuticals). Though Jalkanen is a cofounder of both companies—the latter of which trades on the London Stock Exchange—she prefers to keep her day-to-day work in the realm of academia. She has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, and in 2024, early clinical trial success for a therapy targeting acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) made Jalkanen a finalist for the European Inventor Award.
74 | Chair & CEO, Marketech International | Taiwan
Margaret Kao
Within a decade of her former employer spinning off United Microelectronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Margaret Kao launched Marketech International to make the specialized materials and equipment needed for their chipmaking factories. Kao says she had been looking for a “breakthrough” when she set up Marketech in 1988 with a colleague. They went on to become a global supplier of high-tech machinery and turnkey facilities and services for the semiconductor, optoelectronics and biotech industries. In 2024, the Taipei-based company’s sales rose for a fifth consecutive year, up 8% to NT$60.7 billion ($2 billion). Kao retains a 6% stake.
61 | CEO, DayOne Data Centers | Singapore
Jamie Khoo
“There’s so much happening in the AI space,” says DayOne Data Centers CEO Jamie Khoo. The industry veteran was appointed head of data center giant GDS Holdings’ international arm last year before GDS spun off the unit, with Khoo holding the top position at the newly rebranded company. DayOne currently operates 14 data centers with a combined capacity of 350 megawatts, mostly taken up by Chinese and U.S. hyperscalers. The company has so far raised $1.9 billion, in addition to nearly $4 billion in loans, to bankroll its regional expansion.
63 | Managing Director & CEO, Lynas Rare Earths | Australia
Amanda Lacaze
Amanda Lacaze has transformed Lynas Rare Earths from a loss-making miner into a global player. A former telecoms executive, Lacaze joined Lynas in 2014 as CEO—the first woman in the company’s 40-year history—and is out to fill a China-sized hole in the rare earth industry. The company grabbed global attention after China, the world’s largest miner and processor of rare earths, tightened its supply of the critical metals needed to make everything from chips and cars to fighter jets starting last December. Backed by billionaire Gina Rinehart, Lynas and with A$556.5 million ($370 million) in revenue in 2025, Lynas is the world’s second-largest producer of rare earths and the only major producer outside of China.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
67 | Vice Chairwoman, CJ; Cofounding Partner, First Light StoryHouse | South Korea
Miky Lee
Entertainment industry powerhouse Miky Lee has played a key role in globalizing Korean movies. Though the world first learned her name in 2019, when she served as a producer for Parasite—which in 2020 became the first non-English-language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture—Lee has been influential in Korean filmmaking for decades. In 1994 she founded the entertainment division of the CJ Group (a Korean conglomerate), and around the same time became a founding investor in animation studio DreamWorks. Today she serves as vice chairman for the CJ Group and in July 2025 also became a cofounder of First Light StoryHouse, a label focused on Asian and Asian American experiences. “Recent successes from Asian storytellers have shown the potential and authenticity of their stories,” Lee said at the time.
83 | Artist | Brazil
Anna Maria Maiolino
In 2025, 61 years after her inaugural solo show as a working artist, Anna Maria Maiolino had her first solo show in France, at the Musée National Picasso-Paris. It’s merely the latest accomplishment for the Italy-born, Brazil-residing Maiolino, who has in her decades of work been hailed as the “grande dame of Brazilian contemporary art.” Maiolino works with a variety of materials, from bronze and iron to cement and canvas, and plays with mediums as well: she’s produced works of poetry, video, painting, large-scale installations and more. In 2024, Maiolino received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.
52 | CEO, Kempinski Group | Monaco
Barbara Muckermann
In 2024, Barbara Muckermann took the helm of the Kempinski Group, Europe’s oldest luxury hotel chain. She’s the first woman to run the business since it was founded in 1897, and as CEO she oversees some 80 hotels and residences (equivalent to more than 20,000 rooms) across three dozen countries. The Italy-born, Monaco-based Muckermann joined Kempinski after a long career as a cruise and luxury travel executive; previous roles included positions at Royal Caribbean Group and MSC Cruises. She’s fluent in five languages.
54 | Artistic Director, The National Ballet of Canada | Canada
Hope Muir
After nearly 20 years of professional dance in the U.S. and the U.K. in both classical and contemporary ballet, Hope Muir turned her attention to teaching and leadership roles. She was named Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada in 2022. Muir showed promise early on and, at age 15, she was accepted into the London Festival Ballet School (now the English National Ballet School) and joined the company after graduating. She oversees a demanding performance and touring schedule, and her 2024 commission, UtopiVerse by Canadian William Yong, was the National Ballet’s first mainstage work by an Asian choreographer.
63 | Archbishop of Canterbury | United Kingdom
Sarah Mullally
A 1,400-year-old stained glass ceiling shattered in October 2025 when it was announced that the Church of England would be led by Sarah Mullally. She will be sworn in as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, leading a global Anglican community of 85 million people across 165 countries, in March of this year. Mullally previously served as London’s first female bishop, a role she’d held since 2018. Before pursuing ministry full time, Mullally spent 35 years as a nurse. She was England’s youngest-ever chief nursing officer, and in 2005 was made a Dame for her contributions to health and midwifery.
53 | CEO & Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever | India
Priya Nair
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s most valuable consumer goods company (market cap $69 billion), which sells everything from soap to tea, named Priya Nair as its first female CEO and managing director last summer. Nair joined HUL, a subsidiary of global giant Unilever, three decades ago and worked in sales and marketing before being posted overseas. Nair has her work cut out. Sales and profit growth at the $7.3 billion (revenue) HUL have slowed to single digits over the past two years. She is driving a digital push at the company as she pursues a “more modern, desirable and youthful” strategy.”
53 | Managing Director, KCB Foundation | Kenya
Mendi Njonjo
Mendi Njonjo leads KCB Foundation, the philanthropic arm of KCB Group, one of East Africa’s largest banking institutions. Since assuming leadership in 2023, she has expanded the foundation’s education and economic inclusion programs, most notably its scholarship pipeline supporting thousands of secondary-school students and hundreds of university scholars across Kenya. Under her leadership, the foundation has sharpened its focus on transition into employment and entrepreneurship, using the scale of a major bank to translate corporate resources into measurable social mobility.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
61 | Founder & Director, African Futures Institute | Ghana
Lesley Lokko
In 2023, Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko, founder of the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture and the African Futures Institute in Ghana, curated the Venice Architecture Biennale. Her showcase at the industry’s largest festival, “The Laboratory of the Future,” celebrated the influence of African and African Diasporan architects and artists. The same year, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 2025, she became the first African to win the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal in its 176-year history. Lokko’s latest undertaking is the African Futures Institute’s Nomadic African Studio, an annual, month-long architecture workshop focused on explorations of issues like climate change and migration.
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58 | Major General & Acting Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations, UN | Australia
Cheryl Pearce
The highest-ranked uniformed woman in the United Nations, Cheryl Pearce, brings more than three decades of Australian military experience to the UN. She first entered officer training in 1985 (at the time, she had considered joining the police force but says she felt called to something much bigger than herself) and rose to the level of Deputy Chief of the Army of the Australian Defence Force before being named to her UN role in 2024. “Peacekeeping is not just about presence; it’s about engagement and listening to communities,” she says.
73 | Advocate | France
Gisèle Pelicot
In 2024, as her husband and 50 other men stood trial in what became France’s largest-ever mass rape case, Gisèle Pelicot was offered anonymity. She declined, telling the court, “The shame isn’t ours to feel, it’s theirs.” Pelicot remained present throughout the months-long trial, and again in 2025 as one man unsuccessfully appealed his guilty verdict. Her visibility sparked national debate about France’s narrow legal definition of rape, which excludes non-consensual sex in the absence of “violence, surprise, constraint or threat.” Following the trail, the French Senate passed a bill to amend the definition to include a lack of consent. In July 2025, she was awarded France’s highest civilian honor, the Legion of Honor.
57 | President of the Pontifical Commission & President of the Governorate, Vatican City State | Vatican City
Raffaella Petrini
In March 2025, Sister Raffaella Petrini became the first woman in the history of the Catholic Church to assume the highest leadership position within the Vatican’s administrative structure. Petrini was nominated for the job by Pope Francis before his passing and later confirmed by Pope Leo. In her role, she oversees the policies and state functions for the world’s smallest independent nation. Before her historic promotion, she served as secretary general of the Vatican administration and taught classes at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, where she had previously earned a doctoral degree in social sciences.
56 | Chef & Co-owner, Maison Pic | France
Anne-Sophie Pic
Anne-Sophie Pic shines with 10 Michelin stars, the most of any female chef. Pic grew up in her family’s haute cuisine restaurant, Maison Pic, in southeast France, but didn’t start training under her father until she was 23, just a few months before he died. The 137-year-old restaurant was awarded its first three-stars under her grandfather in 1934, and, under Pic’s leadership, regained that status in 2007. In 2009, she opened Restaurant Anne-Sophie Pic in Switzerland, which quickly received two stars, and is known for being simple and sophisticated. She also has Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris and London.
53 | Agent | Monaco
Rafaela Pimenta
Previously a lawyer, Rafaela Pimenta is known as one of the most influential women in soccer. After working with Italian sports agent Mino Raiola for 18 years—and then inheriting his extensive client list following his death in 2022—Pimenta became the first female football “super-agent.” Even in this male-dominated sport, she leads One, a high-end agency based in Monaco, and is the non-executive director of Women In Football. Pimenta has led some of the sport’s largest deals, and received Globe Soccer’s Best Transfer Deal of the Year award in 2022 for landing one of their biggest stars, Man City striker Erling Haaland, a $1.1 billion contract, which was just extended through 2034.
55 | Founder & CEO, Waterfield Advisors | India
Soumya Rajan
Soumya Rajan founded Waterfield Advisors in 2011 to provide independent wealth management to India’s ultra-high-net-worth families. The firm, which advises on more than $4 billion in client assets, operates as a multi-family office; it offers strategic advice without earning commissions from selling financial products, a structure that sets it apart in an industry dominated by banks and brokers. Before founding Waterfield, Rajan was chief investment officer for HSBC Global Private Banking in India. As private wealth in India has grown, Rajan has scaled Waterfield into a leading advisory platform while pushing the industry to better serve women investors.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
85 | Founder, Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods | Belize
Marie Sharp
After saying goodbye to teaching elementary school, Marie Sharp got her start in hot sauce by growing habanero peppers in her garden and experimenting with vegetables. She would try recipes on her family while she was working full-time at the Citrus Company. In 1981, thanks to encouragement from close friends, she started selling the sauces. Before long, they were a hit and imported to the U.S. But a trademark battle eventually led to a name change. In 1992, the Belizean entrepreneur launched her second company: Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods, and now also sells jams and seasonings. She was inducted into the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame in 2016.
56 | CEO, Air France | France
Anne Rigail
Anne Rigail joined Air Inter (which later merged with Air France) right out of college in 1991. She’s had a robust career: In 1996, Rigail became the head of Air France Customer Services at Orly. Ten years on, she was appointed VP of Ground Operations at Paris-CDG and later became Executive VP for Customer in 2017, overseeing major upgrades to airport lounges and aircraft cabin layouts. The following year, she was named CEO, becoming the first woman to lead the carrier, which transports some 41 million passengers annually, since its founding in 1933. The Air France-KLM Group recorded €31.5 billion in annual revenue in 2024.
51 | Executive President, Central American Bank for Economic Integration | Honduras
Gisela Sánchez Maroto
In 2023, Gisela Sánchez Maroto became the first woman to lead the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, an $18 billion (assets) multilateral development bank that finances infrastructure, energy, health and education projects across Central America and the Caribbean. She came to the role after decades in international finance and development, including senior leadership positions within the bank. Since taking office, she has presided over the strongest financial results in CABEI’s history, including record profits, expanded global bond issuance and upgraded credit ratings. Sánchez has also advanced governance and transparency reforms while positioning the bank as a key source of capital for climate resilience and regional growth.
54 | President & CEO, Mynt | Philippines
Martha Sazon
Since taking the helm in 2020, Sazon steered Mynt’s GCash mobile wallet to become the Philippines’ dominant fintech, sending GCash to its first profit the following year and making it the country’s only $5 billion unicorn. An alum of INSEAD and Harvard Business School executive programs, Sazon has built GCash into a super app that offers services such as savings, credit, insurance, investments, travel bookings, and financial management, boosting users to 94 million in 2024 from 20 million in 2020. While Mynt’s net profit climbed 58% to 15.3 billion pesos ($260 million) in the first nine months of 2025, it is facing headwinds after the government banned online gambling—a key growth driver—on mobile wallets. The company is gearing up for an IPO this year.
51 | Director General, WWF International | Switzerland
Kirsten Schuijt
When she was 12, Kirsten Schuijt was a youth volunteer ranger for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The year she turned 50, she became the Director General of the same organization. Since taking the helm of one of the world’s most recognizable NGOs, Schuijt has led a strategic shift toward locally led conservation, directing funding and program authority closer to those who call conservation areas home. WWF has paired this repositioning with new training programs, enhanced safeguards and clearer accountability structures throughout its 80-country network. Under Schuijt’s leadership, the organization also formed its first Indigenous Peoples Consultative Group, a group of Indigenous experts who advise WWF on issues and opportunities at the intersection of conservation and Indigenous rights.
87 | Ceramicist | France
Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye
Ceramicist Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye is a global authority on bowl-making—her works are part of permanent collections in nearly three dozen museums around the world—and has honed her craft across Europe. She was born in Istanbul and though it was there that she fell in love with ceramics, she trained in a ceramics factory in Germany and then at the Royal Porcelain Factory in Denmark (today called Royal Copenhagen). A Parisian resident since 1987, Siesbye has a French Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters and a Knight of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.
59 | Secretary-General, Danish Refugee Council | Denmark
Charlotte Slente
Charlotte Slente has been Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations dedicated to assisting refugees and displaced people, since 2019. The NGO, which supports nearly 8 million people every year, is one of many in the humanitarian sector that faced a sudden suspension of critical funding in 2025 when the U.S. government shuttered USAID. As funding is shrinking—the U.S. was previously the DRC’s second-largest donor—the global number of forcibly displaced people continues to rise. As the DRC faces the now all-too-familiar challenge of doing more with less, Slente’s leadership is proving more important than ever.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
58 | Prime Minister, Democratic Republic of the Congo | Democratic Republic of the Congo
Judith Suminwa Tuluka
In 2024, at 56, Judith Suminwa Tuluka made history when she was sworn in as the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first female prime minister. Tuluka was appointed by President Félix Tshisekedi after serving as Minister of Planning in the prior administration, helping to steer the development strategy for Africa’s second-largest nation. An economist who started out in banking, Tuluka later branched out into international development at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In her four years at the UNDP, she led the “Peacebuilding and Strengthening Democracy” pillar, focusing on long-troubled eastern Congo.
74 | Master Blender, Appleton Estate | Jamaica
Joy Spence
Like many of the world’s best spirits, Joy Spence’s career has only improved with time. The 74-year-old is a legend in the rum industry, and for good reason: Nearly three decades ago, Appleton Estate named her master blender—the first woman in the spirits industry to hold the title—and she remains the guardian of Jamaica’s oldest distillery’s blending tradition. A trained chemist with a flair for refined flavor, she has produced more than 30 unique rums, wines and liqueurs. In 2018, Spence received Jamaica’s National Medal for Science and Technology, and today, visitors to the Kingston distillery can journey through the Joy Spence Rum Experience to learn more about the life and legacy of Jamaica’s pioneering master blender.
57 | Group CEO, DBS | Singapore
Tan Su Shan
Tan Su Shan stepped into the top job at Southeast Asia’s largest bank in March 2025 as the first woman in the role at age 57. Before becoming CEO, she ran both the Consumer Banking & Wealth Management and Institutional Banking businesses at DBS, responsible together for around 90% of the bank’s earnings. Her digital-first strategy has helped to establish the Singapore bank as a benchmark for innovation in the region. When she took over as CEO, Tan told reporters that she had “big shoes to fill,” but pointed out that she and retiring CEO Piyush Gupta “wear different kinds of shoes,” signaling a new era for DBS.
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64 | Prime Minister, Japan | Japan
Sanae Takaichi
In October 2025, for the first time in its history, Japan elected a female prime minister. Sanae Takaichi is a hardline conservative who has often invoked “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher—a fellow “first”—as a political role model. The 64-year-old was first elected to parliament in 1993 and, over the years, has held a variety of high-profile positions within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has increasingly moved to the right. Takaichi is stepping into the role as the world’s fourth-largest economy faces familiar challenges of inflation and wage stagnation.
58 | CEO, Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation | New Zealand
Jo Townsend
In 2024, Jo Townsend was named CEO of the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, which manages the country’s more than NZ$80 billion ($48.3 billion) sovereign wealth fund, NZ Super Fund. The annual returns of the fund since its inception in 2001 have averaged 10.1%, and it was named the best-performing sovereign investor in the world between 2013 and 2022 by Global SWF. When Townsend was appointed as fund chief, Guardians chair John Williamson noted “she is a highly experienced CEO with a 30-year career in the Australian investment sector.”
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
52 | Founder, Chair & Chief Creative Officer, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty | United Kingdom
Charlotte Tilbury
Raised in Ibiza, Charlotte Tilbury was surrounded by the arts from a young age. She had a career working in fashion houses—from Fendi to Prada—leading product development for Tom Ford, Burberry, and Armani, among others, before founding her own luxury makeup brand in 2013. The makeup mogul has directed looks for over 100 Vogue covers. Determined to give people the tools they need to live life to the fullest, Tilbury partners with charities around the world, from Women For Women International to The King’s Trust.
66 | Cofounder, CEO & President, Softtek | Mexico
Blanca Treviño
In a region often overlooked by the global tech community, Blanca Treviño is proving that Latin America can hold its own. Treviño, who was one of Softtek’s founding partners and has led the firm as its CEO since 2000, helped to pioneer the concept of nearshoring, positioning Mexico as an alternative for U.S. companies seeking international tech services. Today, the Monterrey start-up she scaled has a presence in more than 20 countries with 15,000 employees. The company’s newest frontier is AI and its proprietary platform FRIDA (framework for digital intelligent automation). In November, Softtek became the first Latin American company to be certified under ISO 42001, the first global standard for responsible AI management.
61 | Founding Partner, Crowberry Capital | Iceland
Helga Valfells
A sought-after sounding board for some of Iceland’s most powerful figures and companies, Helga Valfells was a “non-political” advisor to the Icelandic Minister of Business following the 2008 financial crisis and served on the board of Íslandsbanki from 2013 to 2019. She is a cofounder of Crowberry Capital, an early-stage venture firm with offices in Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Valfells and her two cofounders launched the firm in 2017 and closed a second, $90 million fund in 2021. With investments from the European Investment Fund and Iceland pension funds, Crowberry’s Fund II was, at the time, Iceland’s largest VC fund ever and also one of Europe’s largest female-led funds.
62 | Cofounder & Chair, ReadyGo Diagnostics | United Kingdom
Elaine Warburton
Elaine Warburton is a serial health-tech entrepreneur best known for cofounding QuantuMDx in 2008. Her leadership pushed the company’s handheld diagnostic technology toward real-world use, enabling clinicians to identify infections from a patient sample in minutes rather than days, without sending it to a lab. For her contributions in advancing medical innovation, Warburton was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), a U.K. national honor, in 2013. Since 2021, she has served as the cofounder and chair of ReadyGo Diagnostics, a consumer health company developing early-warning tests designed to flag illness before symptoms become severe.
54 | Chairwoman & President, Beijing Yunji Technology | China
Zhi Tao
Twelve years after cofounding service-robot maker Beijing Yunji Technology, Zhi Tao took her company public in an $85 million Hong Kong IPO in October. A trained engineer inspired by Doraemon, Japan’s gadget-wielding robotic cat character, Zhi has built Yunji into one of China’s largest service bot manufacturers. Its machines have handled delivery and cleaning across some 34,000 hotels and 150 hospitals nationwide, attracting backing from investors including Alibaba and Tencent. Prior to Yunji, Zhi was the CEO of industrial automation company Beijing Yingweisi Technology.
50 OVER 50 GLOBAL HIGHLIGHT
53 | Cofounder & Chair, Apparel Group | United Arab Emirates
Sima Ganwani Ved
2026 marks 30 years since Sima Ganwani Ved cofounded the Apparel Group with her husband. Launched on Ved’s belief that the UAE and the Gulf needed better access to world-class brands, her multi-billion-dollar idea has grown to more than 2,300 stores across 14 countries, run by more than 27,000 employees. The multinational conglomerate curates leading global brands—from high-end fashion labels to everyday lifestyle—all under one retail umbrella. Ved’s entry into the industry began at age 20, managing a department in her father’s Dubai shopping mall.
65 | Founder & Chair, Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group | China
Zhou Chaonan
Zhou Chaonan was 49 when she launched data center operator Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group in 2009, a shrewd move that made her one of China’s richest self-made women. She’s amassed a $5.3 billion fortune since the firm went public in 2022. Its client list includes ByteDance, the creator of TikTok, and telecoms giant Huawei. With over 60 data centers across China, Range Intelligent saw its first half revenue rise 15% year over year to 2.5 billion yuan ($351 million). Zhou spent almost two decades in government before launching her first company, a telecoms services firm, in 2000. Her first name, Chaonan, means “better than man.”
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This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
