It’s the time of year when we celebrate women and their successes, but more importantly the difference they make in the world in their own inimitable way. In the corporate world, many women have risen to the heights of power, reshaping industries and leaving indelible marks on their companies.
But how successful were they? Taking stock performance as an indicator of their success, here’s a look at how female CEOs of the largest companies have fared over the past year.
Women at the helm: It is heartening for me, as one of them, to see the successes of many female chief leaders. As someone who covers tech and electric vehicles, I don’t have to look beyond my own pace for inspiration. Someone like Dr. Lisa Su From Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD he changed the fortunes of the chipmaker, which was a distant second before taking the reins Intel. The importance of his leadership and visionary direction played an important role in the turnaround of the Santa Clara, California-based company.
Hard data, however, highlights that the representation of women is still disappointing. Female CEOs of S&P 500 companies represented just 41, or 8.2% of S&P 500 companies in 2023, says an article in the Harvard Law School Forum, citing data from Catalyst. The article mentions three potential reasons for the underrepresentation: potential differences in skills between male and female CEOs, limited supply of female labor, and boardroom preferences.
Citing data from executive placement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Research.com said the highest representation of female CEOs is in the apparel industry (67%), followed by retail (42%), financial services (24.5%) and food (23). %).
See also: The best high-yield investments
Here’s a look at the one-year returns of women-led companies:
| S&P 500 companies | CEOs | Shares acquired with Investment of $1,000 (as of March 6, 2023) |
Dollar value of Jack (by March 7, 2024) |
Return (In %) |
| AMD | Lisa Su | 12.32 | $2,604.49 | 160.45% |
| Arista Networks | Jayshree Ullal | 7.01 | $2,009.26 | 100.93% |
| Accenture | Giulia Dolce | 3.77 | $1,457.12 | 45.71% |
| Vertex Pharma | Reshma Kewalramani | 3.43 | $1,407.79 | 40.78% |
| Progressive body | Tricia Griffith | 6.92 | $1,356.29 | 35.63% |
| Celanese | Lori Ryerkerk | 8.52 | $1,334.75 | 33.48% |
| Ross Stores | Barbara Affitta | 9 | $1,314.43 | 31.44% |
| CDW | Christina Leahy | 4.99 | $1,237.86 | 23.79% |
| Oracle | Safra Catz | 11.31 | $1,295.85 | 20.59% |
| General dynamics | Febe Novakovic | 4.4 | $1,201.45 | 20.15% |
| Tapestry | Joanne Crevoiserat | 23.98 | $1,125.15 | 12.52% |
| Zoetis | Kristin Peck | 5.95 | $1,079.45 | 7.95% |
| Nasdaq | Adena Friedmann | 18.13 | $1,071.97 | 7.20% |
| Clorox | Linda Rendle | 6.79 | $1,045.20 | 4.52% |
| Duke Energy | Lynn Good | 10.89 | $1,304.30 | 3.43% |
| Best buy | Corrie Barry | 12.76 | $1,014.93 | 1.49% |
| Regency Centers | Lisa Palmer | 4.39pm | $1,007.05 | 0.71% |
| Western oil | Vicki Hollub | 4.47pm | $1,005.27 | 0.53% |
| Franklin Resources | Jenny Johnson | 35.82 | $1,000.72 | 0.07% |
| PG&E | Patricia Poppe | 59.77 | $991.63 | -0.84% |
| Northrop Grummann | Kathy Guardian | 2.16 | $986.98 | -1.30% |
| General Motors | Maria Barra | 25 | $983.75 | -1.63% |
| Sales | Debra Cafaro | 9.28pm | $926.38 | -7.36% |
| UPS | Carol Tome | 5.59 | $857.28 | -14.27% |
| Hershey | Michael Buck | 4.26 | $820.88 | -17.91% |
It should be noted here that investment returns are not comparable between these companies as they belong to different sectors and industries.
As a result, the benefits and challenges may have been different. Su, named CEO of AMD in 2014, has generated the highest return among CEOs in the S&P 500. That’s not surprising as tech led the market’s recovery in 2023 after a bear year for stocks in 2020.
Over the same period, the S&P 500 index generated 27.39%. Seven of the CEOs we discussed generated above-average returns for investors.
In pre-market trading, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust Fund TO SPY rose 0.16% to $514.81, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Read next: How a Pune-born, India-based founder went from working at LinkedIn to building a multi-billion dollar empire
Image created via photos on Wikimedia Commons and Flickr