Honoring Black Enterprise’s Top Ten Most Powerful Women in Business

By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

This year the iconic publication Black Enterprise (BE) celebrates its 40th anniversary. Since 1974 the magazine has featured prominent African American business women in a way that other publications have failed to. In 1991, the magazine published its groundbreaking list of the “21 Women of Power and Influence in Corporate America.” In 2006, it was a list of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.”

BE rang in 2010 with their most comprehensive list to date, profiling the “75 Most Powerful Women in Business,” as written by BE’s careers and lifestyle editorial director Sonia Alleyne. Alleyne’s rundown of the most prominent African American business women made its way into the hands of the publication’s nearly 3.7 million loyal readers and it is her hope that seeing successful, strong, black women will influence some of the publication’s struggling female readers to continue their fight.

“[We honor these women] to show that it is possible. The benefit men have in business, particularly in the corporate environment, is that they have so many role models; successful men who recognize potential in other young men and offer the necessary support and guidance to make sure they succeed as well. Women have historically operated outside of that network, but when we highlight women who have made it to the senior ranks of an organization or in their own business, it serves as a powerful source of inspiration to others who might be silently struggling in their companies wondering if it’s possible – or if it’s even worth the effort,” Alleyne said.

In order to make the list, women must either be executives who hold C-Suite and/or president positions and have the title of senior vice president or above at the parent company. Women can also be entrepreneurs; a CEO, COO, or president with oversight of revenue generation, profitability, product and service development, and brand management for their entire company, as well as having gained industry-wide reputation and corporate board positions outside the company.

Here then, selected from BE’s original list, are America’s top ten most powerful black women in business:

1. Sheryl Adkins-Green, Global Vice President, Brand Development, Mary Kay, Inc.

   Adkins-Green leads Mary Kay’s global product strategy, which includes product positioning, packaging, product education, and pricing for the highly successful cosmetics company estimated to be worth $2.6 billion.

2. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, SVP & Chief Tax Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

   Babineaux-Fontenot oversees global tax administration and compliance issues for Wal-Mart in the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, China, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

3. Ingrid Beckles, SVP Default Asset Management, Freddie Mac

   Beckles is responsible for developing and implementing loss mitigation and foreclosure strategies, policies, procedures, and technologies that enable Freddie Mac to mitigate and manage credit losses.

4. Donna Boles, SVP, Human Resources, BD

   BD, formerly known as Becton, Dickinson, & Co., is global medical technology company worth $7.2 billion and Boles is responsible for the company’s worldwide human resources activities.

5. Esi Eggleston Bracey, VP & GM Global Cosmetics Innovation, Branding and Operations, Procter & Gamble

   When Bracey first joined Procter & Gamble in 1991, she made history when she became one of the youngest employees to become general manager. The VP is now in charge of over 1,000 employees and is responsible for P&G’s popular CoverGirl and Max Factor brands, which have garnered over $2 billion in retail sales worldwide.

6. Rosalind Brewer, Division President, Southeast Operations, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

   Brewer was appointed division president in 2007 and currently manages sales and operation plans, including strategic growth opportunities for 800 stores and 250,000 associates.

7. Julia Brown, SVP, Procurement, Kraft Foods

   Kraft Foods is a $42 billion food and beverage company and Brown is responsible for the global procurement of all of the company’s goods and services while also overseeing the supply chain for many of America’s most beloved brands, such as Jell-O, Oreo, and Oscar Mayer.

8. Glynis Bryan, CFO, Insight Enterprises, Inc.

   Bryan manages financial strategy for Insight Enterprises, a $4.8 billion global information technology hardware, software, and services company.

9. Teresa Bryce, President, Radian Guaranty, Inc.

   Bryce is a banking expert and former general counsel who now leads the mortgage insurance unit of Radian Guaranty, a $1.8 billion company.

10. Gwendolyn Butler, President & COO, Capri Capital Partners L.L.C.

    As one of the first African American female COOs in the commercial real estate investment management sector, Butler currently has oversight of all investment, finance, and marketing personnel for the company, which currently has $4.2 billion assents under management.

With each new list that BE features, Alleyne believes the women included will illustrate fortitude and determination, as well as become mentors and sponsors to younger women currently coming up the ranks. “It’s a no-brainer that to be successful you have to be smart and have the right credentials,” Alleyne said.

“Where most women struggle is in understanding the politics of an organization. Women are great at working hard, toiling at their desks, and making sure they meet deadlines – and ignoring all the other pieces that go into your work actually being recognized and valued. The women on our list are smart, dynamic, and innovative, but they also – some intentionally and others by chance – learned the unspoken rules so that they could play the game at the highest levels and in industries that have not been the most welcoming to women.”