by Sima Matthes (New York City)

It’s nearly a cliché to say that women are the communicators in this world; however, given the lack of women at the top of many of the top ten Telecom companies on the Fortune 500, one wonders if this news has somehow escaped the powers that be.

Yet we don’t need to look too deep into the list—just to Verizon, #2 in Telecom and #17 overall— to find not one but FIVE women at the executive level, all of whom have been with the company in its various prior incarnations, through mergers and splits.

Marianne Drost, senior vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary for Verizon is responsible for strategic transactions, securities and finance, SEC reporting and disclosure and corporate governance in addition to her role as corporate secretary. She began her career at GTE in 1977 and continued there—save a brief hiatus at Cheesebrough-Pond’s Inc. legal department in 1984—until GTE became part of Verizon. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Connecticut College in New London and received her J.D. with honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

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by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

When Lisanne Schloss picked up the phone and heard founder of Women in the City, Gwen Rhys, on the other end, it must have been a tense wait until Gwen broke the news. Lisanne had sat through a panel interview a few days before, and this was the call with the results. She’d done it: Lisanne Schloss, Vice President, Property Services, at Morgan Stanley, had won the Facilities Management category of the Women in the City awards 2008.

“I was delighted to hear the news,” she said, “as this is not only a great honour for me personally, but it’s also a ringing endorsement of my colleagues at Morgan Stanley and the great work they do in inspiring women to fulfil their potential.”

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by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

Amanda Blanc chose insurance from the start. After leaving university in 1989 she joined the Commercial Union graduate training scheme. Since then she’s become Chief Executive of Towergate Retail Division at Towergate Partnership Limited, Europe’s largest independently owned insurance intermediary.

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by Sima Matthes (New York City)

Of the six companies among the Fortune 100 ranking for this industry—Boeing (#27), United Technologies (#39), Lockheed Martin (#57), Honeywell (#73) , Northrop Grumman (#76) and General Dynamics (#87)—all have women in the C-suite.

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by Ellen Armstrong (New York City)

These days, we look for the bright spots in finance and the economy anywhere we can find them. Fortunately, in the case of the Wall Street Journal’s 50 Women to Watch, there are plenty of bright stars on whom we can focus our attention.

First on the list is Sheila Bair, the Chairwoman of the FDIC, who has been in the headlines of late, between her cogent testimony on Capitol Hill on the roots of the financial crisis and her key role in negotiations of various federal bailout packages. She has been an outspoken advocate of protecting homeowners facing foreclosure, as well as protecting America’s bank accounts in the wake of one bank failure after another.

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