Six Indian-origin women, including four Indian Americans, figure in Fortune’s 2025 Most Powerful Women list with Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, at the top for the second year in a row and fifth time overall.
Besides Indian Americans Reshma Kewalramani, Bela Bajaria, Revathi Advaithi and Meena Lakdawala Flynn, India-based Roshni Nadar Malhotra and UK-based Leena Nair figure among the women at the top of the global business world.
While more than 50 women lead Fortune 500 companies, only 20 Fortune 500 CEOs are on the Fortune list with just over half working in the U.S.; 48 are based in 18 other countries and territories.
READ: Reshma Kewalramani among 2025 Time 100 most influential people (April 17, 2025)
Ranked 18, Kewalramani, who brings her experience as a licensed doctor to her leadership, took the helm as CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2020, having previously been the biopharma company’s chief medical officer.
Vertex, valued at over $110 billion, has become a major player in drug discovery. This year, the company gained FDA approval for a new opioid-free pain drug, Journavx, the first in two decades. Vertex is most known for developing multiple novel drug combinations to treat cystic fibrosis, which affects 100,000 people globally.
Ranked 21, Malhotra, chair of HCLTech, is now India’s richest woman—and its third richest person overall—after her father handed part of his stake in the company. HCLTech is now embracing AI as a way to keep productivity high while cutting headcount.
After a career in TV news, Malhotra returned to the family business in 2008, and became CEO of HCLTech a year later. She rose to chair in 2020, looking after the tech company’s broader strategic initiatives.
In addition to her position as HCLTech’s chair, Malhotra is also involved in philanthropic efforts, including providing education for gifted students in rural India, and work in nature conservation. She hopes to see more women in India’s fast-growing tech sector. “We want more women to build long-term careers in tech,” she told Fortune India earlier this year.
Ranked 31, Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, is one of the world’s most influential media executives. She leads the sprawling content machine behind global hits such as “Bridgerton,” “Squid Game,” and “Money Heist.”
Bajaria joined Netflix from Universal Television in 2016 as head of unscripted and scripted content, and she earned the title of chief content officer in 2023. Bajaria has helped turn Netflix into an international entertainment giant—while pushing the near-$500 billion company into live events and sports, inking deals with WWE and the NFL.
Born in London to Indian immigrant parents, she won Miss India Worldwide in 1991. During her tenure, Netflix has frequently earned more Emmy and Oscar nominations than any other studio.
Ranked 45, UK-based Leena Nair became the global CEO of luxury juggernaut Chanel in 2021—the first woman of color to become chief—after a three-decade-long career at Unilever, where she was the youngest female chief human resources officer.
She is also among the few women of color leading a global luxury brand. The 115-year-old family-controlled Chanel has bucked the luxury slowdown affecting its rivals by delivering a 16% increase in revenues in 2023, worth $20 billion.
The company is committed to R&D innovation, such as its anti-aging line of products, and has said it “relentlessly pursues counterfeiters” who mimic the French label’s signature luxury goods. Early in her tenure, Nair increased the funding of Chanel’s charity, Fondation Chanel, to $100 million to support women’s and girls’ safety and economic autonomy.
Ranked 62, Advaithi, with six years under her belt as CEO of the manufacturing company Flex, has prioritized investments in data-center solutions. The company’s data center business had year-over-year growth of 45% in Q4 of CY24.
READ: Forbes coins new billionaires, the list surpasses 3000 for the first time (April 3, 2025)
In October and November of 2024, Flex acquired Crown Technical Systems and JetCool Technologies. And in February 2025, Flex opened a manufacturing facility in Dallas to increase its production capacity for power products. Flex brought in $25.6 billion in revenue in 2024, down 6% from the previous year. Advaithi oversees more than 140,000 employees in 30 countries. She sits on the boards of Uber, Catalyst.org, and the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board.
Ranked 69, Flynn, co-head of global Private Wealth Management, has led that charge at Goldman Sachs, with impressive results. Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, including PWM, oversees more than $1 trillion in assets globally, and generated over $5 billion in management and other fees last year, up 11% from 2023 and a record for the firm.
As co-head of the One Goldman Sachs initiative, Flynn is also tasked with forging deeper relationships with around 100 of the firm’s wealthiest clients, who collectively account for almost 20% of Goldman’s revenue. A newcomer on this year’s list, Flynn has championed women in her role, and the majority of the firm’s global PWM partners are women.