Good morning. When Jane Fraser became CEO of Citigroup five years ago, she took over an institution struggling with dysfunction, from cumbersome IT systems to a complacent culture that had produced embarrassing and costly mistakes. Some held her up as an example of the “glass cliff,” where women break through the glass ceiling to get top roles under circumstances that make it almost impossible to succeed. But Fraser did succeed, turning a sprawling bank behemoth into a more streamlined and high-performing company. As a result, Fraser is No. 1 on the 2026 Fortune Most Powerful Women list that was published this morning.
It’s been a tough journey and, as Fraser tells my colleague Claire Zillman in this accompanying feature, there’s more to do in terms of shedding jobs and underperforming parts of the portfolio. But with a stock price that’s up by more than two-thirds over the past year, investors clearly believe that she can do it.
The women on this year’s list, now in its 29th year, oversee a combined 11.8 million employees and $7.3 trillion in annual revenue. They also hold 180 board seats and work across 20 countries and territories. In addition to measuring leaders by the size and health of their businesses, we evaluated their influence, innovation, career trajectories, and efforts to make business better.
