7 Powerful
Women 2013

Mirjam Stoffels

We all love our little [or longer] lists. We have a ‘to-do’-list, a shopping list, a list with our contacts… to name just a few. Not only do we love them, American business magazine Forbes loves them too. They publish lists such as ‘Forbes’ 400 richest Americans’, ‘The World’s Billionaires’, ‘The Worlds Most Powerful People’ and ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’.

In the beginning of 2013, at the start of seven2success.com I gave you the seven most powerful women of 2012 and I thought to turn this into a tradition. So here they are, in my last blog of 2013: The top seven of most powerful women of 2013!

A short recap: Angela Merkel [Chancellor of Germany] leads the list for the 7th time. Dilma Rousseff [President of Brasil], Melinda Gates [businesswoman and philanthropist] and Michelle Obama [First Lady] are on the rise. Hillary Clinton [United States Secretary of State] dropped 3 places to #5. We no longer see Jill Abramson [executive editor of The New York Times] and Sonia Ghandi [Indian politician] in the top 7. Newcomers are Sheryl Sandberg [COO Facebook] and Christine Lagarde [Managing Director of the IMF].

 

#1
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel, born Angela Dorothea Kasner [July 17, 1954]. Since november 22, 2005 the Chancellor of Germany and party leader of the Christian Democratic Union [CDU]. Angela Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany. She has been described as “the de facto leader of the European Union” and is currently ranked as the world’s fourth most powerful person by the Forbes magazine, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman.
 

 
 

 
#2
Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff [December 14, 1947] is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman to hold the office. Prior to that, in 2005, she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff to the President of Brazil, appointed by then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. With Carlos Araújo, her partner for 30 years, she helped found the Democratic Labour Party [PDT]. After an internal dispute in the Dutra cabinet, she left PDT and joined the Workers’ Party [PT].

 
 

 

 
#3
Melinda Gates
Melinda French Gates, born Melinda Ann French [August 15, 1964] is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the wife of Bill Gates. She is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a former unit manager for several Microsoft products such as Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia.

 

 

 

 

 
#4
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama [January 17, 1964] is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama. She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago and to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. Subsequently, she worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

 

 

 
#5
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton [October 26, 1947] is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election, Hillary Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. She is the first former First Lady who was Senator and a minister in a U.S. government.

 

 

 
#6
Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Kara Sandberg [August 28, 1969] is an American businesswoman and author of ‘Lean In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead’. As of August 2008, she is the chief operating officer of Facebook. In June 2012, she was also elected to the board of directors by the existing board members, becoming the first woman to serve on Facebook’s board. Before Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, and was involved in launching Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org. Before Google, Sandberg served as chief of staff for the United States Secretary of the Treasury.

 

 
#7
Christine Lagarde
Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde [January 1st, 1956] is a French lawyer and ‘Union for a Popular Movement’-politician who has been the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] since July 5, 2011. Previously, she held various ministerial posts in the French government: she was Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment and before that Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade in the government of Dominique de Villepin. Lagarde was the first woman to become finance minister of a G8 economy, and is the first woman to head the IMF.

 
 

 
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On the Forbes list or not, we all know powerful women. The role models in our life.
Who is your great example, your role model?
Share with us in the comment box below!!

Mirjam Stoffels

Founder of seven2success, guest blogger at TEDx, Project Eve and 365 dagen succesvol. In my mission to make seven2success the biggest platform of knowledge and inspiration for women, by women, I want to inspire you with our content! Check us out on Facebook and Twitter! I’d love to connect! 
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