Special Program Root Tag

Abigail Johnson is nearing the summit of the Mount Everest of mutual funds, Fidelity Investments.

Anne Stausboll, the recently appointed chief executive officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, has good reason for supporting national health care reform. CalPERS is the nation's second-largest purchaser of health care, and this year will spend $5.7 billion on health care for its 1.3 million members.

One of Maliz Beam's major initiatives since joining TIAA-CREF in 2004 has been building out the advice platform.

Kathleen Murphy, the new head of Fidelity Investments' personal investing unit, sees plenty of challenges and opportunities ahead at her new employer. But the former CEO of ING's U.S. wealth management unit has already tackled what has to be one of the toughest: Maintaining employee morale as the market convulsed.

When Catherine Smith took the reins of ING's U.S. Retirement Services last December, it was an especially jittery time for investors. So one of her first orders of business was to personally call or visit many of ING's largest clients, backing up the efforts of field representatives.

Bank of America's Global Research division, led by Merrill veteran Candace Browning, was the first Merrill unit integrated after the acquisition closed on Jan. 1. "On day one, we were hard at work," Browning says.

When Ranjana Clark joined Western Union this past spring, she said goodbye to Wells Fargo. But not to banking.

Carla Brooks isn't a banker, but the managing director and deputy portfolio manager at Commerce Street Capital LLC, has been on the front lines of the banking crisis.

As chief marketing officer and chief innovation officer at AXA Equitable, Barbara Goodstein is responsible for all of AXA Equitable's digital efforts, corporate communications and advertising. In this time of shaky investor confidence, Goodstein and her team have focused on conveying a consistent message across multiple channels.

Goldman Sachs pushed away the rumors and calmed the frayed nerves concerning its own health, and Liz Beshel played an essential role in that effort as the firm's treasurer.

During 19 years at MasterCard, Joan Kelly has helped lead the development of systems that now process more than 21 billion payment transactions and settle $2.5 trillion between financial institutions.

When she was chief information officer for Discover Financial Services, Diane Offereins created a network designed to put the 23-year-old company on technological par with its older and larger rivals. Now, as head of Discover's Payment Services, Offereins puts that infrastructure to work.

At first glance, it seems as though the credit crisis would hit a retailer's account base hard. But Susan Ehrlich has managed to keep Sears Holdings Corp.'s customer count steady with a few old-fashioned tricks.

Take away everything Carla Harris has accomplished in her career at Morgan Stanley and you would still have an extraordinary resume: gospel singer, much sought-after lecturer, newly-minted author, and director on the boards of eight non-profit organizations.

As the head of the largest woman-run hedge fund in the United States, it's easy to understand why Anne Dias Griffin has made this list for a third consecutive year.

In a year of upheaval, these women stood out for their leadership, their coolness under pressure, and their continued drive to innovate.

Liz Ann Sonders says her job is to educate, rather than make predictions. "I differ from my CIO brethren in that I'm not asked to make bombastic forecasts about where the S&P will close at year end," she says. "I'm really just supposed to interpret what's going on."

Kathy Elsesser, a Goldman managing director since 2002 and partner since 2004, and head of its consumer retail group in investment banking, has used every ounce of her energy to keep her team on track.

Many executives take pride in quickly making judgment calls. But what Paula Rosput Reynolds learned in an arduous year as vice chairman and chief restructuring officer at the embattled AIG was the value of a carefully formed opinion.

Suzanne Shank can make competing with the big guys on Wall Street sound ho-hum. "You can have a lot of bodies, but if you have a good group of people with good connections you can do a pretty good job."