Facebook (No. 10, COO Sheryl Sandberg): In 2013, Facebook’s profits increased 2,730%. The social media giant is benefiting from increased revenue from mobile advertising, and it announced a more than $2 billion deal in early 2014 to acquire virtual-reality company Oculus VR. Sandberg remains integral to the company’s long-term growth strategy.
Hewlett-Packard (No. 6, Chairman, CEO and President Meg Whitman): Although the tech company’s 2013 revenues fell 6.7% to $112.2 billion in 2013, HP’s turnaround has started to show encouraging results. In the third quarter of this year, HP’s sales rose for the time in over three years. Yet Whitman is just two years into her five-year plan to turn around the struggling company.
Intel (No. 21, President Renée James): James, a member of the company’s two-person executive team, is aggressively trying to move Intel beyond PC and server chips and into news technologies. By the end of 2014, the company has set a goal of getting its chips into 40 million tablets. The chip maker is also launching consumer products.
General Dynamics (No. 11, Chairman and CEO Phebe Novakovic) Before Novakovic took over as CEO in January 2013, General Dynamics had posted a $332 million loss. Last year, the company made $2.4 billion in profit, which in turn boosted the company’s one-year total return.
Lockheed Martin (No. 4, Chairman, CEO and President Marillyn Hewson): In 2013, her first year as CEO of the world’s largest defense contractor, Hewson led the company to record operating profits and earnings per share. Now she is looking beyond the traditional defense industry for growth, in areas like airport and air traffic management and renewable energy.
Infographic by Analee Kasudia