11 - IRENE ROSENFELD, CEO, Mondelez International

Next we move to Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of global snack and candy giant Mondelez International, which was spun off from Kraft in 2012 as a separate public company and has recently struck a mega-deal to merge its coffee portfolio with that of D.E Master Blenders 1753 to create “the world's leading pure-play coffee company​”.

Pathway to the top:  ​A multisport athlete from Long Island, N.Y., Rosenfeld started her career at a New York advertising agency before joining General Foods in 1981 in a consumer research role. She moved steadily and rapidly up the ranks over the next two decades, and in 2004, left to become chairman/CEO of Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. But in 2006, she returned to Kraft as CEO, adding the chairman's title nine months later. In late 2012, she led the split of Kraft into Kraft Foods Group, and Mondelez International.  

Education: ​ Rosenfeld has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master of science in business and a Ph.D. in marketing and statistics, all from Cornell University.