Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A sex tech startup goes bust, Shalanda Young was an instrumental figure in President Joe Biden's debt deal, and women CEOs run 10.4% of the companies on this year's Fortune 500. Have a productive Monday!
- Keeping it 500. At the beginning of 2023, the Broadsheet reported on a Fortune 500 milestone: For the first time in the list's history, women ran 10% of companies on the ranking.
Today, the 2023 edition of the Fortune 500 is out, and that stat has held steady; women today run 10.4% of Fortune 500 businesses. That's 52 female chief executives in total, an 18% rise from this time last year.
The Fortune 500 ranks the largest U.S. public companies by revenue; the 500 companies on the list represent $18 trillion in revenue, more than two-thirds of U.S. GDP. The list is a microcosm for American business writ large, so the share of firms led by female CEOs sheds light on gender diversity in executive leadership beyond this elite cohort.
There are 12 newcomers on this year's list of female Fortune 500 CEOs. Some, like Opendoor CEO Carrie Wheeler and ADP CEO Maria Black, were promoted internally. Others were external hires, like Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar and former Ulta chief Mary Dillon, who began a second stint running a Fortune 500 company when she took over Foot Locker last fall.
Female CEOs also join and depart this group when their companies become part of or fall off the Fortune 500 each year. Clorox CEO Linda Rendle, for example, is no longer among this year's cohort; she is still running the cleaning products company, but it fell below the $7.2 billion revenue threshold needed to appear on the Fortune 500 this time around.
There are still few women of color running Fortune 500 businesses; among them are Fannie Mae's Almodovar, Walgreens' Roz Brewer, TIAA's Thasunda Brown Duckett, AMD's Lisa Su, and Yum China's Joey Wat.
As Accenture CEO Julie Sweet told me, companies are realizing the value of diverse leadership. "The era of A.I. is requiring companies to reinvent every aspect—we call it total enterprise reinvention," she says. "Diverse leaders have had to continuously reinvent and adapt at a personal level throughout their careers. They're resilient, adaptable, and have to be pioneers."
Read the full story here for all the details on this year's Fortune 500.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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