September 15, 2015 / Fortune Asia / Volume 172 / Number 4 / 50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

features

100 The Siege of Herbalife
Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman has been on a nearly three-year quest to bring down the $5-billion-in-revenue nutrition giant. Call it destructive activism. But worth asking: Do short-sellers make good regulators?
By Roger Parloff

Most Powerful Women 2015

26 Guts and grit. This is what gets a leader on Fortune's MPW list. Our 2015 edition includes 27 CEOs-whose companies are worth a combined $1 trillion. That power enough for you?

28 The Secretary Turned Studio Boss
By Michal Lev-Ram

36 The List
By Kristen Bellstrom, Beth Kowitt, Michal Lev-Ram, Leena Rao, Jennifer Reingold, Patricia Sellers, Anne VanderMey, Phil Wahba, Jen Wieczner, Valentina Zarya, and Claire Zillman

44 Apple's Retail Star: Angela Ahrendts
By Jennifer Reingold

52 The Google Effect
The inside story of tech's best training ground for women.
By Patricia Sellers

60 From CIA to CEO: General Dynamics' Phebe Novakovic
By Carla Anne Robbins

66 CVS Health's Helena Foulkes
By Phil Wahba

74 Why Wall Street Hates Mylan's Chief Exec
By Jen Wieczner

80 The Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink
From the editors of Fortune and Food & Wine

83 Most Powerful Women: International
By Rupali Arora, Erika Fry, and Claire Groden

86 Opening the Middle East to Women
One job at a time.
By Erika Fry

92 Patagonia's B Corp Buddhist
By Ryan Bradley

departments

Macro

6 The Unicorn Economy
Lavishly funded startups are changing the business landscape in surprising ways.
By Erin Griffith

9 Chartist
The gender wage gap.
By Nicolas Rapp

10 The United States of Weed
Mapping the marijuana market.
By Tory Newmyer

10 Alarmism
The emerging-markets crisis that wasn't.
By Scott Cendrowski

12 L.A. Auto Show
Ten truly innovative auto startups.
By Sue Callaway

14 Fortune Global Forum
August's stock market gyrations were a sign of a system that works.
By Geoff Colvin

Passions & Perks

16 Fine Timepieces
Tiffany & Co. resets its watch business.
By Phil Wahba

Venture

18 How I Got Started
Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, co-founder of Vera Bradley.
Interview by Dinah Eng

Tech

20 Person of Interest
Austin Geidt of Uber.
By Andrew Nusca

22 Power Plays
In the solar industry, it's a scramble to the top.
By Katie Fehrenbacher

Invest

23 Playing a Utilities Rebound

As the market cools, some of these safe-haven stocks look attractive again.
By Chris Taylor

25 ETFs Get Complicated
Surprise-you may own a hedge fund in disguise.
By Stephen Gandel

120 BING!

CORRECTIONS
"U.S. Stores Are About to Pay Up for Security" (Sept. 1, 2015) misidentified Mallory Duncan as the head of the National Retail Federation. He is the organization's SVP and general counsel. A caption in "Trading Touchdowns for Terroir" (Sept. 1, 2015) misidentified Brock Huard as his brother Damon. And our Fastest-Growing Companies list (Sept. 1, 2015) erroneously identified two companies as customers of EPAM. Fortune regrets the errors.

ON THE COVER
Clockwise: 1. Mary Barra; 2. Indra Nooyi; 3. Helena Foulkes; 4. Meg Whitman; 5. Kathleen Kennedy; 6. Taylor Swift; 7. Ruth Porat; 8. Rosalind Brewer; 9. Sheryl Sandberg; 10. Ursula Burns; 11. Susan Wojcicki; 12. Marissa Mayer; 13. Heather Bresch; 14. Phebe Novakovic; 15. Angela Ahrendts; 16. Ginni Rometty; 17. Marillyn Hewson; 18. Ellen Kullman

[IMAGES]
Michael Johnson, Herbalife CEO
MICHAEL LEWIS

Austin Geidt is leading Uber's global expansion.

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