FILIPINO businesswoman Tessie Sy-Coson has again landed in Fortune Magazine’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in International Business.
Sy-Coson, vice chair of SM Investment Corp. and eldest daughter of retail magnate Henry Sy, placed 46th in the 2006 Fortune list, retaining the ranking she had last year.
She is so far the only Filipina to make it to the Fortune list.
This is also the sixth year that Sy-Coson was named to the list which appeared in the magazine’s Oct. 23, 2006 issue.
“I hope it will bring us more business,�? Sy-Coson said in reaction to her latest inclusion in the Fortune list.
“Sy-Coson, the eldest daughter of retail tycoon Henry Sy, scored big this year with the opening of the Mall of Asia in Manila, one of the largest malls in the world,�? writes Fortune Magazine’s Jenny Mero. “Foot traffic hit record numbers, which will surely boost revenues ( billion last year) at the holding company.
Sy-Coson’s responsibility in the SM group, built by her father in 1958, covers a wide sector. She is also the vice chair of Equitable Banking Corp., the country’s third largest bank; the president of SM Inc., which handles SM’s retail businesses; and director of SM Prime Holdings, which owns and operates SM’s supermalls.
Sy-Coson, a widow, is personally involved in selecting the items which land in SM department stores and takes a direct hand in the group’s marketing campaigns.
Mero noted that “with seven new entrants and strong contingents from France and China, our international list shows that business is opening up to women—fast.�?
Top 3 women
The top three women on this year’s Most Powerful Women list are running French companies—all of them Fortune Global 500 corporations.
Topping the list is Pat Russo for France, who is taking over the soon to be merged Alcatel Lucent, which will be based in Paris and will become one of the largest telecom companies in the world.
Anne Lauvergeon, who heads nuclear giant Areva, is ranked No. 2, while Anne Marie Idrac, recently appointed president of the French railway system SNCF, is No. 3.
Others in the Fortune’s top 10 list include the Netherlands’ Linda Cook, executive director of Gas and Power of Royal Dutch Shell; Britain’s Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson, which owns the Financial Times; China’s Xie Qihua, chair of the Baosteel Group; Italy’s Marina Berlusconi, chair of Finivest, the media conglomerate founded by her father, the former Prime Minister; the Netherlands’ Nancy McKinstry, chair and CEO of publishing and online company Wolters Kluer; Spain’s Ana Patricia Botin, executive chair of Banesto, and China’s Mary Ma, CFO of Lenovo, the world’s third largest computer company.
Year of woman CEO
Indira Nooyi, the Indian-born newly appointed CEO of Pepsi, on the other hand, topped the US List of Most Powerful Women, leading the way in what editors call “the year of the woman CEO.
Others in the US list’s top 10 include Anne Mulcahy, chair and CEO of Xerox; Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay; Pat Woertz, CEO and president of Archer Daniels Midland; Irene Rosenfield, CEO of Kraft Foods; Brenda Barnes, chair and CEO of Sara Lee; Oprah Winfrey, chair of Harpo Inc.; Sally Krawcheck, CFO and head of Strategy of Citigroup and Susan Arnold, vice chair, Beauty and Health of Procter and Gamble.