The Magnificent Seven

Martha Sazon --CONTRIBUTED

Fortune recently unveiled a definitive ranking of 100 female business leaders from across the Asia Pacific region and seven business leaders from the Philippines made the cut.

Ranking the highest on the 2024 Fortune Most Powerful Women Asia list was GCash president and chief executive officer Martha Sazon at 38th.

She was followed by Robinsons Retail Holdings president and CEO Robina Gokongwei-Pe in 48th place and Shell Pilipinas president and CEO Lorelie Quiambao Osial at 67th.

Rounding up the list of top female leaders from the Philippines are Ayala Land CEO and president Anna Ma. Margarita Bautista Dy (73rd); Land Bank of the Philippines president and CEO Lynette Ortiz (82nd), Megaworld president Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso (85th) and Filinvest Development Corp. president and CEO Rhoda Huang (98th).

Fortune said that the 2024 list “recognizes women who are redefining the concept of leadership by transforming companies, disrupting industries and driving growth, innovation and business excellence, whilst inspiring their teams, peers, industries and the next generation of leaders.”

In this issue, the Inquirer features some of these top female business leaders to get a broader view of how they approach their work, their leadership style, the challenges they faced as women and their words of advice to the next generation of women in the workplace who want to one day become leaders like them.

The hope is that by doing so, more women will be encouraged to follow in these female executives’ footsteps and break through the glass ceiling in their own workplace.

As Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, famously said, “As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”