☆Carly Fiorina

AGE 45
CEO,President
HEWLETT-PACKARD　
In July, Fiorina became the first woman CEO of one of America's 20 largest corporations (HP'S1998 revenues:$47.1 billion). Lucent's former super-saleswoman- she led its IPO in 1996 and then ran the $19 BILLION Global Service Provider division-got a pay package close to $100 million for going to Silicon Valley. Wall Streeters say she's worth it for her skills in marketing and customer relations.

☆Heidi Miller
　AGE 46
　CFO

　CITIGROUP
　The financial services industry may not have a Carly Fiorina, but Miller is about as close as it gets. As CFO of Citigroup, the offspring of last year's merger between Travelers and Citicorp, Miller guards and grows the capital at the world's largest financial services company (1998 assets:$668 billion).

☆Mary Meeker
　　

　　AGE 40
　　Managing Director

　　MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER
　　The oracle of the Net. Her brave bets---AOL in '93, Netscape in '95, e-commerce in '97, business to business in '99---have earned her eight "ten-baggers," stocks that have risen tenfold. Morgan Stanley's "We've got Mary" pitch to clients has been key to its prominence in internet financing. Her power is awesome: if she ever says, "Hold Amazon.com," Internet investors will lose billions.

☆Shelly Lazarus

　　AGE 52 Chairman , CEO

　　OGILVY&MATHER
　　Adverting's most powerful woman is solid, well round, and strategic, just like the ad agency she runs, the world's seventh largest. Lazarus has wooed and kept blue-chip clients such as IBM, American Express,　Kodak, and Ford. In the past year Ogilvy won more than$700 million in new business.

☆Meg Whitman
　　

　　 AGE 43
　　CEO, President

　　eBAY
　　A veteran of old-economy consumer goods marketing, Whitman had the guts to gamble on a weird new industry: online flea markets. She led EBAY through its IPO, insisted on focus and real profits, and literally changed the way people buy and sell. Ebay's market value is now $18 billion. With nearly 6% of the shares, Whitman is worth about $1 billion.