Sharon Allen is selected as board chair of Deloitte and Touche USA; she is the highest-ranking woman in the firm’s history and the first woman to be chair at a leading professional services firm. She is responsible for the governance of an $8 billion corporation.
After thirteen years with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Linda Dillman is promoted to executive vice president and chief information officer. She is instrumental in developing a sophisticated information service network, a key component of Wal-Mart’s competitive business strategy.
Mary Sammons is selected as president and chief executive officer of Rite Aid Corporation. One of a small but growing number of women CEOs, Sammons has twenty-six years of experience at a general merchandise retailer, where she worked her way up in positions of increasing responsibility.
Robotics research engineer Ayanna Howard is named one of the world’s top young innovators by Technology Review; she works at the Telerobotics Research and Applications Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Jane Friedman, who in 1997 became the first woman head of a global book publishing company when she was named president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, is selected as chair of the Association of American Publishers; she is only the second woman to hold this post.
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is awarded to Linda B. Buck for her pioneering work, which clarifies an understanding of the human sense of smell.
With more than twenty years of U.S. and international experience, Susan Ivey is named chairman and CEO of Reynolds American Inc. Reynolds is the nation’s second largest cigarette company. Ivey serves on the Women’s Leadership Initiative for the United Way of America and on the Committee of 200, an international organization of women CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who provide mentoring, education, and support for aspiring women in business.
Financial analyst Sallie Krawcheck is appointed CFO and head of strategy at Citigroup, Inc.
Ann Sarnoff is selected as the chief operating officer (COO) of the Women’s National Basketball Association after serving as COO of VH1 and CMT: Country Music Television. In 2006, she leaves to become president of Dow Jones Ventures.
Janet L. Robinson, who came to the New York Times Company in 1983, is selected as its president and CEO.
Carol Kovac, who has worked at IBM for more than twenty years and held many management positions, launches an emerging business unit, becoming general manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences at IBM. It quickly becomes a multibillion-dollar business and one of the most successful IBM ventures to date, with more than fifteen hundred employees worldwide.