Top 20 Outstanding Women CEOs of 2024

Goal-oriented leadership involves setting clear and specific goals where possible, based on established experience, and which are purposeful and achievable. A goal-oriented leader is grounded in knowledge and a realistic outlook, being aware of the organization’s context, such as the traditions on which it is based, and the risks being taken.

InterOme is a digital healthcare provider that works on improving individual and clinical decisions by making complexity simple. Corina J Shtir co-founded InterOme with her husband, John Shtir, COO InterOme, who is also CEO of Dexwell, a software company that matches very well in its expertise elements needed for InterOme. Their goal was to bring together the trifecta of biology, analytics, and software development under a single umbrella. Through the company leadership, they all bring together more than 50 years of combined experience in precision medicine, custom software development, management services, and large-scale system integration. They solve general systemic problems through highly specialized approaches and deploy single-user applications up to enterprise-wide business systems—to focus on the last-mile problem.

Devee McNally will be the first person to say her intention was never to own a business. She never thought she would be working with a team, collaborating, creating, and developing thoughtful products in a beautiful office space. From the start, her only goal was to provide households with the Junk Drawer Organizer® because it would solve a problem and make their lives more joyful. However, after the initial success of her flagship item, she was driven and inspired to create other innovative, useful products which over time has led to establishing the madesmart® brand as an industry leader in home organization with approximately 400 items that provide storage and organization throughout the home.

Dez Rock’s greatest strength is always seeing the big picture. A startup requires a person who can always fight all fronts without losing perspective and making things personal; this is where she excels. Dez’s mind works at a faster pace than the average person’s; with her ability to see solutions and paths like puzzle pieces, she has managed to take a great idea to market and make it grow.

Today, more than ever, it is essential for leaders to think about future generations because they have the power to shape the world. Leaders who think beyond their interests and consider the long-term impact of their decisions can create a better future for everyone. In fact, generative leaders strive to leave the world a better place than they found it. They focus on creating an inspiring and enriching human experience for their people outside of work.

Jessy Tolkan, CEO & President, Drive Agency, is propelled to ideate, support, and put out into the world programs that, at their core, create a better and more sustainable world. By putting people at the center of her work, she roots all aspects of Drive Agency in equity and justice. Jessy is a positive disrupter- pushing everyone from foundations, donors, and large corporations to embed women’s rights, human rights, and improved sustainable mechanisms into their central processes. She seeks to elevate idea creators’ and movement organizers’ voices so that those doing the hard can receive recognition and further spread awareness and knowledge about their vital work. Jessy is also an ardent supporter and amplifier of youth voices. Garnering her start as a youth climate activist, she understands and seeks to find avenues to include youth movement voices in global change-making.

A Chartered Accountant by profession and having worked close to two decades in the Finance sector, Manjula Basant Rai, Founder, and CEO of Spaanda, always felt something was missing and sometimes questioned the purpose of her journey. While at Tesco, she stumbled across sustainability by chance, and that was her light bulb moment. In a flash, she knew what she could do and what she had to do. “Spaanda was born in my thoughts and over time I gave it shape and form in my own head. I had a vision of what I wanted to offer and where we could add value to businesses and corporates. I launched Spaanda in August 2020, right in the middle of Covid but I knew deep down we had a solid proposition that would thrive in a world that was gearing up to face the challenges of climate change,” she explains. “When I was working in the corporate world I realised that navigating climate change and performing risk assessments could be tricky. Spaanda was born to address this gap.”

Supportive leadership is an essential and valuable leadership style for businesses. It fosters positive relationships between employees and ultimately empowers team members to develop their professional skills and work well autonomously or with little active management and guidance.

Michelle Tong is known for her innovative mindset and strategic vision. Her ability to foresee market trends and pivot the company’s strategy accordingly has significantly shaped the organizational culture at Synear Foods USA. She fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, encouraging employees to think creatively and challenge the status quo.

Mirna Martinez Santiago has more than 25 years of legal experience, handling a range of matters, but is now focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Employment Law. In 2018, Mirna founded Girls Rule the Law, Inc. (www.girlsrulethelaw.org) to introduce underprivileged and underrepresented middle and high school girls to the law and allow them to interact with mentors in the legal, judiciary, and legislative fields. Mirna lectures on an array of topics – with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and the elimination of bias– and has published on legal as well as non-legal subjects. Mirna has been featured in Latina Magazine and on NBC News, speaking about the Afro-Latina experience.

Leadership is about people – impacting and shaping lives positively. To be an effective leader, one must genuinely desire to serve others. We require Servant Leaders in our world today – leadership that measures and prioritizes the conditions of the people before self. Whether you are a religious head, corporate leader, or political leader, the necessities and well-being of the people must be your utmost concern. Sarah-Mae Amde, Managing Director and CEO of Paragon Digital Consulting is one such leader who has the gift to help others uncover and leverage their unique talents and abilities in a way that inspires them to achieve things that they were always too afraid to attempt. Even as a child, she aspired to change policies that inadvertently caused suffering to the people that it was designed to empower and sought to find ways to change them.