Abigail Johnson, chairman and CEO of Fidelity Investments, ranked sixth on Forbes’ 2021 Most Powerful Women list, and is this year's most powerful woman in finance.
© 2018 Bloomberg Finance LPAmid the economic turbulence brought on by the pandemic’s second year, the 14 financial leaders on Forbes’ 2021 Most Powerful Women list overcame unprecedented challenges while continuing to strengthen some of the world’s largest banking and financial institutions. They have embraced their positions of influence to bring about change with impact on economies across the world.
For doing just that, Abigail Johnson, Chairman & CEO of Fidelity Investments, ranks no. 6 on the list and is this year’s most powerful woman in finance. She has served as CEO since 2014, when she took over for her father, and became chairman in 2016. With a net-worth of $25 billion, Johnson also appeared on the 2021 Forbes 400 list, placing 27th. This year, Fidelity added over 13,000 new jobs, doubling 2020’s hiring numbers. Under her leadership, Fidelity’s assets under management have increased by more than 60% to $4.2 trillion, as the Boston investing giant inches closer to the scale of larger players in the investment banking industry.
Fidelity was one of the first traditional investment companies to embrace cryptocurrencies. In 2018, institutional investors at the bank were given the ability to trade bitcoin and ether cryptocurrencies. The effort was championed by Johnson, who is enthusiastic about blockchain technology’s role in the future of finance. “I love this stuff – Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain technology – and what the future holds,” Johnson said at Consensus, a New York City blockchain conference in 2017.
Another woman asserting her power in the world of finance is Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of Ark Invest. With her bold predictions and bets, the master stockpicker’s flagship $23 billion Ark Innovation Fund has returned an average of nearly 45% annually over the past five years. This track record vaulted wood onto the Power list for the first time; she makes her debut at no. 53. She famously backed Tesla—an early bet that paid off massively—as she predicted it would surpass a valuation of $1 trillion. In a year when few knew what to expect, Wood’s bold (and often wildly successful) investment picks made her one of the most influential people on Wall Street, with Ark’s every move sounding alarms for investors hedging the market.
There are five other finance-oriented newcomers to this year’s list of the World’s Most Powerful Women: Thasunda Brown Duckett, the newly appointed CEO at TIAA and former CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, debuted at no. 45 on the list. With her new position overseeing the leading financial services provider in the academic and research industry, she is one of just two Black women currently leading a Fortune 500 company, and is the fourth to ever do so. Hana Al Rostamani, who became Group CEO at First Abu Dhabi Bank in February, ranks 57th. She is the first female CEO at the United Arab Emirate’s largest lender and is off to a strong start to her tenure: third-quarter earnings surged 54% to $1 billion. Laura Cha, chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, debuts at no. 69. She is the first woman to take on her position, which she assumed in 2018 after leaving HSBC Asia Pacific, where she worked as deputy chairman. Tokiko Shimizu, the first female executive director of the Bank of Japan in its 130-plus year history, debuts at no. 55.
And for the first time ever, a new listee debuts with a tie: Jennifer Piepszak, the co-CEO of Consumer and Community Banking at JPMorgan Chase, shares no. 42 with her co-CEO, Marianne Lake. While it’s unusual to keep a tie in place for the Power list, the Wall Street analysts Forbes interviewed said the two women share equal power within the bank and have equal chances of succeeding CEO Jamie Dimon.
These are the most powerful women in finance, along with their ranks on the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list:
No. 6: Abigail Johnson, Chairman & CEO, Fidelity Investments
No. 7: Ana Botín, Executive Chair, Banco Santander
No. 14: Jane Fraser, CEO, Citi
No. 33: Ho Ching, Director, Temasek Trust
No. 41: Adena Friedman, President & CEO, Nasdaq
No. 42: Marianne Lake & Jennifer Piepszak, Co-CEOs, Consumer & Community Banking, JPMorgan Chase
No. 45: Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO, TIAA
No. 47: Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO, Asset Management, JPMorgan
No. 53: Cathie Wood, Founder, CEO, & CIO, Ark Invest
No. 55: Tokiko Shimizu, Executive Director, Bank of Japan
No. 57: Hana Al Rostamani, Group CEO, First Abu Dhabi Bank
No. 69: Laura Cha, Chair, Hong Kong Stock Exchange
No. 87: Dominique Senequier, Founder & President, Ardian
