  Profiles article index >> At the time, Fiorina was president of Lucent's largest division--a super-saleswoman famous for winning over customers in 43 countries and, before that, for winning over investors when she led Lucent's record-setting IPO. "Look, lack of computer expertise is not Hewlett-Packard's problem," she remembers telling the directors. "There are loads of people here who can provide that. I've demonstrated an ability to pick up quickly on the essence of what's important. I know what I don't know. And I know that our strengths are complementary. You have deep engineering prowess. I bring strategic vision, which HP needs." Besides making a forceful sales pitch, the shrewd Fiorina identified a key member of the HP board who could be her ally and partner: Dick Hackborn, a former executive vice president at HP and a legend at the company for having built its desktop printer business from scratch. In her second meeting with Hackborn, Fiorina said that if she became CEO, she wanted him to be chairman. "This came as a complete surprise," says Hackborn, 62. But after checking with his fellow directors, he agreed to be chairman--for a while. "This will not take long," he says. "Carly is 90% of the partnership, and she has all the capabilities to be an outstanding leader of HP." A year ago, when FORTUNE put Fiorina on the cover as the Most Powerful Woman, she was little known. Now, at 45, she is the first female CEO of one of America's 20 largest corporations. In July she accepted a "welcome to Silicon Valley" pay package that approaches $100 million. For her accomplishments, Fiorina is once again FORTUNE's No. 1 woman. Beyond Fiorina's star turn, there's a dramatic change in the composition of this year's Power 50 list. We evaluated candidates the way we did last year, when we ranked America's 50 leading businesswomen for the first time. That is, we defined power as much more than profile, position, or pay. We measured it broadly--by revenues and profits controlled, influence within a company, the importance of the business in the global economy, and its effect on culture and society. So what's new this year? Fully one-third of the women on our list--17 newcomers--not to mention steep plunges and ascents among those who made it the second time. Such radical changes reflect a major shift in the economy and also suggest a new superhighway to success: the Internet, of course. No. 3 on our list is Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's top Internet analyst, who has fed tech-stock fever more than anyone else. No. 5 is Meg Whitman. She didn't make the cut last year because she was in the midst of taking her quirky little company, eBay, public. Who (besides Mary Meeker) could have guessed what was to come? As eBay's CEO, Whitman has built the online auction house into a powerhouse, with a stock market valuation of $18 billion. In the process she has changed the way consumers buy and sell. More than half of the Power 50 newcomers are technology stars. They include Joy Covey (No. 28), the finance-chief-cum-strategist at Amazon.com; marketer Jan Brandt (No. 39), who built America Online into cyberspace's No. 1 brand; and Dawn Lepore (No. 36), the tech wizard behind the transformation of a bricks-and-mortar brokerage, Charles Schwab, into the category killer of online stock trading. One high-ranking first-timer (there are four in the top ten) isn't specifically a techie, but she is riding the convergence of media and technology: Nancy Peretsman (No. 9) is the standout investment banker at Herbert Allen's renowned media industry boutique, Allen & Co. She has made multibillion-dollar deals to sell her client companies, including MediaOne and CDnow, and she is also the financial brains behind one of this year's most successful IPOs, priceline.com. By Patricia Sellers http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/mostpowerful/index.html
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