CNBC Changemakers
Jesse Grant | CNBC
CNBC is now accepting nominations for the 2026 Changemakers list that options women reworking enterprise and philanthropy, who’ve achieved a significant achievement in 2025. With a group of 100 women who we have named to our 2024 and 2025 lists thriving and innovating throughout industries, it is more vital than ever to spotlight the women defying odds. Just just like the women on our first two Changemakers lists, for this upcoming list we’re on the lookout for women who’re taking novel approaches to outdated enterprise issues and figuring out new enterprise alternatives.
Our Changemakers community has continued to succeed in new milestones, with a lot of notable strikes this yr. Instacart CEO Fidji Simo was hired by OpenAI as head of functions. Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart’s basketball league, Unrivaled, drew new buyers, together with Serena Williams’ firm Serena Ventures, at a valuation of $340 million. Paris Hilton, after launching a brand new skincare line, Paravie, in August debuted because the star of Karl Lagerfeld’s new marketing campaign.
Angela Hwang is continuing her role innovating in biotech as CEO-Partner of Flagship Pioneering and CEO of Metaphore, after leaving her function at Pfizer, the place she helped convey 600 medicines and vaccines to sufferers. Sima Sistani, previously the CEO of WeightWatchers, is now an adjunct professor at Duke. And former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is now a distinguished fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations, amid stories that she’s considering a presidential run.
I’m thrilled to get to interview so a lot of our Changemakers together with different influential women for the brand new CNBC podcast I’m internet hosting, “Changemakers & Power Players,” which is launching Tuesday on all main platforms. I’ve discovered a lot from these women about how they’ve navigated seemingly unimaginable conditions and located the methods that work greatest for them — in enterprise, and in life.
Women have made some progress in management — they now run a file 11% of Fortune 500 companies, a quantity that is been on the rise over the previous decade. But that file quantity nonetheless represents an enormous gender hole, and it is truly rising in key roles throughout company America. In reality, for the primary time in years, feminine illustration on S&P 500 boards and management groups has declined, according to a report from Altrata launched in August. And new feminine director appointments for Russell 3000 corporations have dropped to their lowest level since 2017, according to Equilar. That might have large ripple results throughout company insurance policies and the views included in C-suite determination making.
Meanwhile, in what Fortune dubbed the “bro-IPO” summer, 88% of the 61 corporations that filed for IPOs in early August had one or zero women on their board of administrators, whereas 93% had one or zero women of their C-suite. Given that women maintain about 30% of board seats at Russell 3000 corporations and 29% of C-suite roles, the newly-minted public corporations present a notable decline in management range. This comes as companies roll again gender range efforts. After an unfavorable appeals court decision in December, Nasdaq stopped mandating corporations disclose their board gender and variety stats. In February, Goldman Sachs dropped its pledge to refuse to take corporations public if their boards had been completely male. In any case, feminine illustration in key highly effective roles is even more uncommon within the new breed of public corporations.
That’s why we consider it is more vital than ever to spotlight the work of women who’re succeeding — innovating and driving change at their organizations and past. Just as previously two years, this list might be unranked, and can characteristic women throughout industries, together with philanthropy. We’re thrilled to have the steering of our CNBC Changemakers Advisory Board of skilled leaders throughout industries to assist us decide the load of standards used to pick out the list and establish an inclusive group of women.
We hope you may think about nominating your self or women who’re operating massive organizations. We’re on the lookout for leaders at corporations and organizations with no less than $25 million in annual income in no less than one of many previous three years, or an enterprise worth of $100 million for personal corporations and $250 million for public corporations.
We will announce the list in February 2026 and we’ll host our second annual Changemakers Summit in April. Please attain out to [email protected] with any questions.
Submit a nomination for the 2026 CNBC Changemakers list.
Follow and hearken to the CNBC “Changemakers & Power Players” podcast on Apple and Spotify.