Makiko Ono

Female executives stand out in Japan’s male-dominated corporate culture, where women CEOs led less than 1% of top Tokyo Stock Exchange–listed firms in 2022. And even within that small cohort, Makiko Ono is in a league of her own. When she became CEO of Suntory Beverages and Food in March, she was the first woman ever to lead a Japanese listed company with a market cap of over 1 trillion yen. The longtime Suntory veteran is aiming to grow Japan’s second largest drinks-maker by seeking $5 billion in M&A activity in the next few years. (It earned roughly $10 billion in revenue in 2022.) She also wants to expand the pipeline of female executives behind her, aiming for women to represent 30% of Suntory management, up from 11% last year.