CNBC is now accepting nominations for our second annual Changemakers list.
The list recognizes women transforming business and philanthropy, female leaders who have accomplished a meaningful achievement in 2024. The goal of our list is to highlight trailblazing women who have defied the odds — about 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and female founders draw less than 2% of venture capital dollars. Changemakers are taking novel approaches to old business problems and identifying new business opportunities.
Women who are leaders at companies and organizations (including philanthropies) with at least $25 million in annual revenue in at least one of the past three years, or an enterprise value of $100 million for private companies and $250 million for public companies can submit a nomination.
The deadline for submissions is Monday, Nov. 11 at 11:59 pm EST.
The list will be announced next year, and our second annual Changemakers Summit is set for next spring.
Beyond that, we’ve grown our advisory board of experienced leaders across business and philanthropy to help us determine the weight of criteria used to select the women recognized and help us identify an inclusive group of women.
Joining the CNBC Changemakers Advisory Board is a member of our inaugural list: Dina Powell McCormick, Vice Chairman and President of Global Client Services and a Partner of BDT-MSD, and former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy to former President Donald Trump. She is joining me, along with the other returning members of last year’s advisory board:
- Marcela Miguel Berland, Latin Insights Founder & President
- Tory Burch, Tory Burch LLC Executive Chairman & Chief Creative Officer; Tory Burch Foundation Founder
- Emma Carrasco, NBCUniversal News Group Senior VP of Corporate Affairs
- Srikant Datar, Harvard Business School Dean
- Karen Finerman, Metropolitan Capital Advisors CEO & Co-Founder and CNBC Contributor
- Ken Frazier, General Catalyst’s Health Assurance Initiatives Chairman; former Merck Chairman & CEO
- Desiree Gruber, Full Picture Founder & CEO
- Oscar Munoz, former United Airlines Chairman & CEO and CNBC Contributor
- Laurene Powell Jobs, Emerson Collective Founder & President
- Merline Saintil, Rocket Lab Lead Independent Director; Black Women on Boards Co-Founder
- Sheryl Sandberg, LeanIn.org & OptionB.org Founder
- Dr. Stacy Smith, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Founder
This year’s call for nominations begins as, according to some metrics, female leaders have made meaningful progress.
Female representation on S&P 500 boards hit a historic high this year, according to a report out last week from executive search firm Spencer Stuart. Now 34% of board seats are held by women, up 15 percentage points over the past decade. The firm also tracked an increase in female CEOs of S&P 500 companies — there are 43, up from 39 in 2023. But the pipeline to grow the number of female CEOs is “fragile,” according to Sheryl Sandberg. The latest Women in the Workplace Report from LeanIn and McKinsey found that based on the current rate of change, it will take 22 years for white women and 48 years for women of color to reach parity in the workforce.
It’s this fragile nature of progress that underscores the importance of the Changemakers mission to highlight a new wave of executives that are transcending gender barriers and serving as role models for all.
Submit a nomination for the 2025 Changemakers list.
