The median pay for female CEOs rose 21% in 2014 to $15.9m, according to findings. Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, was the highest-paid with an income of $42.1m for the year – up 69% on 2013.
Despite an IT exec topping the earnings charts, four women from the snack, grains and ingredient sectors gained places in the top 10 earnings list.
PepsiCo
Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, was the highest earner among her food counterparts, placing fourth in the top 10 list with earnings of $19.1m in 2014 – up 45% from 2013.
Nooyi drove forward a ‘Better Together’ strategy over the past year, focused on merging and co-branding beverage and snacks. She also backed a number of interactive marketing campaigns, including Lay’s ‘Do us a Flavor’ and Doritos Jacked ‘Mystery Flavor’.
ADM
Patricia Woertz, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, placed eighth in the top 10 list with earnings of $16.3m in 2014 – up 138% from 2013.
Woertz led ADM through a series of M&A activity in 2014, including the purchase of WILD flavors for $3.1bn and the sell-off of its chocolate business ADM Cocoa to Cargill for $440m. She also negotiated the attempted A$3.4bn buy-out of GrainCorp in 2013, but it was blocked in November.
Mondelez
Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Mondelez International, placed ninth in the top 10 list with earnings of $15.9m in 2014 – up 14% from 2013.
Rosenfeld navigated Mondelez through its second year as the global snacks spin-off of Kraft Foods, created in 2012. During 2014, she instigated the acquisition of Vietnamese biscuit leader Kinh Do and also strengthened sustainability commitments around palm oil.
DuPont
Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont, placed tenth in the world’s highest-paid female CEOs with earnings of $13.1m in 2014 – down 1% from 2013.
Kullman steered DuPont through difficulties surrounding its GM maize DuPont Pioneer 1507, which was voted against by a majority of EU member states. She also backed a commitment made by the head of DuPonts nutrition & health division to launch 4,000 food-related products in the next six years.