KU News Release

KU graduates are named top international power players

Cynthia Carroll

LAWRENCE — Jayhawks are on top of the world when it comes to business. Two University of Kansas graduates are ranked No. 1 and No. 3 in the International Power 50, Fortune magazine’s new listing of the most powerful business women on the planet.

At No. 1 is Cynthia Carroll, who earned her master’s degree in geology at KU in 1982 before earning a master’s of business administration at Harvard University. As CEO of Anglo American, she runs one of the world’s largest independent mining companies.

Carroll is scheduled to return to KU this fall to meet with students in the School of Business and present a public lecture. Her presentation, “The Role and Responsibility of the Multi-National Corporation,” is set for 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. While here she also will be presented with the Haworth Award from the Department of Geology.

Linda Zarda Cook

Her visit is sponsored by the Hall Center for the Humanities, and co-sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the Department of Geology and the School of Business.

Linda Cook, a Shawnee native, is ranked No. 3 on the Fortune list. She graduated from KU in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and is now executive director of gas and power for Royal Dutch Shell.

“Already the highest-ranking woman at the world’s second-largest energy company, (Cook) is a favorite to take over as CEO next year. That would make Shell the first oil major to have a woman chief executive and the largest company in the world in any industry to be led by one,” says Fortune.

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine also ranked Carroll and Cook among the most powerful women in the world. Carroll placed fifth, and Cook placed 43rd. Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, was No. 2 on the Forbes list. Bair is a native of Independence and earned a bachelor’s in philosophy in 1975 and a law degree in 1978, both from KU.

Cook and Bair both spoke on the KU campus last year.

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