World's Most Powerful Black Women
Condoleezza Rice top's the list as the world's most powerful black woman and is in forth place on the worlds 100 Most Powerful Woman list, Forbes magazines annual ranking of the 100 most powerful women on the planet.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 52, one of U.S. President George W. Bush closest advisers and America's top diplomat. Rice has been ranked the second most powerful woman last year but dropped to the No.4 position this year. Ms. Rice is the only black woman to make the top 20.
Billionaire media queen, Oprah Winfrey who ranked No.14 vlast year has been knocked out of the top 20 this year landing at position No.21. Her namesake show, where she stresses spirituality and re-invention, has topped the daytime talk show ratings for 21 years, garnering 48 million viewers per week in the US.
Holding the 41st position is Starcom MediaVest Group's chief executive, Renetta McCann. Since becoming chief executive of Starcom MediaVest in 2005, McCann has made the company the largest media buyer in the world, with an 8% share of global media planning. Her company buys about $18 billion a year in media time for companies like Coca-Cola and General Motors.
At No. 81 is Portia Simpson Miller, ex-Prime Minister of Jamaica. Miller was Jamaica's first female prime minister and was elected in February 2006 as the candidate of the People's National Party. Simpson Miller is a longtime government official who formerly oversaw tourism, labor, community development, local government and social security affairs for the island. Her party recently lost Jamaica's election.
Luisa Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique is at No. 89. Diogo, is waging a battle to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic affecting Mozambique, where 16% of the country's 20 million citizens have contracted the disease, costing the nation 1% of its GDP every year. She recently spent time with Chinese business leaders to promote technology investment in sectors like agriculture, which employs 70% of the population, but only contributes 30% of GDP.. Diogo has won kudos for helping turn around one of the world's poorest countries.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female president, holds the No. 100 position. A longtime politician, Sirleaf, 66, now has to contend with putting her country back together after a 14-year civil war that left the capital Monrovia in near ruins. She must also deal with government mismanagement that has all but destroyed Liberia's economy. Her efforts to get the war-torn country back on track and on the international investment radar screen have been fruitful. The IMF named Liberia one of four post-conflict countries to receive additional financial aid and technical assistance, including a possible cancellation of its $800 million late payment to the world lender. Several other countries, including China, have cancelled bilateral debts. Bans against timber and diamond trades have been lifted and investors are returning. In the spring, African-American billionaire Robert Johnson led a delegation to Liberia as part of his $30 million loan program to assist Liberian-owned businesses; meanwhile billionaire Lakshmi Mittal's Mittal Steel had its iron ore-mining program approved by parliament.
