Janet Truncale

Truncale made partner at the global accounting firm EY despite being open with clients and colleagues about the fact that she worked part-time around three children. The 53-year-old this year busted through another barrier to become the first woman to head a Big Four firm. Her success is the culmination of a decades-long evolution in professional services: 48 per cent of EY’s nearly 400,000 employees are women. But the New Jersey native has her work cut out for her. EY is recovering from tensions revealed when senior US audit partners scuppered a plan to spin off its consulting arm. Still, Truncale is well positioned to bind the wounds. A US auditor by training, she had been running a division that included voices from both sides of the debate.