Woertz Named Fourth Most Powerful Woman In Business
For the eighth straight year, Fortune magazine has named Smeal College of Business alumna Patricia Woertz '74 to its list of the most powerful women in business. Woertz is also featured on the magazine's cover and in a lengthy profile inside.
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (October 6, 2006) – For the eighth straight year, Fortune magazine has named Smeal College of Business alumna Patricia Woertz '74 to its list of the most powerful women in business. Woertz is also featured on the magazine's cover and in a lengthy profile inside.
The Oct. 16 issue of Fortune has Woertz up two spots from her sixth place ranking last year to fourth, the position held by Oprah Winfrey on the 2005 list.
Woertz was named CEO of Archer Daniels Midland Co. in May, which, at the time, made the agribusiness corporation the largest public company in the United States with a woman as chief executive officer. Prior to joining ADM, she spent 29 years at Chevron, retiring in February as executive vice president of the company's Global Downstream division.
The seven-page profile of Woertz in Fortune details her career and her plans for growing ADM, including increasing its production of ethanol. Robert Koehler, associate professor emeritus of accounting at Smeal, comments in the article on his memories of Woertz as a student.
"She got job offers from everywhere she interviewed," Fortune quotes Koehler as saying. "That was rare."
The complete Fortune profile of Woertz is available online at money.cnn.com/2006/09/29/magazines/fortune/mpw.woertz.fortune.
Smeal honored Woertz as a distinguished alumna last year and the Penn State Alumni Association named her an Alumni Fellow in 2002. She has remained active in the college and University since earning her bachelor's degree in accounting from Smeal in 1974, including delivering the fall 2003 commencement address for Penn State.
Woertz currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Petroleum Institute, the Board of Trustees of the University of San Diego in California, and on Smeal's Board of Visitors.
Woertz's ranking on the Fortune list is based on four criteria: the size and importance of her business in the global economy, her clout inside her company, the trajectory of her career, and her cultural and social influence.
