Who’s on the list of the Most Powerful Rising Executives? Rising stars from American Express, Disney, Microsoft, NVIDIA, among others

7 of 25 executives are women

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Fortune Next to Lead today unveiled its second annual Most Powerful Rising Executives list, highlighting 25 high-performing and fast-advancing leaders within the Fortune 500 who demonstrate the strategic vision, leadership acumen, and operational excellence required to ascend to the CEO role.

Executives on the list work across a wide range of sectors, including energy, technology, health care, travel, and retail. Financial services and technology lead the list with the most rising executives (six each), including leaders from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, American Express, and Bank of America on the financial side, and HP, IBM, and Microsoft on the technology side.

The Fortune Next to Lead: 25 Most Powerful Rising Executives includes Ian Buck, NVIDIA, Vice President of Hyperscale and High-Performance Computing; Josh D’Amaro, the Walt Disney Co., Chairman, Disney Experiences; Danny Hughes, Hilton, President of the Americas; Mark Reuss, General Motors, President, among others. Click here for the complete list.

Notably, seven of the 25 featured leaders are women, including Halide Alagöz of Ralph Lauren, Diana Frost of Kraft Heinz, Kate Gutmann of UPS, Karen Carter of Dow, Marianne Lake of JPMorgan Chase, Donna Langley of NBCUniversal, and Anna Marrs of American Express.

In an excerpt from her article, Ruth Umoh, Editor of Fortune Next to Lead, says, “The story this year’s list tells is not simply who is next in line, but how the entire conception of CEO readiness has evolved.” She adds, “The leaders on this year’s list embody that shift. While they don’t have a uniform résumé, what unites them is that they’re already operating at CEO altitude.”

Fortune used its proprietary methodology to identify this group of notable rising executives at Fortune 500 companies. The full methodology is available here.

The list is part of Fortune’s Next to Lead franchise, which spotlights the next generation of business leadership within Fortune 500 companies. Next to Lead is a cross-platform editorial franchise that reaches audiences through print, digital, vodcasts, and a YouTube channel, led by Ruth Umoh. Its weekly newsletter offers actionable insights for rising leaders, in partnership with McKinsey & Company. Subscribe here.

About Fortune:
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