Julie Sweet

You baked a cake? Good. You might get hired at Accenture.

Julie Sweet spent 17 years navigating billion-dollar deals and boardroom politics at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

One of the most prestigious (and brutal) law firms on Wall Street.

She made partner.

A title only eight other women had held in the firm’s history.

But instead of riding that prestige until retirement, Julie did something no one expected.

She walked away.

In 2010, she joined Accenture as general counsel.

Not exactly the glamorous next step from Cravath.

But five years later, she was running the company’s largest geographic market: North America.

By 2019, she became CEO.

Two years later, she took over as Chair.

Today, she leads 742,000 employees across 120 countries.

$64 billion in revenue.

Fortune 500.

First woman to ever hold the role.

And she didn’t take the job to warm a seat.

Julie has fundamentally restructured what leadership at scale looks like.

From who gets hired, to how companies think, to where the future is headed.

First: she changed the rules on talent.

Her favorite interview question? “What have you learned in the last six months?”

Not your GPA. Not your resume. Just: are you evolving?

“If someone can’t answer, that’s a red flag. We don’t care if it’s baking a cake. If you’re not a learner, you’re not growing.”

In a world where tech moves faster than job titles, Julie built a company that prioritizes curiosity over credentials.

Second: she bet early on AI.

In 2023, while most CEOs were still asking ChatGPT what to do next, Julie was already meeting with 30+ CEOs across four continents to chart how AI would upend business models.

In 2024, she launched 10 generative AI “innovation hubs” around the globe.

She pledged to double the number of employees trained in AI and data.

And she shifted the conversation from “What does AI replace?” to “Who’s ready to lead with it?”

Third: she made DEI impossible to ignore.

In 2019, Julie set a bold goal: 50/50 gender parity at Accenture by 2025.

She didn’t hide it in a slide deck.

She backed it with policy, mentorship pipelines, executive incentives.

By the time she was named Fortune’s Most Powerful Woman in Business, Accenture had become a model for global inclusion.

She also serves on the boards of Catalyst, the World Economic Forum, CSIS, and the Marriott Foundation.

She co-chairs national coalitions for jobs, apprenticeships, and economic mobility.

She’s one of the most influential voices shaping how work, talent, and equity will collide over the next decade.

TIME called her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Forbes named her the #11 most powerful woman globally.

And yet, outside of corporate boardrooms, most people still don’t know who she is.