Europe’s top women in business: 25 to 21

The revelation of the FT’s 2007 power list begins with a new entry from SNCF and slip for a media mogul. You can read the ranking criteria here and the 2006 list here. The rankings from 20 to 16 will be published on Tuesday October 9.

21. Vivienne Cox

Rank in 2006: 20
Position: Executive Vice-president BP
Age: 48

Cox joined BP in 1981 after leaving Oxford University with a chemistry degree. She first started in a commercial role in BP Chemicals, moving to BP Exploration in 1985 and BP Finance in 1987 where she masterminded the sale by the UK Government of its remaining shares in BP. She has since set up the commodity derivatives group within oil trading and managed the development of new business in central and eastern Europe.

She became vice-president of gas, power and renewables in 2004 - leading BP’s growing interest in alternative energy sources such as biofuels – and is now the most senior woman in the company. She has a strong combination of business skills (including an MBA from Insead) and a broad knowledge of the business. And despite her hectic schedule, she still gets home in time to put her two children to bed at least three nights a week.

Cox continues to oversee BP Alternative Energy, which she created two years ago and which aims to be the world’s leading low carbon power producer by 2015. When it launched, it committed to investing $8bn over 10 years in low carbon power including solar, wind, combined cycle gas turbines and hydrogen power. And in a difficult couple of years for BP, Cox has emerged with her position intact and reputation untarnished.

Ed Crooks

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22. Anne-Marie Idrac

Rank in 2006: New entry
Position: Chairwoman of the Board, Managing Director, SNCF
Age: 56

Idrac spent a number of years as a politician before joining SNCF, France’s national railway. Since she was elected to Parliament in 1997, she has held several roles including Secretary of State for Transportation, Vice-President at the Assemblée Nationale for the Union for French Democracy Party (UDF) and member of Regional Council of Ile-de-France.

In 2002, Idrac left her political post to become Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer at the Paris Transport Authority (RATP). Four years later, she was offered the top job heading SNCF. La Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer – which counts high-speed TGV and Eurostar trains amongst its fleet - transports nearly a billion passengers a year and is one of the country’s largest state-owned companies.

But Idrac’s task at the top will be challenging as she tries to turn an old state-owned monopoly into a successful market-driven company. She has to boost productivity, efficiency and cut costs, but time is short. The European Union Commission has ruled that in 2010, all EU passenger rail routes will be opened up to competition through auctions of rights to private-sector railway companies.

Hannah Green

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23. Marie-Christine Lombard

Rank in 2006: 23
Position: Group Managing Director, TNT Express
Age: 48

Paris-born Lombard trained at Chemical Bank (later taken over by Chase Manhattan). She then worked as an investment banker in New York and Paris, before moving to the French express delivery company Jet Services as its financial adviser. She rose to become managing director, and when TNT bought the company in 1998, Lombard became its head of express business in France. Since early 2004, she has been group managing director and a member of the Board of Management.

Lombard, who is also a mother, says it is important for women with children to be treated as equals in the business world. Pointing out the hard work involved in raising children and having a successful career, she argued in one past interview that women need to insist on having supportive and flexible working environments: ”If women are successful in business, they must be so as women, not as a copy of the men.”

Lombard continues to oversee the further expansion of the company, with the aim of making it a market leader in the express sector in several emerging markets, such as China and India. Maintaining growth means making sure her delivery division increases its market share against tough competition from FedEx, UPS and DHL, though the Dutch group now claims to offer more morning deliveries than its competitors. Last month, the company launched two new worldwide time-guaranteed morning services; it also transported two panda bears from China for a two-day trip to their new home in Madrid Zoo.

Joanna Chung

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24. Anke Schäferkordt

Rank in 2006: 24
Position: Chief Executive, RTL Television Germany
Age: 44

Schäferkordt began her career at RTL’s owner, the media company Bertelsmann, in 1988. After a year as an executive assistant for sales and planning, she took over the department. She was later put in charge of business affairs at VOX, RTL Germany’s hip young sister channel, which airs documentaries and US sitcoms, and became its chief executive in 1999.

In February 2005, she moved back to RTL as deputy chief executive, and in September 2005 she took over full responsibility for the German channels of Luxemburg-based RTL. Schäferkordt’s group of channels has the highest viewing figures in Germany. Its success can be put down to formats such as Germany’s Pop Idol equivalent, and Wer wird Millionär? Schäferkordt has since focused on building audience figures and consolidating RTL Germany’s position.

Having shored up RTL’s primetime market share, the TV executive this year wants to revamp her channels’ daytime programming. She has already pronounced the chop for once-popular moot court shows involving real judges and bickering neighbours. But she has pledged not to slim down RTL’s current affairs programmes throughout the day. The move sets her apart from commercial rival ProSiebenSat1, which controversially axed a number of news shows this summer.

Gerrit Wiesmann

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25. Sly Bailey

Rank in 2006: 18
Position: Chief Executive, Trinity Mirror
Age: 45

Bailey worked as a shop assistant after leaving school, and her first media job was in advertising sales for The Guardian. Her current position at Trinity Mirror comes after a high-flying two decades, which have seen her move up from a junior managerial job at The Independent in 1987 to chief executive at magazine publisher IPC in 1999. At IPC she played a large part in its £1.2bn sale to AOL Time Warner.

Her appointment as the publisher of The Daily Mirror in February 2003 prompted some critics to worry about her limited newspaper experience, but Sir Victor Blank, then Trinity Mirror chairman, felt her ability to build businesses and brands, and to please shareholders, made her an inspired choice to lead Britain’s largest regional newspaper group. Last year Bailey cut hundreds of jobs in regional papers which earned her a vote of no confidence from the National Union of Journalists.

This year, she saw off calls for her business to be split in two, or for the national newspapers to be sold to a trophy buyer. But her half-way house solution of selling the Racing Post and a few parcels of regional papers yielded less than half the sum she had hoped for. Her challenge now will be to demonstrate that a new focus on digital integration can restore her reputation as a no-nonsense cost cutter in a tough business.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson