Suzy Riesterer
EVP, finance and administration
Carlson Hotels
Riesterer is working on Carlson's effort to upgrade its more than 1,000 hotels in 77 countries–to which the company is committing $500 million in new investment–as well as its goal of expanding its portfolio to 1,500 hotels by 2015.

Kathleen Gallagher
Director of asset management
Ford Motor Co.
Gallagher led Ford's effort, beginning in 2007, to reduce the risk in funding its sizable defined-benefit pension plan by moving more assets into bonds. Without that change, plan assets would have suffered in the downturn, costing Ford $7 billion in additional pension funding.

Frances Vallejo
Treasurer & VP
ConocoPhillips
Vallejo took an unusual path to her current position, starting her career at ConocoPhillips in 1987 as a geophysicist working in its seismic processing and interpretation groups. After earning an MBA, she joined the treasury group in 1996 and was named treasurer in 2008.

Beth Bombara
Controller & SVP
Hartford Financial Services Group
As the life and property and casualty insurer focuses on paring its losses from the financial crisis, Bombara's responsibilities include corporate finance, corporate expense, accounting policy, IT spending and the finances of investment unit Hartford Investment Management.

Elyse Douglas
CFO & EVP
Hertz Corp.
Douglas has led efforts to increase operating efficiency and manage costs that saved Hertz $760 million in 2009. She has also helped manage several acquisitions, including Eileo and Advantage, and refinanced the company's ?$5.5 billion of fleet debt.

Elena Doom
VP of investor relations
Honeywell International
Doom's efforts, such as communicating the pension management approach the company detailed last year, have helped Honeywell strengthen its relationship with analysts and investors. Since joining in 2002 from Arthur Andersen, she has also worked in treasury and M&A.

Kathy Lancaster
CFO & EVP of strategic planning
Kaiser Permanente
Lancaster has played an integral role in planning 15 new hospitals and implementing electronic medical records for all Kaiser Permanente members. She has also maintained better-than-industry expense trends at one of the nation's largest not-for-profit health plans.

Sue Carter
CFO & EVP
KBR
Since joining the construction and engineering company as CFO in 2009, Carter has focused on upgrading and developing KBR's financial talent. She's also concentrating on controls and compliance, cost and working capital. Earlier, Carter was CFO at Lennox International.

Jennifer Grigsby
Treasurer, secretary & SVP
Chesapeake Energy Corp.
In 2009, Grigsby's finance team built an innovative commodities hedging facility, backed by natural gas and oil reserves, rather than cash margin, to limit potential liquidity calls, and in 2010, the team arranged a new $4 billion revolving credit facility.

Shari Burgess
Treasurer & VP
Lear Corp.
Somce joining Lear in 1992, Burgess has helped it grow from a $1.4 billion private company to a $12 billion public company. As its treasurer since 2002, she also played a role in the auto parts supplier's pre-negotiated bankruptcy in 2009, which was completed in just four months.

Kathy Willard, CFO & EVP
Live Nation Entertainment
Willard worked on Live Nation's 2009 merger with Ticketmaster, a major entertainment industry deal that generated significant regulatory scrutiny. Since then she has focused on integrating the two companies' operations amid falling demand for concert tickets.

Caroline Dorsa
CFO & EVP
Public Service Enterprise Group
Last year, Dorsa made the most of strong capital markets by lengthening the duration of the utility's debt while cutting the cost of its debt portfolio. Since joining PSEG in 2009, she has focused on balance-sheet strength and cost management. Earlier, Dorsa was CFO at Avaya and worked in finance at Merck.

Kim Harris Jones
Corporate controller & SVP
Kraft Foods
Jones, Kraft's controller since 2009, is a key participant in the company's finance transformation efforts. Before joining Kraft, she spent more than 20 years in the auto industry, including a stint as Chrysler's corporate controller.

Barbara Niland
CFO & VP of business management
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding
Niland led the activities involved in consolidating two Northrop shipbuilding units, including centralizing contract, pricing and accounting policies, and also helped lead the development of a new operating system for the company's Gulf Coast shipyards.

Helen Shan
Treasurer & VP of finance
Pitney Bowes
Since joining Pitney Bowes in 2005, Shan has issued more than ?$2.5 billion of debt and preferred stock and helped reorganize the finance group. Her role was recently expanded to include responsibility for corporate development and investor relations.

Karen Mullane
Controller & VP
SunGard Data Systems
Mullane is responsible for SEC filings related to SunGard's debt offerings and stock option registrations, and for the integration of the internal controls and financial reporting for several of the company's acquisitions.

Mary Jones
Treasurer & VP
Union Pacific
Jones, the railroad's treasurer since 1999, helped win an upgrade in its credit rating from Standard & Poor's last fall. She worked on funding its capital investment program, implemented two dividend increases and resumed the company's stock repurchase program.

Janet Haugen
CFO & SVP 
Unisys
Over the last couple of years, Haugen has been instrumental in Unisys' work to strengthen its balance sheet and reduce its debt, an effort that included 2009′s private debt exchange offers. CFO since 2000, she previously served as the company's controller.

Holly Hess Groos
Treasurer & SVP
Verizon Communications
Since Hess Groos became Verizon's treasurer in 2009, she has secured an enhanced credit facility and worked on the transition of treasury functions when Verizon sold some assets to Frontier Communications. She also serves as chair of Verizon's insurance captive.

Cherie Rice
Treasurer & VP of finance
Waste Management
Over the last year, Rice and her team have issued $1.2 billion of notes, remarketed $700 million of tax-exempt bonds, and arranged a new $2 billion revolving credit facility. She also oversees a $7 billion portfolio of financial assurance instruments.

Patricia Bedient
CFO & EVP
Weyerhaeuser
As finance chief, Bedient has overseen the forest product company's recent conversion into a real estate investment trust, a move made for purposes of tax efficiency. Before joining Weyerhaeuser, she spent 27 years at Arthur Andersen.

Leslie Varon
Corporate controller & VP of finance
Xerox Corp.
When Varon was named controller in 2006, she was charged with enhancing the company's financial strategy and boosting the efficiency of its global operations. Since joining Xerox in 1980, she has headed corporate audit and investor relations and served as corporate secretary.

View the 2011 Women in Finance Survey.