crazy business successful women

Ornella Barra

• Company: Alliance Boots

• Global MPW rank: 21

Ornella Barra's first job was working in a pharmacy in the town of Chiavari, near Genoa in Northern Italy. Barra, now chief executive, Wholesale and Brands for Alliance Boots, subsequently managed the pharmacy, and then bought it.

Elizabeth Corley

• Company: Allianz Global Investors

• Global MPW rank: 32

Allianz Global Investors CEO Elizabeth Corley says her first "proper" job was as a filing clerk at Sun Alliance (now Royal Sun Alliance, a British insurer), though she did have an earlier gig selling shoes.

Karen Agustiawan

• Company: Pertamina

• Global MPW rank: 33

After graduation from Bandung Institute of Technology, Pertamina CEO Karen Agustiawan took a technical position with Mobil Oil Indonesia. At the time, a mother of two, she was the only woman oil technician/worker in the Arun oil exploration field in Aceh, Indonesia.

Lubna Olayan

• Company: Olayan Financing

• Global MPW rank: 43

Lubna Olayan, CEO of Saudi Arabia's Olayan Financing, recalls: "My first job was in 1979, when I joined the JP Morgan training program as a trainee financial analyst in NYC."