黛博拉?里德

????公司：塞莫拉能源公司

????《財富》500強排名：281

????1978年，剛從工程學院畢業的里德加入塞莫拉能源公司旗下的南加州煤氣公司（SoCalGas）。當時，公司還沒有哪怕一名女性高管。里德說：“我的目標是成為一名主管。”她的第一份工作任務是為客戶的能效計劃提供幫助。她在26歲的時候就實現了之前的目標，成為一名主管。之后，她一路扶搖直上，32歲時便成為公司最年輕的高管。期間，她曾負責從人力資源到工程等各個領域。“我曾在多個不同的職能領域工作，讓我能夠明白公司內部的各種聯系，”她說道。“我曾與公司里的許多人共事，對于公司的人才以及如何利用這些人才，我也有很好的判斷。”如果說長期在一家公司工作最大的挑戰是什么，那就是“挖掘新的創意。”

Debra Reed

????Company: Sempra Energy

????Fortune 500 rank: 281

????When Reed joined Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), a subsidiary of Sempra, fresh out of engineering school in 1978, there were no female officers at the company. "My goal was to become a director," says Reed, whose first assignment was helping customers with energy efficiency programs. She was a director by 26, and she kept climbing up the company ranks, becoming the company's youngest ever officer at 32. Over the years, she managed areas from human resources to engineering. "I've worked in so many different functional areas that I can see the linkages across the company," she says. "And I've worked with so many people in our company that I have a good appreciation for the talent we have and the best ways to leverage it." The biggest challenge to being a lifer? "Mining new ideas."