The Top 50 Los Angeles Women Leaders of 2026
Los Angeles doesn’t really function like a single “city economy.” It’s a constellation: city halls and county systems; studio lots and streaming budgets; aerospace campuses; hospitals; ports and freeways; real estate finance; and a dense lattice of firms who quietly move the paperwork, capital, litigation, and permits that make everything else possible.
That’s why LA influence looks different than in many metros. The women who shape this region most aren’t only the most visible-they’re the ones who can move at least one of these levers at scale:
* People: workforce, public health, safety-net systems, labor markets * Power: energy, water, transit, development, infrastructure delivery * Narratives: what the world watches, buys, believes, and copies * Capital: who gets funded, built, acquired, insured, defended, or scaled
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#1 Karen Bass
When you want to understand LA’s “business climate,” you end up in the mayor’s office-because the city’s ability to execute on homelessness, public safety, permitting, and major-event readiness sets the tone for investment and hiring. Bass’ administration has made homelessness response a defining focus, and decisions on city operations ripple through everything from downtown recovery to tourism, construction, and workforce stability.
#2 Janisse Quiñones
Electrification, grid resilience, wildfire hardening, water reliability-LA’s next decade runs straight through its utility. As CEO and Chief Engineer of LADWP, Quiñones sits in one of the region’s most consequential seats for economic growth: if power and water delivery are reliable and affordable, the region can build, manufacture, film, and innovate; if they’re not, everything slows.
#3 Stephanie Wiggins
In a region where time is money and congestion is strategy, Metro is a force multiplier. Wiggins leads an agency of roughly 12,000 employees, a \~$9B annual budget, and a \~$26B capital program-the kind of scale that shapes jobs, real estate patterns, and equity outcomes for generations. She’s also central to how LA delivers mobility upgrades with the world’s eyes on the region.
#4 Maria S. Salinas
Salinas leads the region’s largest business association, representing and advocating for a massive cross-section of employers. That matters in LA because policy outcomes are rarely “city-only” or “private-only”-they’re negotiated across jurisdictions, labor, industry coalitions, and community stakeholders. The chamber’s convening power makes this role a quiet hub of influence.
#5 Gwynne Shotwell
LA’s modern aerospace corridor isn’t nostalgia-it’s a competitive advantage. Shotwell runs day-to-day operations as SpaceX’s President and COO, translating ambitious engineering into execution, contracts, and delivery. Her decisions influence high-skill employment, supplier ecosystems, and the broader “LA as frontier-tech” brand that attracts talent and capital.
#6 Donna Langley
In LA, content strategy is economic strategy. As Chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, Langley steers greenlight decisions and oversees entertainment programming and marketing across major platforms and brands-choices that ripple into production spending, creative labor demand, agency ecosystems, and which stories (and creators) get scale.
#7 Dana Walden
Few LA-area leadership roles touch as many people and vendors as Disney’s entertainment engine. Walden’s remit sits at the center of storytelling, distribution, and franchise strategy-decisions that ripple through Burbank’s corporate ecosystem, production pipelines, and the region’s position as a global content capital.
#8 Bela Bajaria
Netflix’s content decisions shape what gets made, who gets staffed, and what kinds of IP become global. As Chief Content Officer, Bajaria is one of the most consequential tastemakers in modern media-directly influencing LA’s production economy, creator opportunities, and the region’s standing in the streaming era.
#9 Pam Abdy
Abdy sits at a core LA lever: the studio slate. Running a major motion picture group is not just about entertainment-it’s about capital allocation (what gets financed), risk management, talent pipelines, global distribution, and the local production supply chain that sustains thousands of livelihoods in the metro.
#10 Peggy Cherng
The most influential leaders aren’t always in skyscrapers. Panda’s footprint and workforce make it a major economic actor in Southern California’s consumer and service economy. Cherng’s leadership represents sustained scale-building-operations, people systems, and brand discipline that translate directly into jobs and local spending power.
#11 Carla Vernón
Consumer brands in LA live or die on trust, supply chain execution, and distribution discipline. As CEO of The Honest Company, Vernón leads a public-company platform at the intersection of brand, retail, and consumer health-decisions that influence local employment, vendor ecosystems, and how LA-based brands compete nationally.
#12 Martha Santana-Chin
Healthcare access is a workforce issue, a family stability issue, and a business competitiveness issue. As CEO of L.A. Care-reported as the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan with \~2.6M members-Santana-Chin influences how care is financed and accessed across Los Angeles, especially for working families and underserved communities.
#13 Michelle Gaskill-Hames
Kaiser’s regional leadership shapes care delivery at scale: employer plans, prevention strategy, clinical capacity, and workforce dynamics. In a region where talent retention and productivity are tied to healthcare availability, this is a high-leverage seat that affects households and boardrooms alike.
#14 Elaine Batchlor
Batchlor leads a hospital and health system positioned directly in the region’s health-equity and access conversation. MLK Community Healthcare serves a medically underserved population-so operational improvements here have outsized community impact, and also spill into regional labor participation, school stability, and emergency system load.
#15 Jeanie Buss
In LA, sports is business infrastructure-media rights, tourism, downtown foot traffic, brand partnerships, and philanthropic visibility. As Lakers governor, Buss stewards one of the region’s most influential franchises and a platform that shapes civic identity and economic activity well beyond game nights.
#16 Gillian Zucker
Zucker runs the business operations orbiting the Clippers ecosystem, including major venues and franchises. In practice, that means influencing hundreds of jobs, billions in development and events activity, and the way LA competes as a global sports-and-entertainment host city.
#17 Katherine Fleming
Culture is an economic sector in LA, and Getty is one of its anchor institutions-employment, tourism draw, philanthropy patterns, and education programming. Fleming’s leadership influences how one of the world’s most visible cultural institutions invests, partners, and convenes across the region.
#18 Renata Simril
LA84 sits at a powerful intersection: youth development, sports access, and community infrastructure. Simril’s work affects which neighborhoods get opportunity-building programs, how youth-serving organizations scale, and how LA turns global sports attention into long-term local benefit.
#19 Rachel Moore
The Music Center is a flagship civic-and-cultural platform-tourism, education programming, community partnerships, and the broader creative economy. Moore’s influence shows up in how arts access and cultural programming are funded and delivered at a city-defining institution.
#20 Lise Bornstein
“Who designs what gets built” is a core LA power question-housing, civic projects, schools, mixed-use development, and the built environment that shapes daily life. Bornstein’s leadership in architecture places her in the pipeline where policy intent becomes real projects-one of the most underappreciated forms of influence in a growth-constrained region.
#21 Cara MacArthur
MacArthur has spent more than two decades leading interior and workplace design at HOK, pairing creative vision with sustainability and meticulous project delivery for major clients. Her leadership in the Los Angeles studio, including guiding the firm’s move to ROW DTLA, shows how thoughtful design can strengthen culture, performance, and long-term client trust.
#22 Adaeze Cadet
As Design Principal in HOK’s Los Angeles studio and a member of the firm’s board and design board, Cadet brings award-winning architectural leadership to complex projects across sectors. She is recognized for keeping design intent and client goals aligned from concept through execution, raising the standard for what great design leadership looks like in Los Angeles.
#23 Giovanna Brasfield
Brasfield is a construction industry trailblazer who built Brasfield & Associates into a respected platform for measurable diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility progress across projects and organizations. By turning DEIA from aspiration into practical workforce strategies, training, and accountability, she is helping companies perform better while expanding opportunity in the built-environment economy.
#24 Melissa Demirci
Demirci has led Transtech’s growth and reputation by expanding its relationships with public agencies and delivering engineering and construction management services that keep communities moving. She pairs operational excellence with community impact, mentoring the next generation of women in STEM and strengthening the talent pipeline that infrastructure depends on.
#25 Dolores Dueñas
Dueñas leads personnel at Alpha Structural, building a workforce that supports the company’s continued growth while fostering a culture of accountability and employee development. Through mentorship and active involvement in industry organizations, she is widening pathways for women in construction and reinforcing the people foundation behind high-quality project execution.
#26 Karina Eshilian
Eshilian has been a driving force behind Performance Contracting’s Southern California growth for more than 17 years, building brand credibility and client confidence through strategic business development. Her relationship-first approach helps owners and partners bring complex projects to life while strengthening a specialty contractor’s market presence.
#27 Habiba Manjurr
Manjurr is known for delivering highly technical, MEP-intensive projects at Clune Construction, where her leadership helps clients execute complex work in life sciences, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. Her precision and team-first approach raise the bar for quality and predictability, keeping high-stakes facilities on track from preconstruction through turnover.
#28 Daniela Marin
Marin powers Build Group’s people operations by strengthening recruiting, onboarding, and training systems that help the company scale without losing its culture or standards. As a trusted leader across the organization, she translates workforce strategy into day-to-day performance, making talent a competitive advantage.
#29 Bridgette Marso
Marso brings standout hospitality and experiential design expertise to Studio UNLTD, drawing on work that has shaped some of Los Angeles’s most notable restaurants, bars, and high-end spaces. Her ability to translate brand identity into unforgettable environments creates business value for operators and elevates the city’s design-driven dining and lifestyle economy.
#30 Dallas McCorkle
McCorkle has strengthened Pinnacle Contracting’s financial backbone by elevating forecasting, expense discipline, and trend analysis that support smart growth in a competitive construction market. Her steady leadership provides the operational infrastructure that helps teams plan confidently, manage risk, and deliver consistent results.
#31 Rose Sorensen
Sorensen is a corporate and securities partner who helps entrepreneurs, family businesses, and larger organizations execute mergers, financings, and governance with clarity and confidence. Her deal-focused counsel enables clients to invest, grow, and transition ownership efficiently, reinforcing Los Angeles’s role as a center for capital and innovation.
#32 Rasha Shields
Shields is a first-chair trial and appellate lawyer who leads sensitive investigations and high-stakes disputes for a wide range of clients at Jones Day. Her blend of courtroom credibility and investigative judgment helps organizations resolve complex issues decisively while protecting reputation, leadership, and enterprise value.
#33 Miwa Shoda
Shoda co-chairs Jenner & Block’s Japan Practice and is a trusted bridge between Japanese companies and US legal and business environments. By guiding cross-border litigation, privacy matters, and transactions with deep cultural fluency, she helps clients operate and expand in California with confidence.
#34 Lara Shortz
Shortz leads Michelman & Robinson’s labor and employment practice and serves as office managing partner, advising companies and executives through high-consequence workplace disputes and counseling needs. Her consistent recognition for influence reflects results-driven leadership that helps employers reduce risk, strengthen culture, and stay focused on growth.
#35 Alice Chen Smith
Smith, the managing partner of Yoka|Smith, is a seasoned trial lawyer known for taking complex matters to verdict and delivering decisive wins for clients. Her leadership and courtroom results in catastrophic injury, products liability, and business disputes make her a trusted defender of businesses facing their toughest moments.
#36 Karina Sterman
Sterman is a pragmatic, creative advocate in Greenberg Glusker’s litigation and employment practices, defending businesses in wage-and-hour class actions, PAGA matters, and other high-exposure employment disputes. She pairs rigorous legal strategy with practical counseling that helps leaders prevent problems, protect their teams, and safeguard enterprise value.
#37 Stacey Sullivan
Sullivan is a trusted transactional advisor at Hill, Farrer & Burrill, guiding clients through real estate, corporate, and tax matters that shape how assets are built, held, and transferred. Her ability to structure deals and entities thoughtfully supports long-term business stability and smart growth across generations.
#38 Cynthia Sun
Sun is a seasoned litigator at LTL Attorneys with nearly two decades of experience defending complex product liability, consumer, and general liability matters for clients ranging from individuals to major companies. Her sharp motion practice and practical case strategy help clients control risk and resolve disputes efficiently in a demanding legal landscape.
#39 Hannah Sweiss
Sweiss co-chairs Fisher Phillips’ California Class Action and PAGA Group and its Healthcare Industry Group, leading employers through some of the state’s most complex wage-and-hour and representative actions. Her steady guidance helps organizations balance compliance and operations, reducing litigation exposure while keeping teams focused on mission-critical work.
#40 Casey Sypek
Sypek is a standout business litigator at Miller Barondess, representing clients in contract, fraud, intellectual property, entertainment, and false advertising disputes in state and federal courts. Her ability to drive favorable outcomes in complex conflicts protects brands and business relationships when the stakes are highest.
#41 Tina Tellado
Tellado is a deeply experienced labor and employment lawyer at Polsinelli who defends employers in high-stakes wage-and-hour, discrimination, and harassment matters across diverse industries. Her strategic counsel and courtroom readiness help companies navigate evolving workplace expectations while minimizing disruption and risk.
#42 Vanessa Terzian
Terzian is a trusted estate planning and probate partner who helps families and business owners protect assets, plan for the future, and manage complex trust administration with care and precision. As an educator and practitioner, she translates highly technical law into clear choices that preserve legacies and reduce conflict.
#43 Polly Towill
Towill is a top trial partner at Sheppard Mullin who leads the toxic tort and products liability team and co-chairs the firm’s global climate change effort, advising clients on matters with significant business and reputational stakes. As a senior leader in the firm’s Los Angeles office, she pairs courtroom excellence with growth-minded leadership that helps teams and clients thrive.
#44 Jade Tran
Tran is a highly acclaimed trial lawyer at Wood Smith Henning & Berman, known for steering toxic tort, products liability, and catastrophic injury cases toward early resolution or verdict when necessary. Her strategic, client-centered advocacy helps organizations manage exposure and protect operations across Southern California and beyond.
#45 Rhonda Trotter
Trotter is a first-chair trial partner at Arnold & Porter who represents businesses in complex commercial, intellectual property, life sciences, and entertainment disputes. She gained widespread recognition for helping Prince secure ownership of his master recordings, underscoring the strategic discipline she brings to high-profile, bet-the-company matters.
#46 Debra Wong Yang
Yang is a nationally recognized crisis management and investigations leader at Gibson Dunn, drawing on her experience as former US Attorney for the Central District of California to guide organizations through their most sensitive challenges. By helping clients respond to government scrutiny, data and privacy risk, and high-profile controversies, she protects reputations and enables leadership to move forward with confidence.
#47 Azniv “Aza” Ghazaryan
Ghazaryan is a Withum tax partner with more than two decades of experience, advising partnerships, high-net-worth individuals, trusts, and nonprofits with planning that supports smarter growth and cleaner exits. Beyond client work, she has helped strengthen the firm’s tax platform by building recruiting and onboarding processes that scale talent and service quality.
#48 Kerra Diener
Diener is a Withum tax partner who helps corporate and multi-state clients optimize their tax positions while staying compliant, bringing clarity to complex income tax accounting and planning. Her steady leadership and client-first approach support stronger financial decision-making and reinforce the trusted-advisor role businesses need as they expand.
#49 Caroline Epstein
Epstein is a finance partner at Paul Weiss in Los Angeles and New York, advising private equity sponsors and borrowers on acquisition financings, recapitalizations, and other complex transactions that move major capital. Her innovative, data-driven approach to deal execution has made her a linchpin of a high-performing finance team and a trusted advisor to growth-minded clients.
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