Julie Greenwald
The president, Chief Operating Officer, and Co-Chairman of Atlantic Records, Greenwald is one of the few women in the top ranks of the music business.
Although she'd initially planned to go into the world of non-profit after graduating college, Greenwald took a temp job at Def Jam instead, starting out as label head Lyor Cohen's assistant. Greenwald made herself so indispensable to Cohen that he quickly promoted her through the ranks and eventually even gave her an equity stake in Def Jam. (She walked away with a pretty penny after the label was sold to Universal Music in 1999.) She remained at Universal until 2004, when Cohen was tapped by Edgar Bronfman Jr. to run Warner Music. Cohen took the reigns as Warner Music's CEO and brought Greenwald with him, installing her as the president of company's most important label, Atlantic. Widely viewed as one of Cohen's closest confidantes at Warner Music, Greenwald has a reputation as a skillful marketer; she's well-regarded for her ability for promoting artists, not necessarily discovering them. Over the years, she's worked closely with Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, Sum 41, Nickelback, James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley. [Image via Getty, with Lyor Cohen]