Friedman served as the CEO of HarperCollins, the book publishing arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, for more than a decade before stepping down in 2008. She's since founded Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publishing company.

Long Island native Friedman graduated from NYU before joining Random House as a lowly Dictaphone typist. She soon moved to Knopf's publicity department, where—as she frequently points out four decades later—she invented the author tour, setting Julia Child up on a multi-city cooking-demonstration junket in 1970 to promote Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II. Stints as Knopf's director of publicity and associate publisher followed before she set up Random House's audio group just as the publication of audio books became a mainstream phenomenon. She moved steadily up the corporate ladder at Knopf before the powers that be offered her the top job at HarperCollins, then reeling from a massive reorganization that had resulted in a quarter-billion dollar write-off, the cancellation of over 100 book contracts, and across-the-board layoffs. Friedman helped HarperCollins weather the restructuring's turbulent aftermath and shepherded the company through a period of anomalously strong sales—profits increased over a thousand percent during her tenure—which is partly why her resignation in the summer of 2008 sent such shockwaves through the industry. Not leaving the industry completely behind, she went on to found Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publishing company in keeping with her relentless push to move HarperCollins into the 21st century. [Image via Getty]