Forbes names Elsenhans ’78 to ‘100 Most Powerful Women’ list

BY DWIGHT DANIELS
Special to the Rice News

Rice alumna Lynn Laverty Elsenhans is in some pretty powerful company.

	LYNN LAVERTY ELSENHANS

The 1978 graduate is No. 10 on this year’s Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women, the magazine announced this week. As chairman of the board and CEO of the major petrochemical company Sunoco, Elsenhans is among notables such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel (No. 1) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair (No. 2). The oil executive is listed ahead of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (No. 54) and U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama (No. 40).

According to the magazine, the Forbes recognition is based on a combination of two scores — visibility and the size of the organization or country the women lead.

Elsenhans, 52, joined Sunoco as its CEO and president in 2008 and was named chairman of the board this year. Her earlier career was with Shell, where she climbed the management ranks in national and international posts. She has remained active with Rice as a member of its board of trustees and has been a major contributor to scholarship funds and to the renovation of Autry Court.
 

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In an interview published in Rice Magazine last year, Elsenhans said her decision to attend the university was because of its reputation in math, engineering and science. She excelled in the school’s stringent mathematical sciences curriculum, while also serving in student government, as sports editor on the Thresher staff, as a Marching Owl Band member and as a player on the university’s first women’s intercollegiate basketball team. 
 
”For me, (Rice) was the total experience, both inside and outside the classroom,” she told the magazine. ”I have a tremendous passion and deep love for Rice. I had a fantastic experience here as a student. It prepared me extremely well and is a part of my success. I still have relationships with many of the people I met.”

Elsenhans, who earned an MBA from Harvard, is married to John W. Elsenhans ’84, a consultant.

–Dwight Daniels is a science writer at Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering.