Inside The 2025 Forbes 50 Over 50 List: Meet The Women Who Define Innovation, Drive And Hope

Forbes

Compiling this fifth annual list is a comprehensive process made possible through Forbes’ partnership with MSNBC cohost Mika Brzezinski and her Know Your Value Initiative. Together, we collect thousands of nominations from the general public, and those submissions are both analyzed and supplemented by the reporting from journalists at Forbes and Know Your Value.   A thorough vetting, fact-checking and judging process ensues—with thanks to executives Anne Finucane, Kathy Ko Chin, founders Tracey Green and Nancy Harris, along with six other 50 Over 50 alumnae who lent their expertise this year.  From this work emerges a collection of women who demonstrate that you can pivot in your sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth decade; who understand that a non-linear career can lead to once unimagined impact; and who remind us, through their achievements, that success and innovation have no age limit.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/50over50/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis. I'm one of the anchors here with Forbes TV. I am lucky enough to

00:08be joined by my Forbes colleague, senior editor Maggie McGrath. Maggie, thanks so much for coming

00:14in and a big congrats to you. Thank you so much, Brittany. The Forbes 50 over 50 list just launched

00:20for 2025 and you're saying that these women on the list define innovation, drive, and hope. So

00:27to start off the conversation, talk to us about the list. This is our fifth annual list of women

00:32over the age of 50 who are creating their greatest professional impact after the age of 50. We first

00:39launched this list in partnership with Mika Brzezinski and her Know Your Value initiative in

00:422021. That year, we immediately went global. We have a global version of the list and it's a bit of a

00:51misnomer. There are actually 200 women on the list across four broad categories, impact, investment,

00:56innovation, and lifestyle. And you and I talk about this list when it launches every year and I think

01:03that it perhaps, I know Forbes says a lot of lists, but to me it's the most inspiring because it shows

01:09that, hey, you can have your second act, third act, fourth act, and age is just a number. So talk to us

01:15a little bit about the inspiration behind the list. So I think it all goes back to a conversation between

01:19Mika Brzezinski and our chief content officer, Randall Lane. I think Mika felt that she was hitting her

01:2450s and just getting started. She felt like she had, as she always says, a very long runway to create

01:30impact. And I think we see that across the entrepreneurs and the CEOs on this list year after

01:36year after year. We have folks who only just quit their day jobs to start a business in their late

01:4240s. And at 50 or 55 or 53 or 65, the company that they founded is on the shelves of Walmart or Target

01:50or Whole Foods. I'm thinking of Goodles as I'm talking about that, right? So you see, I think,

01:56a lot of women who defy societal expectations. There's a stereotype that when you get older,

02:01you're done. And a lot of these women are feeling more invigorated. They may have pivoted. They may

02:06have taken some time off to raise families. They may have overcome significant personal loss and taken

02:12time to recover from that. And then on the other side are building something that brings joy to the

02:16world. I think one of my favorite parts of this list and this story particular is that you write

02:22that these women have heard, no, don't, you can't, more times than they can count. And yet they're

02:28still on this list. They're still persisting. They still pivoted. So what are some of your favorite

02:32stories on this list? It is really hard to narrow down. The team and I were talking about this last

02:37night. I mentioned Goodles, right? That is a better for you noodle company that has taken off.

02:44Jen is the founder of that company and CEO. And they ran out of the microwavable cups. There's a

02:50waiting list for that now, which is insane to me. I think about Kim Vaccarella. We have a story on

02:54Bogbag. I don't know if you've been to the beach and seen these totes that look like Crocs.

02:59They're really, really popular. The company's on track to do $170 million in revenue this year.

03:06And Kim is one of those folks who had been terrified to quit her day job to go all in on

03:11her entrepreneurial dream. And here it's a genuine phenomenon. We have Suma Krishnan. Our colleague

03:17Amy Feldman wrote a profile going live on July 31st about Suma. Suma also is someone who worked in

03:23biotech. She was creating innovations and inventions for other people for most of her career. But then

03:28she made a few breakthroughs in gene therapy. And now she has a $4 billion company, give or take,

03:34depending on what the market is doing on a day to day basis. And so I think what I really

03:38appreciate are those stories of folks who are kind of on this path. And then they have an idea. And

03:44then suddenly they're the founder CEO of something really making a difference in the world.

03:49And you mentioned at the top of this conversation that the title is almost a misnomer because there's

03:53200 women. And they're divided into four categories, 50 per category. And they are impact,

03:59innovation, investment, and lifestyle. So can you talk to us a little bit about these separate

04:03buckets? I will say that everyone on the list checks multiple buckets. But the way we think

04:08about it is this. Innovation are your STEM folks, your scientists, your healthcare CEOs and founders,

04:14your astronauts. We do have Suni Williams, who folks may remember got stuck in space for a while.

04:19She holds multiple records with NASA for her time in space. She's on this year's list.

04:24That's our innovation category. Our lifestyle category looks at art, media, entertainment,

04:33retail, design. Basically, think about the people who are shaping culture. On this category,

04:39the face this year is Halle Berry. I sat down with her in LA to talk about the menopause company that

04:44she is building. And they just launched a telehealth service. It's called ReSpin. And folks know her from

04:50the Oscars. Folks know her from her acting. But she says that being an entrepreneur is her greatest act

04:55yet. That's the face of lifestyle. We have our impact category. That's typically our nonprofit,

05:01foundation, law, education, policy type folks. Maria Shriver is the face of that this year. She

05:07founded the women's Alzheimer's movement many years ago, because she saw through her dad's journey with

05:14Alzheimer's that women were so often left out of the conversation about brain disease. And yet women are

05:19diagnosed at higher rates than men. And then finally, we have our investment category. That's

05:23what you would think of as your Wall Street, private equity, venture capital type folks,

05:27some cryptocurrency in there. Frida Caper Klein is our face of that this year.

05:31And I want to read a quote that stuck out for me from the piece introducing the list.

05:36And while the founders and CEOs on the list might differ in their subject matter expertise,

05:40they are united more than ever before in the call to address what Martin Luther King Jr.

05:45first called the fierce urgency of now. So this really reads as though you're sounding the alarm

05:51here for the time that we're in. And these women are really meeting the moment. So talk to us a

05:56little bit about that. As I was looking at this year's list, I saw folks who have expanded Medicare

06:02access or gotten drug prices dropped. I'm thinking of Christina Ritter. I'm thinking of

06:08Meals on Wheels CEO, Ellie Hollander. We've seen how this relatively bipartisan supported

06:15nonprofit, which feeds the elderly in America has gotten, I would say, a little targeted and hurt

06:23by cuts to the federal budget. I highlighted in that announcement piece, Karen Clark, she has a

06:29disaster modeling company. If you think about the disasters, the natural disasters that we have seen

06:35with increasing severity in the United States due to climate change, that is a company that is even

06:40more valuable than ever before. Also in that climate change category are people who are important in

06:45this moment for that. Ada Monzon, she is the first female meteorologist in Puerto Rico, and she is a

06:50lifeline to Puerto Rico's three million residents when hurricanes brew in the Caribbean. So as I was

06:57looking at these different issues, right, you have nonprofits, we have Alexis Miguel Johnson, the head of

07:02Planned Parenthood. We have people working in finance. The CEO of TIAA, Tashunda Brown Duquette,

07:11she talks so openly about the need to save based on her own father's experience. He didn't contribute

07:18to his 401k. He missed out on three decades of a company match because there wasn't enough financial

07:23education. If you look at wealth inequality in America, if you look at home ownership inequality,

07:27we have other folks on the investment list who are actively working to help people buy homes and get

07:34more financial security. As I think about everything that we talk about with our guests on the political

07:40side for Forbes TV, right, you have income inequality, you have climate change, you have health. These are

07:46some crucial issues right now. And if you look at this list, we have women working in all of those

07:52buckets. So that's why I say throughout the package that the work of the women on the 50 over 50 touch

07:58touches every corner of America, whether you realize it or not. And I think when you're looking at Forbes

08:05as a brand in general, you just see entrepreneurs of all ages of all backgrounds. And I think it really

08:12embodies this American dream that you can have your dream at any age, whether it be under 30,

08:18whether it be over 50. So what do you think that this list particularly is doing to inspire

08:24entrepreneurs maybe who are a little younger? I actually heard from one of my friends who's not

08:28an entrepreneur, though I think she could be. And she said, this list every year reminds me to slow the F

08:34down, right? Because you can see that some people maybe weren't a CEO at 35. Maybe they weren't even a

08:41founder at 35. But they're a founder at 65. And so I think it reminds us all that life and careers

08:49have so many chapters. And your book is not over because you haven't reached that CEO chapter or

08:56that founder chapter by the age of 40. And I ask you this every year, but if you could describe

09:01this year's list in one word, what would it be? And spoiler alert, last year, you did use the word

09:07defiant. I'm glad you remember that. Can I give an explanation? Because I knew you were going to ask

09:13this. We ask everyone on the list for their advice for their younger selves. And you would not believe

09:19the number of people who said don't have fear, just go for it. And Halle Berry and I talked about

09:25how folks told her don't speak out about menopause. People had told her don't do Monsters Ball, the film

09:30that got her an Oscar. And she said, I'm not afraid. So I was thinking about this. And I think the word

09:35that encapsulates everyone is fearless. Maggie McGrath, I'm excited that the list is out. A big

09:40congrats to you. Everyone can find it on Forbes.com as well in the next magazine.

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