Katherine Farley
The female half of New York's cultural power couple, (her husband is Jerry Speyer), Farley graduated from Brown in 1971, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1976. She joined real estate behemoth Tishman Speyer in 1984 and quickly rose from minor executive to major player (along the way she met Mr. Speyer and married him in 1991). She is now a senior managing director at Tishman.
In her copious free time, because a net worth of $1.8 billion and being a company exec isn't enough, Farley is exerting herself in various high-profile cultural and non-profit roles. Past positions have included being on the board of the New York Philharmonic, the board of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 2001-2010, Board of Trustees at Brown University from 2004-2010, Vice-prez of the Board of Directors at ritzy Brearley School from 1999-2007, and board of the International Rescue Committee from 1998-2009.
But that's not all. Current positions include chairman emerita of Women In Need, a trustee of Alvin Ailey, and vice chair Lincoln Center, and chairwoman of Lincoln Center's redevelopment, after joining the board and quickly rising through its ranks in 2003. And she was named the seventh most powerful woman in New York. Oh and she's a mom.
[Image via Getty]