Fortune Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs 2010

Fortune has chosen ten female small-business entrepreneurs to join the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, to be held October 4-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

The ten women will join 400 of the world’s most influential women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, education and the arts for panel discussions, on-stage interviews and interactive sessions over the course of three days. Two of the Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs will join a panel discussion about how the best and brightest build businesses. That session will include Tory Burch, Co-founder and Creative Director of Tory Burch, and Susan Sobbott, President, American Express OPEN. Fortune Assistant Managing Editor Leigh Gallagher will moderate.

“The Summit is all about powerful and influential women sharing ideas,” said Pattie Sellers, Fortune Editor at Large and Chair of the Most Powerful Women Summit. “With small business being the engine of economic recovery, it is most important to do all we can to help the best and brightest entrepreneurs expand their horizons and their companies.”

The program, which debuted at the 2009 Summit, targets entrepreneurial women who are game changers, ground-breakers and innovators in their fields. Hundreds of business owners were nominated and 25 were selected as finalists. From the list of finalists, ten women were chosen to attend the 2010 Summit in D.C. The winners are:

  1. Theresa Alfaro Daytner, President & CEO, Daytner Construction Group, Mt. Airy, MD
  2. Leah Brown, President & CEO, A10 Solutions, Inc., Cary, NC
  3. Linda Chaput, Founder & CEO, Agile Mind, Grapevine, TX
  4. Wendi Goldsmith, CEO, Bioengineering Group, Salem, MA
  5. Desiree Gruber, CEO & Founder, Modelinia/Full Picture, New York, NY
  6. Alexa Hirschfeld, Co-founder, Paperless Post, New York, NY
  7. Dina Kaplan, Co-Founder, Blip.tv, New York, NY
  8. Susan Koger, Co-Founder, ModCloth, Pittsburgh, PA
  9. Mariam Naficy, Founder & CEO, Minted, San Francisco, CA
  10. Elizabeth Perelstein, President, School Choice International Inc., White Plains, NY

“There are 10 million women-owned businesses in the US that employ over 13 million people and generate nearly $2 trillion in annual sales,” says Susan Sobbott, president of American Express OPEN. “We at OPEN are honored to support the 2010 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs who are building a legacy for the next generation of women business leaders.”

Fortune Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs 2009

2009 Winners

  1. Elizabeth Bennet, CEO and Co-Founder, Africa Direct, Inc.
  2. Lauren Bush, CEO and Co-Founder, FEED Projects LLC
  3. Billie Dragoo, President and CEO, RepuCare, Inc.
  4. Lani Hay, President and CEO, Lanmark Technology, Inc.
  5. Michelle Jones, President, Entech Northwest, Inc.
  6. Lynn Jurich, President and Co-Founder, SunRun, Inc.
  7. Lisa Loscalzo, President, The Little Clinic
  8. Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Founder and CEO, Care.com
  9. Susan Walvius, Co-Founder & Michelle Marciniak, Co-Founder and President, SHEEX, LLC
  10. Susan Wilson, Founder and CEO, The Judgment Group

Hear from the Fortune Most Powerful Entrepreneurs 2009

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American Express OPEN is the Founding Partner of Fortune Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs 2009. Fortune and American Express OPEN honored the 10 winners at a special reception at the Summit.