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Fortune’s 2026 Most Powerful Women list is here—and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has taken the No. 1 spot. Fraser broke Wall Street’s glass ceiling when she became the first woman CEO of a major bank in 2021.

Fortune Leadership Editor Claire Zillman spoke to Fraser about her rise to the top and how she reshaped Wall Street.

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Transcript
00:00The most powerful woman in business has led one of Wall Street's biggest comebacks, but it hasn't
00:05been easy. Jane Frazier is the CEO of Citigroup, a $168 billion Wall Street bank, and she's
00:13Fortune's most powerful woman this year. Jane took the CEO reins in 2021, right in the middle of
00:19COVID. She was the first woman ever appointed to lead a Wall Street bank. When Jane became CEO,
00:25she really inherited a turnaround job. And at that point, Citigroup was the only major
00:30U.S. bank trading below its book value. Her plan to turn the bank around was fairly straightforward
00:36but painful. Streamline the bank, simplify the reporting structure, and enforce a culture
00:42of accountability. Since then, Frazier has reorganized Citigroup into five distinct business lines.
00:48She cut layers of management, exited multiple international consumer markets, and pushed through
00:54a turnaround that has cost the bank 20,000 jobs. When I spoke to Jane about the turnaround
00:59in April, one thing that really stood out to me was just how much conviction she had about
01:04her plan. The fact that she was able to lay out a very straightforward blueprint for turning
01:09the bank around, and then tick off the items one by one. When Jane took the job, she really
01:14did face a glass cliff, which is this phenomenon in which female leaders get a turnaround job
01:20that is almost impossible. And five years later, Jane has pulled off a feat that many city CEOs
01:25before her failed to do. For more on Frazier's turnaround at Citi, you can read my feature at fortune.com.
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