No. 8: Intel, Mauri Whalen

Name: Mauri Whalen

Job title: Vice president of the software and services group at Intel

Why she's powerful: Whalen is an Intel vice president and a software engineering director in the Open Source Technology Center (OTC), a team she helped found. She and her team are responsible for a lot of open-source projects including the company's contribution to Linux.

Whalen has been with Intel for 18 years, beginning her career as a quality assurance software engineer. The company has twice honored her with its Intel Achievement Award, most recently in 2014 for leadership of a product called the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM), which makes Android apps run faster on Intel devices.