Patricia A. Woertz – One of the World’s Most Powerful Women
COUNTRY OF BIRTH
United StatesINDUSTRY
Food processing, commodities and energyTOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Patricia Ann Woertz is a retired business executive who was once ranked by Fortune Magazine as one of the most powerful women in the world. The most recent role held by Woertz was that of president and CEO of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), an international food processing and commodities trading corporation that was established in 1902 and operates over 270 plants and more than 420 crop facilities.
EARLY LIFE
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1950s, Patricia A. Woertz attended Penn State University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting in 1974. Her first role was at Ernst & Young in Pittsburgh, after which she accepted an offer at Gulf Oil, one of Ernst & Young’s clients. Woertz spent some time in Vancouver, British Columbia where she took on the role of president at Chevron International, an American multinational energy company. This role provided invaluable experience in biofuels and ethanol, areas she was expected to focus on in her career at ADM.RISE TO SUCCESS
Woertz joined ADM as president and CEO in 2006 and was elected as chairman of the board in 2007. In 2010 she was named as 3rd ‘Most Powerful Woman’ by Fortune Magazine. Woertz was known for her relentless ambition. Even after Woertz relinquished her role as president and CEO of ADM in 2014, the company remains one of the top grain traders as well as the largest corn processor in the world.
