Female executives at Diageo North America pursue work life balance by using flextime and telecommuting, and taking advantage of videoconferencing or virtual meetings.

Indisputably a powerful presence at this alcoholic beverage company, women represent 27% of those at the vice-president level and above—and management hopes to see their representation in the executive ranks rise to 35% by fiscal year 2015. One thing that might help is the recent hiring of a “pipeline manager” for the recruiting department, who is devoted to supporting the advancement of women and people of color. The Leadership Development Mentor program provides diverse employees at the manager level and above with peer mentoring circles and guidance from more experienced employees. In the sales function, there’s a mentoring program that pairs female general managers with the presidents of individual business units.

President: Larry Schwartz

SVP, HR: Eliana Zem

% of senior managers who are women: 27%

% of corporate executives who are women: 19%

% of the top 10% of the company’s earners who are women: 28%

% of corporate executives with profit-and-loss responsibility who are women: 19%

% of the executives running divisions with revenues of more than a billion dollars who are women: 60%

% of executives who report directly to the CEO who are women: 36%

% of the members of the board of directors who are women: 33%