Kate White

Chances are, if you've read a woman's magazine this decade, you've run into Kate White. White is the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, the largest-selling women's magazine in the world. Under her editorship, guaranteed circulation has increased by over 500,000 and Cosmo now sells two million copies a month on newsstands alone.

White began her career in the magazine business by winning Glamour magazine's Top Ten College Women contest and appearing on the cover. She was an editorial assistant at Glamour and later became a feature writer and columnist for the magazine. She went on to hold key jobs at several national magazines, including Mademoiselle, and eventually was named editor-in-chief of Child and then later of Working Woman and McCall's. Before joining Cosmo, she served as editor-in-chief of Redbook for four years, where she launched the annual Mothers and Shakers awards. During her tenure, Redbook was nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Public Interest category. White became editor-in-chief of Cosmo in 1998, and recently received the Matrix award, which honors "extraordinary achievements of outstanding women in the communications field."

In addition to editing Cosmo, White is The New York Times best-selling author of the "Bailey Weggins" murder mystery series for Warner Books, including If Looks Could Kill, A Body to Die For, and the newly released 'Til Death do Us Part, which Entertainment Weekly said is "as fun as nabbing a couture gown at a sample sale." ABC Television is currently developing a script for a pilot based on the series. White is also the author of two non-fiction books: the best-selling Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do, and 9 Secrets of Women Who Get Everything They Want, which was named Best Motivational Book of 1999 by Books for a BetterLife Awards.