2025 Fortune Asia's Most Influential Women in Business List

Qu Cuirong is proving through concrete action that foreign brands can still thrive in China—if they deeply root themselves in the local market. Since 2018, she has led Yum China—the foodservice giant spun off from its U.S. parent two years earlier. Today, the company operates over 16,500 restaurants across China under brands including Pizza Hut and KFC. Last year, Yum China generated $11 billion in revenue—far surpassing its U.S. parent, Yum Brands, which posted $7 billion. Amid weakening consumer demand and declining appeal of foreign brands, Qu has kept Yum China firmly at the forefront. Her winning formula? Continued investment in lower-tier cities, launching more affordably priced products, and innovating with locally inspired menu items—such as the "Lucky Cat Crust Pizza" topped with pistachio cream sauce. Xu Ran Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, JD Group China 12 Image Credit: Courtesy of JD.com Xu Ran is CEO of JD Group, China’s e-commerce giant—and the top-ranked private enterprise on the Fortune Global 500. After nearly two decades at PwC, she joined JD in 2018. As China’s consumer market gradually recovers, JD reported $159 billion in revenue for 2024—a 7% year-on-year increase. Like many Chinese tech firms, JD is aggressively investing in artificial intelligence. It has launched a new food-delivery service offering restaurants a "zero-commission" policy—challenging the industry dominance long held by Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele.me. Vanessa Hudson Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Qantas Group Australia 13 Image Credit: Courtesy of Qantas Group Vanessa Hudson assumed leadership of Qantas Airways with a daunting mission: restoring public trust after her predecessor, Alan Joyce, resigned amid multiple scandals. Two years on, this turnaround effort is beginning to bear fruit. For the six months ended December last year, the airline posted after-tax profits of $595 million—a 6% increase year-on-year. Over the past year, Qantas’ share price rose more than 50%, making it one of the world’s best-performing airlines. Hudson has spent three decades at Qantas—including as Chief Financial Officer—and, since becoming CEO, has consistently engaged employees, regulators, and critics. Nevertheless, public skepticism toward the airline persists; in September this year, Qantas tied Hudson’s compensation directly to measurable progress in rebuilding the company’s reputation. Melanie Perkins Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Canva Australia 14 Image Credit: Courtesy of Canva The world is eagerly awaiting Canva’s IPO—but Melanie Perkins isn’t rushing. Instead, she continues to deepen the company’s operations from its home base in Sydney. As co-founder and CEO of Canva, Perkins built a platform that empowers users to easily create social media graphics, presentations, and other design assets.

Global semiconductor manufacturers’ net profits decline significantly

Net profits for eight major semiconductor manufacturers—including Samsung Electronics of South Korea—fell roughly 30% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 2018. Against the backdrop of increasingly evident slowdown in China’s economic growth, sales of smartphones—particularly Apple’s iPhone—have weakened, and the data-center construction boom has also tapered off. With rising inventories squeezing financial flexibility, manufacturers have begun cutting back on equipment investments. In addition to Samsung, the group includes SK Hynix (South Korea), Intel and Texas Instruments (U.S.), Qualcomm (U.S.), NXP Semiconductors (Netherlands), Infineon Technologies (Germany), and Renesas Electronics (Japan). Combined net profit for these eight manufacturers hit a trough in early 2016, then rose steadily—peaking at $25.4 billion in Q3 2018—before falling to $18.6 billion in Q4. Six of the eight companies—including all except Qualcomm and Infineon—reported either profit declines or losses. One headwind is slowing smartphone sales, which consume large volumes of memory chips and CPUs. Texas Instruments saw weak demand for analog semiconductors used in smartphones, resulting in a 20% drop in net profit for October–December 2018. “We are clearly entering a downward trend,” said David Pahl, the company’s vice president, expressing cautious outlook for the future. Samsung’s net profit for the same period also fell by 36%. Sales growth of memory chips stalled, and operating profit margin for its semiconductor division dropped to 41%—a 14-percentage-point decline from the previous quarter. Intel and SK Hynix—both heavily involved in memory chips—also reported profit declines. Meanwhile, the backlash effect from the data-center construction boom—which had persisted since 2017—is now emerging.

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Hudson Technologies saw Q3 2026 net income plummet to $2 million from $12.4 million due to lower sales volumes and prices. The refrigerant supplier remains debt-free and continues strategic initiatives including next-generation refrigerant separation technology.

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