From the Paint to the C-Suite
Gail Boudreaux did not climb the corporate ladder from a corner office. She started in Versailles, France, playing professional basketball on a team that spoke no English.
'My first full-time professional job was as a professional basketball player in Versailles, France,' Boudreaux told Fortune in 2019. 'Without speaking the language, I got on a plane, moved there for a year, and joined a team that all spoke only French.'
A 1982 Dartmouth graduate with a degree in psychology, Boudreaux had spent four college years as a 6-foot-2 center, scoring 1,933 points and grabbing 1,635 rebounds, averaging 21.7 points per game. She remains the only woman to win the Ivy League Player of the Year award three times. In 2023, Dartmouth dedicated her jersey — number 20 — with a permanent banner at the Leede Arena basketball court.
The Numbers Come First
As of Tuesday, Elevance Health ranked No. 31 on the 2026 Fortune Global 500, with $199.1 billion in revenue. Boudreaux is now the highest-ranking female CEO on that list. In 2025, Elevance recorded $177 billion in revenue — almost $15 billion more than the next largest U.S. health care company, Centene, according to Fortune.
Boudreaux took over Anthem in 2017 and rebranded it as Elevance Health. She has since overseen the acquisition of CareBridge, an at-home health care firm, as part of a shift toward chronic conditions management and mental health services.
Her corporate path began at Aetna, where she spent two decades after her basketball career in France. She later led Blue Cross of Illinois and became CEO of UnitedHealthcare in 2011 — the first woman to hold that role.
Leadership by the Playbook
'Having participated in sports plays a lot into how I do leadership,' Boudreaux told CEO NA Magazine in 2022. 'Business is very much a team market.'
She applies that framework directly to hiring. 'I've hired a lot of athletes, and what I love about them is that they are willing to take risks, take on challenges, and the good ones understand their role,' she told the NCAA in 2016.
The data supports the pattern. A 2025 report from the Women Business Collaborative found that 12.7% of women Fortune 500 CEOs played collegiate sports. A 2023 Deloitte survey found that 69% of women earning more than $100,000 annually and holding leadership positions had played competitive sports.
The Market Signal
Just 38 of this year's Global 500 companies are led by women. On the Fortune 500 — the domestic list — a record 55 women now hold the top job.
For free-enterprise readers, the distinction matters. The Global 500 reflects revenue scale across every regulatory and political environment on earth; the Fortune 500 reflects the American market specifically. A record 55 women leading Fortune 500 companies is a merit outcome, not a mandate outcome — the product of performance, accountability and the kind of team discipline Boudreaux learned long before she ever sat in a boardroom.
Elevance's revenue trajectory tells the same story. Capital rewards clear rules and consistent execution. Boudreaux has delivered both, and the ranking reflects it.
