International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of remarkable women and highlights issues of inequality around the planet.

There has been some improvement in increasing the number of women in boardrooms, however, with FTSE 100 firms meeting a voluntary target of 25% of women board members last year. To celebrate the women smashing the glass ceiling by leading FTSE 100 companies, IBTimes UK profiled these six female CEOs.

Alison Cooper – Imperial Tobacco – CEO since May 2010

Maya Greene – Royal Mail – CEO since July 2010

Carolyn McCall – EasyJet – CEO since July 2010

Olivia Garfield – Severn Trent – CEO since April 2014

Veronique Lauré – Kingfisher – CEO since September 2014

Alison Brittain – Whitbread – CEO since January 2016