Julie Sweet

Sweet grew up in Tustin, California,[4] and was a speech and debate star at Tustin High School.[7] She holds a bachelor's degree from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School.[8]

Prior to Sweet's work at Accenture, she was an attorney at law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.[9][10] She worked at the firm for 17 years and was partner for 10.[11][12] Sweet was the ninth woman ever to make partner at the firm.[9] She worked on financing, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate counsel.[13]

Accenture recruited Sweet as general counsel in 2010.[9] In 2015, she became CEO of Accenture's North America business, the company's largest market.[9] Since early in her career at Accenture, she served on the company's global management committee. Alongside then-CEO Pierre Nanterme, Sweet developed Accenture's mergers and acquisitions strategy.[14]

Accenture named Sweet its CEO effective September 2019, the first woman to hold that position.[15][16] She replaced interim CEO David Rowland.[16] At the time of her appointment, she was one of 27 women leading companies in the S&P 500[9] and the 15th female CEO of all Fortune Global 500 companies.[17][18] In September 2021, Sweet became chair of Accenture.[6]

Sweet has advocated for diversity, inclusion,[9] and workplace gender parity.[16] Sweet supports Accenture's goal to have a staff equally represented by men and women by 2025; as of 2019, 42 percent of Accenture's staff was female.[19] Sweet was named a top CEO for diversity by the website Comparably in 2019.[20] Sweet has called for addressing the skills gap in the U.S. and supported the national apprenticeship movement.[21] She participated in The New York Times's New Rules Summit.[4]

In addition to her work at Accenture, Sweet served on the boards for Catalyst,[22] the World Economic Forum,[23] the Business Roundtable, where she chairs the Technology Committee,[24] the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities – Bridges from School to Work, as of 2022.[25]

The New York Times called Sweet "one of the most powerful women in corporate America" in 2019.[4] Fortune magazine included Julie Sweet in the their top 10 “Most Powerful Women” list since 2016 and she was named No. 1 on the list for 2020.[26] Fortune noted Julie “steered Accenture’s more than half a million employees in 51 countries through the pandemic, a crisis that has made the company’s skills more essential than ever.” Julie Sweet has subsequently been ranked by Fortune magazine as No. 3 on the list for 2021[27] and No. 2 on the list for 2022.[28]

Sweet is married to Chad Creighton Sweet,[1] who was the campaign chairman of Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign. She has two daughters.[12][29] They live in Bethesda, Maryland.[2]

• Accenture website page