Ruth Porat, Jane Fraser, and Hailey Bieber will join the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Here’s what else to expect

Monday, October 5, 2026

Emma Hinchliffe

Most Powerful Women Editor

Profile

Former SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley is guest co-chair of the 2026 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit.

Stuart Isett/Fortune

The countdown is on. In one week, we will be in Santa Barbara, California for the 2026 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit.

It’s shaping up to be an incredible gathering of women leaders across business, politics, culture, and more. Today I’m going to share a quick preview to get us all excited – with much more to come next week.

We’ll kick things off on Monday with a conversation between Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s president and chief investment officer (and No. 11 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list) and Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell. In addition to Google’s perspective on the AI race, Porat will talk about her own POV on AI in health care as a two-time cancer survivor.

We’ll debate the future of media with NPR CEO Katherine Maher, hear about what’s next in philanthropy from Olivia Walton, and learn about the future of health care with Centene chief Sarah London, the youngest woman to run a Fortune 500 company (and No. 63 on the MPW list).

The next morning, I’ll interview Sam’s Club CEO Latriece Watkins, who made her MPW list debut at No. 87 this year and who I profiled in the spring. She is someone to get to know; the Sam’s Club CEO job at Walmart is often a springboard into even bigger things. Fortune MPW editorial director Ellie Austin will chat with Emma Grede, the exec behind Skims, Good American, and Off Season whose hot takes on business and leadership often set social media abuzz.

Our guest co-chair Toni Townes-Whitley, the former CEO of defense contractor SAIC (and No. 82 on the 2025 MPW list), will guide us through a discussion with retired U.S. Army Colonel Edna Cummings on the state of women and minorities’ advancement in the military under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

I’ll interview Kalshi cofounder Luana Lopes Lara, who is the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire leading day-to-day business at the prediction market as it battles legal challenges and more. And I’ll chat with OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair about the future of the platform with new investor Architect Capital—including its plans to offer financial services products for adult content creators who have trouble accessing mainstream banking services.

And I’m excited to have an awesome conversation with three leaders in women’s sports: Kim Ng, the first woman to serve as GM of a major American men’s professional sports team, now running an emerging league as commissioner of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League; Gotham FC owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett; and Nneka Ogwumike, the longtime head of the WNBA’s players’ union who negotiated a historic sports labor agreement.

To finish up on Wednedsay, our MPW list No. 1, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, will make a special appearance. And we’ll close out with Hailey Bieber, alongside her Rhode cofounder Lauren Ratner, who will talk about their $1 billion acquisition by Elf Beauty and how to win in the beauty industry.

And there’s so much more I didn’t even mention here! We’ll be covering the Summit in this newsletter as the week progresses and you can also follow along on Fortune.com (there’s a livestream!) and Fortune and Fortune MPW social channels.

What are you most excited for from this year’s lineup? Let us know—we’ll make sure to bring you highlights right here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world.

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