Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management, Google

Given the pace at which Google is permeating the mobile industry, anyone holding a senior position at the firm’s Mountain View headquarters could be deemed to have significant influence in the sector. But Susan Wojcicki, as vice president of product management (and one of only three women on the firm’s 16-strong operating committee), wields particular power.

Formerly at Intel, Wojcicki is now responsible for the design and innovation of all of Google’s advertising and measurement platform products, including AdWords, AdSense (which she has managed since its creation in 2002), Double- Click and Google Analytics. Now that the US Federal Trade Commission has approved Google’s purchase of AdMob, the firm’s mobile advertising offering will be ratcheted up a gear, with Wojcicki in the driving seat.

She joined Google in 1999 as the firm’s first marketing manager and has led the development of programmes that have now become stalwarts of the firm’s presence; Google Images and Google Video among them.