VALLEY GIRLS

While the scarcity of female C.E.O.'s in Silicon Valley is troubling, these women may well change that

EMILY WHITE, 35

INSTAGRAM

Director of business operations

Starting her career at Google, White moved from Facebookto Instagram after the latter was acquired, last year. A protege of Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, White is responsible for making sure Instagram, which rolled out its first ad in November, turns a profit.

FRANCOISE BROUGHER, 48

SQUARE

Business head

Another alumna of Google, where she oversaw billions in ad revenues, Brougher joined Square—the mobile-payment-appendage company co-founded by Jack Dorsey—this year. She is responsible for its international expansion; still available only in the U.S., Canada, and Japan, Square may go public in 2014.

MEREDITH PERRY, 24

UBEAM

Founder

Perry is the youngest member of this list. She has turned skeptics of uBeam—the charging analog to Wi-Fi, it uses ultrasonic waves to transmit energy—into investors, winning the minds and checkbooks of Peter Thiel, Mark Cuban, and, yes, Marissa Mayer.

KATIE JACOBS STANTON,43

TWITTER

Vice president of international market development

Jacobs Stanton joined Twitter in 2010 after a stint at the U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton, where she helped devise the simple text-message donation platform used by the Red Cross following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Before going to Washington she was at Google and Yahoo, where Mayer reportedly tried to lure her back last year.

RUCHISANGHVI, 31

DROPBOX

Former vice president of operations

Facebook's first female engineer, Sanghvi led the creation of the site's News Feed. Having amicably left her executive role at Dropbox in October, she is Silicon Valley's most eligible professional bachelorette.

JAIME LALINDE

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