“You can’t wait for a macro trend to improve your business. You have to make it happen.”
LAURA ALBER, CEO, WILLIAMS SONOMA
LAURA ALBER loves Williams Sonoma. Like, really loves it. Sure, many Fortune 500 CEOs would say the same of their companies. But Alber’s devotion to the $8.7-billion-inrevenue home furnishings retailer—from growing its global business to studying French porcelain—borders on fanaticism. “It’s my heart,” she says. In fact, she likens it to a spouse. When asked if she would ever consider another CEO job, she quickly answers no. “I’m not looking for a different husband either,” she said to laughs at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in October.
In fact, Alber’s 13-year tenure as Williams Sonoma CEO has outlasted many marriages. She’s now the longest-serving female chief executive in the Fortune 500.
The Gap Inc. alum joined San Francisco–based Williams Sonoma in 1995 as a senior buyer for its Pottery Barn brand. She got the top job in 2010. At 42 years old, she
