Ilene S. Gordon

Ilene S. Gordon

Ilene S. Gordon (born in 1953) became CEO, president, and chairman of Ingredion (formerly Corn Products International) in May, 2009 and became the 21st female CEO of a Fortune 500 company when Ingredion’s sales reached $6 billion for the first time, in 2012. As of 2014 she was one of only 24 women who were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Gordon earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and a Master of Science degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1976.

When she attended MIT, the male-female ratio of undergraduates was 10:1. Her intention was to become a high school math teacher, but meeting other women at MIT who were preparing to become professionals led her to change her course, pursue a Master’s degree, and go into business.

After graduating from Sloan School of Management in 1976, Gordon went to work as a consultant for Boston Consulting Group. When the company decided to expand one year later Gordon volunteered to relocate to Europe. She was a strategy consultant based in the Boston, London and Chicago offices, until 1980.

From 1980 until 1982 Gordon worked at Signode, a packaging company specializing in materials handling. In 1982 she joined the Packaging Corporation of America, a division of Tenneco Inc, where she had a mentor who advised her to go into management. As the first female officer of Tenneco, she was the Vice President of Operations from 1994 to 1997 and the Vice President and General manager of the Folding Carton Business from 1997 to 1999. Gordon’s worked at Tenneco for 17 years.

In 1999 Gordon joined Pechiney as Senior Vice President, Pechiney Group and President, Pechiney Plastic Packaging, Inc. Pechiney was acquired by Alcan in 2003 and Gordon held various leadership positions until landing her first role as President and CEO at Alcan Packaging, based in Paris, in 2006, just before the company was acquired by Rio Tinto in July 2007.

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