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Leading Women

Lessons from the C-suite: 7 Fortune 500 CEOs reveal their secrets to success

By Charlotte Lytton, for CNN
August 20, 2013 -- Updated 1208 GMT (2008 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • This week on Leading Women, we talk to Deanna Mulligan, CEO of insurance giant Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
  • At the helm of a Fortune 500 company, she tells CNN about her successes
  • Take a look at words of wisdom from other female CEOs including Ursula Burns and Marissa Mayer

Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time. Each month, we meet two women at the top of their field, exploring their careers, lives and ideas.

(CNN) -- As the CEO of Guardian Life Insurance, Deanna Mulligan has joined a small but powerful group of female business executives on the Fortune 500 list.

She talks to "Leading Women" about life at the helm of the 150-year-old insurance giant and how opportunities for female professionals are growing day by day.

With women only holding 4.2% of Fortune 500 CEO positions, CNN takes a look at the pearls of wisdom shared by some of the world's leading businesswomen on getting to the top -- and staying there.

Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to this report.

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