Summary: Julie Sweet took an unusual road to become CEO of Accenture North America, a position which landed her at #39 on Fortune's 2016 list of the World's Most Powerful Women. In 1987, 19-year old Sweet went to China, going to a foreign culture to learn a strange language in an era when learning Japanese was far more fashionable. Risk-taking and doing things a little differently has become the theme of Sweet's professional career, taking her from partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP—one of the first females to earn that title—to her current position at Accenture NA, which has $31 billion in revenue and nearly 50,000 employees. Sweet helped Accenture land on Fortune's list of the 100 Best Places to Work by allowing employees returning from parental leave to work locally, providing 40 hours of subsidized back-up care, and prioritizing a diverse and inclusive work environment. Just this year, Accenture was the first big consulting firm to publish race and gender stats, another example of Sweet doing things a little bit differently as we discuss in the latest episode of Fortune Unfiltered.
