Meet the top 10 women in tech 2012

Sheri E. Hickok: Vehicle Chief Engineer, General Motors In the 16 years Sheri Hickok has worked with General Motors, she’s never held the same position for longer than a year and a half. That’s because, when she sees an opportunity, she takes it – ready or not. As the youngest to have ever held her current position as General Motors’ vehicle chief engineer, she’s got more engineering know-how than most twice her age. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/sheri-hickok">Full profile and interview</a>

Adriana Karaboutis: Global CIO, Dell This year, Adriana Karaboutis was promoted from VP of IT at Dell to their Global CIO. In this role, she’s responsible for driving Dell’s “IT organization evolution,” which includes creating and managing innovative new technology for the company and its customers. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/adriana-karaboutis">Full profile and interview</a>

Julia Hartz: Co-founder & President, Eventbrite Julia Hartz co-founded the self-service and events ticketing platform Eventbrite in 2006. The company works with event organizers – from charity and corporate groups to PTA moms and entrepreneurs – to organize, simplify and bring in attendees for events of all sizes. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/julia-hartz">Full profile and interview</a>

Cindy Bates: Microsoft VP of U.S. Small & Medium Business & Distribution At Microsoft, Cindy Bates and her team make sure small and medium-sized businesses can effectively use the company's software, products and more to start and grow successfully. She's currently responsible for business development as well as various sales and marketing efforts for the multinational computing corporation. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/cindy-bates">Full profile and interview</a>

Lisa Kavanaugh: Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ask.com As chief product and technology officer of question and answer-based search site Ask.com, Lisa Kavanaugh is responsible for all aspects of management, strategy and product development. She’s a developer of the company’s website and mobile app and helped launch several products and strategic partnerships. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/lisa-kavanaugh">Full profile and interview</a>

Lisa McVey: CIO, McKesson McKesson Corporation is the largest pharmaceuticals company in the world. And as CIO of its Provider Technologies and RelayHealth Connectivity Solutions, Lisa McVey heads up the largest division of tech solutions. She directs and manages communications, network services and more while ensuring her departments are accomplishing goals. One of her projects alone generated $18.6 million in new revenue. <a href="http://">Full profile and interview</a>

Kara Nortman: VP, Urbanspoon; SVP, CityGrid Media Kara Nortman has quite the (virtual) Rolodex of big-name sites she’s worked with: Urbanspoon, Insider Pages and Citysearch, to name a few. As SVP of CityGrid Media, an online media company connecting web and mobile publishers with local ad organizations, she oversees publishing on the brand’s consumer sites, manages the P&L and charts the growth of sites and their content. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/kara-nortman">Full profile and interview</a> (sarah m. golonka/smg photography)

Robin Bienfait: CIO, BlackBerry BlackBerry CIO Robin Bienfait knows competition in the mobile phone industry is fierce. That’s why, in addition to her responsibilities of maintaining the company’s operations, customer service and IT functions, she took on additional responsibilities to give BlackBerry an edge over other companies in 2011. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/robin-bienfait">Full profile and interview</a>

Ory Okolloh: Policy Manager, Google in Africa Though Ory Okolloh has dabbled (and excelled) in several areas of business, her mission remains the same – to raise the voices of African citizens. She co-founded watchdog website Mzalendo.com (Swahili for “Patriot”) in 2006 so Kenyans could keep tabs on parliament accountability and have access to government documents, meeting records, contribution amounts and more. <a href="http://littlepinkbook.com/resources/pink-list/top-women-tech/ory-okolloh">Full profile and interview</a>

Elizabeth Baron: Technical Specialist, Virtual Reality & Advanced Visualization, Ford Motor Company Baron says electronics, gizmos and science have always fascinated her. She runs (and helped create) Ford’s Immersive Virtual Environment Lab, a state-of-the-art space that uses virtual reality to help designers and engineers envision and ensure safety of a vehicle before it’s actually built. Her work is so impressive that NASA personally called to ask for a tour. <a href="http://">Full profile and interview</a>