The New York Times and Fortune have named her among the most powerful women in corporate America, crediting her for "working on creating true gender equality at the office".[4][5][6]
Prior to Sweet's work at Accenture, she was an attorney at law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.[9][10] She worked at the firm for 17 years and was partner for 10.[11][12] Sweet was the ninth woman ever to make partner at the firm.[9] She worked on financing, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate counsel.[13]
Accenture
Accenture recruited Sweet as general counsel in 2010.[9] In 2015, she became CEO of Accenture's North America business, the company's largest market.[9] Since early in her career at Accenture, she has been on the company's global management committee. Alongside then-CEO Pierre Nanterme, Sweet developed Accenture's mergers and acquisitions strategy.[14]
Accenture named Sweet its CEO effective September 2019, the first woman to hold that position.[15][16] She replaced interim CEO David Rowland.[16] At the time of her appointment, she was one of 27 women leading companies in the S&P 500[9] and the 15th female CEO of all Fortune Global 500 companies.[17][18] In September 2021, Sweet became chair of Accenture.[6]
As CEO, Sweet has advocated for diversity, inclusion,[9] and workplace gender parity.[16] Sweet supports Accenture's goal to have a staff equally represented by men and women by 2025; as of 2019, 42 percent of Accenture's staff was female.[19] Sweet was named a top CEO for diversity by the website Comparably in 2019.[20]
Sweet has called for addressing the skills gap in the U.S. and supported the national apprenticeship movement.[21] She participated in The New York Times's New Rules Summit.[4]
Sweet indicated in 2023 that she wants to double the number of Accenture employees primarily skilled in artificial intelligence (AI) and data-related fields.[22] In 2024, Sweet announced Accenture's plans to open 10 generative AI 'innovation hubs' around the world.[23]
In 2023, Sweet's total compensation at Accenture was $31.6 million, or 1,526 times what the median employee at Accenture earned that same year without a cost-of-living adjustment.[24] This is equivalent to 633 times what the median employee at Accenture earned that same year adjusted for cost-of-living.[25]
The New York Times called Sweet "one of the most powerful women in corporate America" in 2019.[4]Fortune magazine included Julie Sweet in their "Most Powerful Women" list since 2016,[34] and she was named No. 1 on the list for 2020.[35]Fortune noted she "steered Accenture’s more than half a million employees in 51 countries through the pandemic." Sweet has subsequently been ranked by Fortune as No. 3 on the list for 2021,[36] and No. 2 on the list for 2022.[37]
