Wanji Walcott started her legal career differently than most—right after law school, she immediately went in-house, working at Lockheed Martin IMS Corp., a Lockheed subsidiary. This alternative path served her well, allowing her to meet her then-boss, Lockheed IMS general counsel Robert Downing, who recognized her potential. Two years into the job, Downing told Walcott she could be GC one day, too.

"I thought he meant of the subsidiary and he said: No, no, no. You could be general counsel of Lockheed Martin. You have something." Walcott remembered.

Walcott held onto that, she said, and this year, she made her ambition to run a legal department at a big name company a reality. She is now the general counsel to PayPal Inc., the massive San Jose-based online payments company that recorded $10.84 billion in revenue in 2016 and $1.4 billion in net income.