It was happenstance that Cynthia Bright got into intellectual property law—a magistrate judge needed help on a bike-pedal patent case and she volunteered. Now, she manages all IP litigation for Hewlett-Packard, overseeing dozens of active cases at a time. Under her leadership, the team received the Global Counsel Award for IP Team of the Year in 2014, and this year it won an internal recognition, HP's Presidential Quality Award, which she counts as a career high. In November, Bright moves into her dream job: head of U.S. litigation for HP.

What do you like most about working in tech?

It's dynamic. The businesses are working to solve problems with technology and to do things that have not been done before.