Diane Hoskins

Company: GenslerTitle: Global Co-ChairIndustry: Real estateNotable in 2024: Hoskins stepped into the role of Global co-Chair, using her influence (and nearly 20 years' experience as the firm's co-CEO) to make Gensler a global leader in sustainable design and building practices.

Growing up in Chicago, Diane Hoskins spent much of her childhood observing the city's collection of stunning and photogenic architecture, using that and the images she saw in Architectural Record to inspire her doodling and imagination.

But her path to becoming one of the most powerful people in the worlds of architecture and design can't be easily traced with a T-square.

After graduating from MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, she spent her 20s working in different cities and industries, she told CNBC Make It last year. She worked in interior design, real estate and architecture, lived in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and earned an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

Her professional arc, which Hoskins called an "off-track" journey while giving the commencement speech to MIT's School of Architecture and Planning last year, led her back to architecture and Gensler, which has become one of the world's leading architecture and design firms under her leadership.

Over her more than three-decade career at Gensler, she has risen up the firm's ranks to now serve as its global co-chair alongside Andy Cohen, who Hoskins shares long-term strategy and day-to-day operations with and previously served as co-CEO with for nearly two decades.

Hoskins has also been at the center of the discussion around how workspace design intersects with employee performance and engagement, overseeing Gensler's Workplace Survey and influencing how the industry at large designs offices and other spaces.

"Being 'off track' is actually the best way to build a career of impact," Hoskins told the MIT students.