Accenture CEO Julie Sweet was praised this week for her openness regarding a breast cancer diagnosis, which also gave rare insight into how executives disclose their life-altering health news.
Sweet, 57, announced her diagnosis in a staff-wide memo that was followed by an official 8K filing—used to announce significant events to the Securities and Exchange Commission—that alerted shareholders to her situation.
The diagnosis is not all doom and gloom for the executive, who has battled breast cancer before. She told staff, “the prognosis from my doctor is excellent; the cancer was caught early, and my condition is curable.” She added in her 8K filing that the cancer is not present anywhere else in her body.
Fortune was among those praising Sweet’s handling of the matter. The business magazine contrasted her openness—even at this early stage—to how the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs kept his pancreatic cancer diagnosis secret in 2003 and later blamed his weight loss on “hormone imbalance.”
Jobs’ health secrecy, which included him complaining “curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction,” is “no longer acceptable” among top executives in the U.S., Fortune reported. Jobs died in 2011, aged just 56.
Sweet has been the chief executive at Accenture, a global professional services company, since 2019. She reportedly pulled in over $34 million in salary in 2023 and is ranked No. 7 on Forbes’ “The World’s Most Powerful Women” list, trailing mostly world leaders like Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
The California native’s memo said she will undergo surgery next week, followed by radiation therapy. She said her doctors estimate her treatment will take three to four months, and she plans to work throughout it.
“I have been advised that I will be able to work substantially as normal, leading the day-to-day operations of the company throughout this process,” she wrote. “I will, however, curtail my travel during this period. The Board has been briefed and is fully supportive.”
