It was mostly business as usual for Deirdre Connelly today: back-to-back meetings at GlaxoSmithKline's North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park. But they were interspersed with some media interviews.

Fortune magazine this morning ranked Connelly as No. 27 on its annual list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. That's up 10 spots from last year.

"I'm not going to let this go to my head," Connelly said in a short phone interview this afternoon. "I take the recognition very seriously, but it's also an opportunity to talk about the good things happening at GSK."

As president of North American pharmaceuticals for the British company, Connelly, 50, oversees GSK's Triangle operations and its 5,000 employees in Research Triangle Park and Zebulon. A native of Puerto Rico, Connelly joined GSK last year after spending 25 years with rival Eli Lilly.

Click "Read More" for edited highlights from today's interview.

SAS has new bragging rights.

The Cary software company, which has been a fixture for years on Fortune magazine's annual list of the "100 Best Companies to Work for," was never No. 1. Until now.

Fortune's latest ranking out this morning puts SAS at the top, citing its "laundry list of benefits," including unlimited sick days, onsite medical care, free fitness center, library and more.

Also this morning, SAS announced that it generated $2.31 billion in revenue in 2009, up 2.2 percent from the year before. That marks the 34th year its revenue has increased, despite the recession and as competition increases.

The magazine also lauds "the architect of this culture," co-founder and CEO Jim Goodnight. And Fortune gushes about Goodnight's leadership helping foster loyalty, and "shockingly low turnover of 2 percent," by avoiding layoffs despite the economic downturn.

Falling on her face and breaking a tooth helped steer Sallie Krawcheck to her new job as Bank of America's head of global wealth management.

During an on-stage interview this week with Fortune magazine at New York's Museum of American Finance, Krawcheck told a story about how she almost took another job before accepting the position with the Charlotte-based bank.

The other job was a "a leadership opportunity at a troubled financial-services company," Krawcheck told the audience. But on the way to an interview, the UNC-Chapel Hill alumnae caught the heel of her shoe in a crack in the Madison Avenue sidewalk.

She did not make the meeting, Fortune reported. "I ended up with six stitches, one broken tooth, a hairline jaw fracture, a dislocated jaw and whiplash," she said.

Joining GlaxoSmithKline boosted Deirdre Connelly's power ranking.

Connelly, who became head of GSK's North American pharmaceutical business in February, is No. 37 on Fortune Magazine's latest list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in business. Connelly, 49, defected to GSK after spending 25 years at rival Eli Lilly.

Connelly was No. 42 in last year's Fortune list.

She is the top ranking official at GSK's U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park and oversees key drugs such as the asthma treatment Advair. The British drug maker employs more than 5,000 in the Triangle but has been shedding jobs to cut costs amid slowing U.S. sales.

A few other Tar Heels made Fortune's latest list.