Clinton's leaked list of preliminary VP candidates included 9 of the biggest names in business — here's why they may have made the cut

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A hacked email leaked by WikiLeaks on Tuesday showed the "first cut of people" Hillary Clinton's campaign had considered for her vice presidential running mate.

In March, campaign chairman John Podesta sent Clinton the short list of 39 potential candidates, which included a number of successful businesspeople.

Below are the nine big business names selected and their experiences with leadership that may have contributed to why they made the list:

Mary Barra

In 2014, Barra took over as GM's chief executive in the midst of a crisis: fresh off a recession that saw bankruptcy and bailouts for the automaker, Barra led GM through a recall of 30 million cars with faulty ignitions to finishing out the year with record sales. 

Under her tenure, GM has continued to dominate.

The reason for GM's success: "We have total leadership alignment in the company," Vice President Mark Reuss — the No. 2 guy with CEO Mary Barra and the executive responsible for guiding GM's vehicle development — previously told Business Insider.

And Barra's sights aren't set simply on changing the auto industry — she speaks about changing the world.

"If you truly want to 'change the world,' you need more than talent. You also need to do the work, because hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard," she said during Stanford Graduate School of Business's commencement ceremony.

Michael Bloomberg

As the founder, owner, and CEO of Bloomberg LP, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg more than 30 years' cumulative leadership experience.

During his tenure as mayor between 2002 and 2013, he worked with Hillary Clinton, who served as a US senator for New York between 2001 and 2009. The two have also joined forces in the past to promote women's rights initiatives.

Though Bloomberg, who registered as an independent in 2007, had considered joining the presidential race on a third-party platform, he wrote in March that he could not run "in good conscience" because his candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz.

During a speech given at the Democratic National Convention in July, Bloomberg said, "Trump is a risky, reckless, and radical choice, and we can't afford to make that choice."

While he acknowledged that he and Hillary Clinton disagreed on numerous issues, he went on to endorse Clinton as the "responsible choice in this election" and a "sane," "competent" candidate.

Ursula Burns

The CEO of Xerox has proven she isn't afraid of tackling challenges. Around 2000, when Xerox was on the brink of bankruptcy, she turned down the severance package offered to her and other executives in favor of helping to keep the company afloat.

As Business Insider previously reported, Burns considers the experience of those crisis years to be "the best experience ever" because she was required to make decisions rapidly and respond to tensions as quickly as possible. "I don't think I could have been trained better at business school," she told the audience at a 92Y event in New York last year.