Justine Greening has been announced as the new transport secretary, after Philip Hammond stepped in to fill the void at the Ministry of Defence following Liam Fox's resignation.
Greening was elected to Parliament in 2005 and was made economic secretary at the Treasury following the 2010 general election.
The 42-year-old Putney MP supported Fox in the 2005 Conservative Party leadership contest, before switching her support to David Cameron.
Cameron made her vice-chair of the party in 2005, a post she held until she was elevated to the Treasury in 2010.
A graduate of Southampton University and the London Business School, Greening worked in finance for a variety of companies before entering Parlaiment, including positions at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica.
Greening was a vocal opponent of Labour's plans to build a third runway at Heathrow given that many of her constituents live under the flight path of planes landing and taking off from the airport in West London.
Her promotion to the cabinet increases the number of women at the top table at a time when women appear to be increasingly unhappy with the coalition government.