World Beaters

By Jyoti Thottam

MICHELINE CHAU Star Warrior

When she joined Lucasfilm as CFO in 1991, Chau, 50, brought order to the movie-magic empire built by Star Wars creator George Lucas. The company has grown into a $1.5 billion special-effects, production and computer-game powerhouse. Recently promoted to COO, Chau will work to turn Lucasfilm's disparate units into an ensemble cast--encouraging the movie-effects team at Industrial Light & Magic, say, to collaborate more closely with online game designers. A native of Singapore, Chau's favorite Star Wars hero is Yoda.

JEFF VALDEZ TV Hombre

As a stand-up comic, Valdez used to joke about the dearth of English-language TV shows that feature Latinos. At 46, he fights for these shows--and wins. He co-founded Si TV to produce them, and its show The Brothers Garcia, a comedy based partly on Valdez's childhood with nine siblings in Colorado, is a hit for Nickelodeon. This summer EchoStar will distribute the new Si TV network, the first English-language channel for Latinos, to U.S. cable and satellite customers.

SLY BAILEY Page Turner

In just three years as CEO of British publisher IPC Media, Bailey, 40, closed six flagging magazines and revamped others. AOL Time Warner (TIME's owner) bought the recharged IPC in 2001 for $1.6 billion. In February, Bailey becomes CEO of Trinity Mirror, the $1.6 billion newspaper chain, just in time to face a price war between Trinity's Daily Mirror and its rival, the Sun.

WALTER RAIZNER Big Blue Booster

IBM execs love to talk about their transformation from boxmakers to agile providers of expertise. German-born Raizner, 48, is turning that idea into sales. In the U.S., he led IBM's storage-products division from fifth place in world market share to second (behind the merged HP/Compaq). Now Raizner has returned home to try to pump up IBM Germany's $7.5 billion business.