Greeting from the Big D and the North Texas Metroplex ("metropolitan complex").

The giant earners here start with Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp. John D. Rockefeller would be proud: the one-time Standard Oil is number one in Texas. Nationally, the energy giant is second behind Wal-Mart on revenue, but its $40.6 billion in profits crowns the Global 500.

Also known as Silicon Prairie for its tech and telecom, the Fortune 500-heavy Metroplex is home to roughly one-quarter of all Texans. Headquarters here include American Airlines parent company AMR (109), J.C. Penney (126), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (160) and Blockbuster (434).

Unlike their East Coast banking counterparts, Metroplex CEOs had a bonus year in 2007. Celanese Corp.’s David Weidman led the way with an eye-popping $48,257,766 in total compensation. Check out never-shy Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's two cents on CEO performance and equity positions.

Courtesy of the Dallas Morning News, here are the top two area Fast-Track companies to watch, both Irving-based.

Construction and engineering titan Fluor Corporation (www.fluor.com) operates in 25 countries, with the Alaska Pipeline, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and post-9/11 WTC rebuilding among its credentials. CEO Alan L. Boeckmann engineered a supreme 2007 campaign, on record-setting $16.69 billion revenues and an impressive 80 percent shareholder return.

Each year the nation's restaurants, slaughterhouses and butchers discard some 50 billion pounds of skin, fat, grease and guts. Every day, 1,000 Darling International Inc. (www.darlingii.com) trucks collect these indigestibles for recycling into feed, fuel and fertilizer. "Green before green was cool" CEO Randall C. Stuewe showed shareholders the green, too, with shares jumping 109 percent in 2007 on a profit lift of 300 percent.

Another Texas digest tomorrow.

Jeff Heilman

5/15/08