|
|
Article
40 Under 40 They’re smart, they’re accomplished, they run multimillion-dollar enterprises — and oh, yes, they’re young. Some helm technology companies, others lead financial firms, others are at the top the health-care game. On these pages, meet the faces of the future. (Move over, Mr. Gates.) Spring 2008 , Page 45continued 5
Jon E. Kirchner In 1993, a little film called Jurassic Park burst into the public consciousness. Audiences raved about the special effects — not just the dinosaurs, but also the sound. The latter came courtesy of a small startup called Digital Theater System, which made its Hollywood debut in the Steven Spielberg movie (the director was an initial investor in the firm). Around the same time, Kirchner, armed with a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna, came onboard. A certified public accountant, he had been working at Price Waterhouse, advising companies on financial and operational restructuring, market position and business turnaround. Kirchner became CEO in 2001, and DTS has since catapulted itself into theaters around the world, as well as audio/video receivers, DVD and Blu-ray HD players, personal computers, car-audio products, video-game consoles and home-theater systems. In 2005, the company snapped up Lowry Digital Images, a privately held company noted for film restoration and enhancement. The $11 million acquisition enabled DTS to capitalize on the huge demand for high-definition DVD products. The companies’ 2007 revenues were $36.2 million. That’s something to talk about — loudly.
Peter Kosann You might think you have to be a CEO to be on this list. But we didn’t feel right excluding Kosann. Until this January, he was COO of Westwood One, the largest radio-programming company in America. During his seven-year tenure, Kosann, a Brown graduate, launched the new WestwoodOne.com, which offers interactive, streaming and downloadable content to a worldwide audience, among many other things. Then he was offered a position as COO at Connoisseur Media, a five-year-old company started by radio executives Jeffrey D. Warshaw and Michael O. Driscoll. Connoisseur owns or operates 22 stations — 17 of which are already on the air (the others will be built this year). Like every good businessman, Kosann jumped at the chance to start something new. 
I. Joseph Massoud Title: CEO, Compass Diversified Holdings City: Westport, Connecticut Age: 39 Recent Market Cap: $405 million Massoud, a graduate of Claremont McKenna and Harvard Business School, has been CEO of this $600 million private-equity firm since its inception in December 2005. During his tenure at Compass, Massoud — a former vice president at Petroleum Heat and Power and Colony Capital, a Los Angeles–based private-equity shop specializing in distressed real estate and corporate assets — has snapped up nine companies and increased sales by about $100 million just in the last year. “I’d like to see shareholders rewarded for putting trust in our team,” he says. “I’d also like to see our organization grow and have some real permanence, which means constant thinking about management growth and succession.”
Kenneth McBride In 2004, the U.S. Postal Service began letting consumers design their own stamps. (Elvis! Marilyn! Nascar!) Two years later, businesses were allowed to follow suit. This was good news for McBride, the CEO of Stamps.com, a software-based service that, in conjunction with the USPS, lets customers calculate, and print, U.S. postage from the comfort of their personal computers. (Of course, you pay for the privilege: A sheet of 20 first-class stamps — face value $8.20 — costs $18.99 through Stamps.com.) Initially, the company’s stock soared. But then TheSmokingGun.com printed stamps depicting such unsavory characters as Slobodan Milosevic. The USPS was not amused, and shut down the program. McBride, a former research analyst for Salomon Smith Barney (he has a master’s in electrical engineering from Stanford, as well as a Stanford MBA), who had been in charge since 2001, was devastated. Within a year, Stamps.com had overhauled its screening process, and the USPS softened its opposition. From May to September 2007, the company sold 3.5 million custom stamps and made $2.4 million in profits, up 7 percent from the year before.
Matthew McCauley The youngest CEO to helm the 32-year-old, $700 million children’s activity and clothing firm, McCauley believes his youth is an asset. A graduate of Brigham Young’s business school, he got his start handling distribution at Payless ShoeSource and as manager of business solutions at the Gap. In 2006, he took over the top job at Gymboree. It’s a huge task: The company has nearly 600 stores throughout the U.S. That doesn’t include its 80 outlets, 100 Janie and Jack and 20 Crazy 8 shops that sell children’s clothes. Nor does it take into consideration the nearly 300 Gymboree Play & Music centers around the globe. Ah, to be young.
C. Randal Mills Mills, who has a Ph.D. in drug development from the University of Florida, is a leader among biotech CEOs. He certainly thinks big: He wants to win FDA approval for the world’s first stem-cell therapy. “Every day the therapy is not on the market, both adults and children go without life-saving treatments,” he says. Mills believes his company is poised for success. At Regeneration Technologies, the biotech firm he helped found in 1998, he led the company from modest upstart to thriving corporation. When Osiris appointed him CEO in 2004, it wanted the same. How has he done? At the start of 2008, the company secured a $224.7 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to produce a cache of Prochymal, an adult stem-cell therapy for gastrointestinal injury. We’d say that’s pretty good.
NO COMMENTS YET
ADD YOUR COMMENT
|
|
