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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 6
Ian Morris Before joining HouseValues, Morris, a Harvard MBA, ran MSN HomeAdvisor, Microsoft’s online real-estate business, which he helped launch in 1997. HouseValues, which provides marketing and technology services for residential real-estate agents, operates both HouseValues.com and JustListed.com. Morris is quick to admit that the climate is not easy, especially these days: “Motivating our team to look past the short-term challenges and focus on the enormous opportunity in front of us helps keep me fired up,” he says.
David Oles If you’ve ever used one of those self-service digital photo–development machines at a drugstore, you may have Oles to thank. Oles, who founded Pixel Magic Imaging with his father, Henry, in 1992, led the creation of some of the first self-service digital-photo kiosks. In 2004, Pixel Magic was bought by Japan-based Dai Nippon Printing, which posted $13 billion in revenues in 2006. (Oles is now the senior vice president of research and development.) Pixel Magic officially changed its name to DNP Photo Imaging America last year; we look forward to watching what develops.
Michelle Peluso When she was 15, Peluso sent a series of letters to an organization planning a media trip to the Soviet Union until she persuaded them to take her along. Nowadays, the CEO of online travel service Travelocity makes sure customers have an easier time planning their own excursions. A graduate of Wharton and Oxford, Peluso founded last-minute reservations portal Site59.com in 2000. Two years later, Travelocity bought her startup, and the next year she became CEO. Under her leadership, annual revenues have increased every year, with 2006 revenues reaching $1.1 billion, up from $83 million in 2005. She’s now taking the company global, forging partnerships with sites in Europe and Asia and spearheading its acquisitions of smaller trip-reservation portals LastMinute.com and Zuji, ensuring that Travelocity customers never have to roam alone.
Kevin Plank As a teenager, Plank and his brother, Scott, sold Guatemalan bracelets at Grateful Dead shows. Then they began “reproducing” concert T-shirts and selling them outside venues for nearly $10 less than the official price. But he really hit his stride as a football player at the University of Maryland. In 1995, he began using a type of moisture-wicking fabric to make his practice tees. Under Armour, his $700 million sports-apparel company, has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. Fans include Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Score!
Michael G. Rubin After dropping out of Villanova, Rubin started GSI Commerce in 1999. Today, the Nasdaq-listed firm builds and runs online stores for such brands as Ace Hardware, Linens-N-Things and HBO. “I love being at the forefront of an industry that has experienced such tremendous growth and innovation, and one that presents a great daily challenge to find new ways to enhance consumers’ online shopping experiences,” he says.
Mark Shapiro Shapiro spent 12 years at ESPN in production and programming before signing on to Six Flags, attempting to revitalize a company that had posted annual losses since 2002 — its 30 amusement parks nationwide (since trimmed to 21) were considered little more than hangouts for idle teens. But the tenacious, in-your-face Shapiro had a plan to overhaul the company’s image by turning Six Flags into a family-friendly park. Then, in 2007, unusually inclement weather in Georgia and Texas — plus a gruesome accident at a Kentucky Six Flags — led to a downturn in attendance in July, typically a peak month. Nonetheless, thanks in part to the new family-friendly rides and a focus on customer service (both part of Shapiro’s three-year initiative), Six Flags has doubled its income from corporate sponsorship and ticket sales. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2007 increased 7 percent to around $111 million, up from $104 million during the same period the previous year. Talk about a wild ride.
Phil Shawe In high school, Shawe’s dedication and commitment to customer service made him Sears’s top appliance pusher in the Southeast. Several years later, those same skills helped him persuade a multinational mining giant to use his company, TransPerfect, to translate numerous documents for a proposed project in Russia. Shawe cofounded TransPerfect in (where else?) his dorm room at New York University in 1992 with fellow Stern School of Business student Elizabeth Elting. He helped it expand to three continents; it now provides a full range of business translation services for a plethora of multinational corporations. Its 2007 revenues were north of $150 million — an enviable figure in any language.
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