Chris Gent (int'l edition)

When it comes to the art of the deal, Chris Gent is in a league of his own. The 51-year-old chief executive of Britain's Vodafone AirTouch PLC has been on a buying binge, with each deal superceding the last in scope. Since January, 1999, when, as Vodafone's chief, he scooped up U.S. rival AirTouch Communications Inc., he has negotiated a $70 billion venture with Bell Atlantic Corp. to combine both companies' wireless assets in the U.S. And he has acquired Germany's Mannesmann for $183 billion after a hostile takeover battle. Gent's latest coup? Snapping up one of five highly coveted British licenses for the next generation of mobile phones for $8.7 billion.

Gent's ability to pull off those bold deals, financed largely with stock, has made Vodafone the world's leading wireless-communications company. Articulate and ambitious, with a penchant for chalk-stripe suits, Gent became Vodafone's CEO three years ago. Since then, he has had little time to indulge his passions, which include collecting fine wine and 17th century English oak furniture, and tooling around the Berkshire countryside in his Aston Martin DB8.

These days, the urbane, recently remarried Gent seems to be always on planes, shuttling among his various companies. ''This business has a tremendous intensity,'' he says. ''But it's not the deals themselves that are exciting, it's what we are creating--a global powerhouse.''

That's not just ego talking. Vodafone is likely to make a killing in the next phase of the Internet's evolution: mobile telephony. Gent predicts that for the remainder of the decade, Vodafone will see significant revenue growth from wireless and Internet data services. Those two areas, he says, ''will be the main growth engines to keep us north of 20% growth for the rest of the decade.''

Vodafone's employees will be among the beneficiaries. In July, 1998, Gent offered every employee stock options--''right down to the cleaning staff,'' as he puts it. Since then, the value of those options has more than doubled. ''People are well-motivated, as they have a real stake in the company's success,'' he says. His employees describe him as an authoritative, hands-on manager who refuses to take no for an answer.

Gent is a longtime advocate of cellular communications. Prior to joining Vodafone in 1985, he worked in the computer industry for 14 years, six of which he spent as director of network services at British computer giant ICL. Colleagues recall him waxing poetic on the importance of what was then called ''cellular radio.'' At that time, few people had any idea of the potential of mobile phones. Today, Gent seems something of a visionary.

Yet few could have predicted that Gent would be among the captains of global industry. One of four brothers, he grew up in South London. After the death of his sailor father when Gent was a teenager, he decided to skip university and enter the workforce. At the age of 19, he took a job as a trainee at Britain's National Westminster Bank. Shortly after, he discovered an interest in politics and became national chairman of the Young Conservatives.

It was during this time that he befriended former Prime Minister John Major, with whom he remains close friends. The two often travel together to see the British cricket team play. Although he briefly flirted with the idea of running for Parliament, Gent decided to focus on business.

His political connections came in handy in 1985 when he joined Vodafone as its operational managing director. At the time, Britain's telecom industry was undergoing massive deregulation, and Gent was ideally placed to lobby on behalf of Vodafone.

Gent rose quickly through the ranks at Vodafone--so quickly, in fact, that internally, he earned the nickname ''cornjumper'' for what some perceived as his ability to step on the toes of rivals to get to the top. Outside Vodafone AirTouch, industry executives and analysts describe Gent as an extremely personable and skilled networker, but few people in the business claim to know him well.

Indeed, Gent is notoriously publicity-shy and intensely private. But if he continues his current pace of high-profile acquisitions and multibillion-dollar ventures, he is likely to dominate center stage among global corporate empire builders whether he likes it or not.

John Bond (int'l edition)

He answers his own phone and shuns taxis in favor of the London Underground. John R.H. Bond must be one of Europe's most frugal bankers. The chairman of Britain's HSBC Holdings earns an annual salary of $1.1 million--far less than many of his peers and not even the highest at his own institution. By setting an example, Bond is furthering his goal of building the globe's most profitable bank.

Not that Bond won't spend money. The quiet 59-year-old has been snapping up banks ever since taking the top job two years ago. The most recent acquisition was Credit Commercial de France, for $10.5 billion. Bond is building an empire spanning consumer banking, asset management, corporate banking, and insurance in 22 countries. But the 39-year veteran of the bank insists that ''size has never been the primary goal of HSBC; it's the return we get on shareholders' funds that's important.'' Last year, the bank's aftertax profit jumped 25%, to $5.4 billion, on assets of $569 billion, making HSBC second only to Citigroup in terms of profitability.

Bond wants to keep it that way. Colleagues describe him as extremely tenacious. He left his native Britain at 18, finishing high school through an exchange program in Santa Barbara, Calif. He skipped college to take a job on cargo ships traveling from California to Hong Kong, where he landed his first HSBC job. He did everything at the beginning, including delivering traveler's checks to Thailand's royal family on bended knee. He transferred to the U.S. in the 1980s, where he turned around HSBC's ailing Marine Midland Bank. He was named HSBC's group CEO in 1993 before becoming chairman.

These days, Bond spends the little free time he has with his wife, three children, and English bull terrier, Gus. Now back in London for several years, Bond admits that he still feels wanderlust now and again. If he keeps expanding HSBC's global reach, that shouldn't be too hard to cure.

Daniel Bernard (int'l edition)

Who's that in Wal-Mart's rear-view mirror? It's Daniel Bernard, president of France's Carrefour. After acquiring fellow French retailer Promodes last year, Bernard, 54, is running the world's No. 2 discount chain. True, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s $160 billion in sales last year dwarfed Carrefour's $65 billion. But after overseeing Carrefour's push into foreign markets, Bernard is plenty optimistic.

When Bernard took over in 1992, Carrefour was renowned as the inventor of the superstore, selling groceries and an array of other goods under one roof. But it had scarcely expanded outside France and Spain. Today it has 9,000 stores in 26 countries from China to Argentina. Wal-Mart, by contrast, has only recently moved into Europe and Latin America. ''We are pioneers,'' Bernard says.

The low-key Bernard worked his way up through the industry after graduating from France's Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales. Before joining Carrefour, he oversaw German retailer Metro's move into Central Europe. Look for Bernard to keep his foot on the gas at Carrefour.

John Browne (int'l edition)

It wasn't so long ago that Texas stood out as capital of the global oil industry. Now the center of gravity has shifted to London and Europe. BP Amoco PLC's boss has a lot to do with that change. Since taking over as chief executive of BP in 1995, John Browne has launched a series of deals that have revitalized an industry that was becoming a sleepy backwater.

The soft-talking, cheroot-puffing Browne, 52, snapped up Amoco for $53 billion in 1998, and, after a long battle with U.S. regulators, he recently added Arco to his empire. BP, which was troubled in the early 1990s, is now highly profitable. The company's market capitalization of almost $200 billion is No. 2 in the industry after Exxon Mobil Corp., surpassing longtime rival Royal/Dutch Shell Group.

A Cambridge graduate, Browne, a bachelor, is deeply attached to BP Amoco. He says his job is far more pleasant these days, as he plots takeovers and other growth moves, than it was in the mid-1990s, when the company shed thousands of employees. His achievements in shaping the company brought him a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in 1998.

Browne's moves have inspired imitators. Exxon bought Mobil in 1998, and Thierry Desmarest, CEO of the company now called TotalFina Elf, did a rollup of his Continental rivals. Competitors are now watching for clues to Browne's next tack. Regulators are on guard against more monster takeovers. But he could move further into environmentally friendly natural gas, where he's now a major player, thanks to the Arco deal. Although Browne says he needs time to absorb Arco, he's a restless CEO.

Jürgen Schrempp (int'l edition)

First he swallowed up Chrysler. Now he's forging an alliance with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. DaimlerChrysler Chairman Jürgen E. Schrempp has captured headlines over the last two years in his headlong rush to create a global auto maker. He's also racing to beat rivals on new technology by putting an affordable fuel cell-powered car on the market by 2004.

Schrempp is close to achieving his grand strategy: establishing a presence in all major car markets and model segments. But his toughest task will be convincing investors that his plan is a winner for them, too. So far, it's not. Since the Chrysler merger, the stock has slid 37% to a recent low of $53.25 a share in New York.

Schrempp announced a share buyback program at the April annual meeting, telling shareholders he shared their frustration at the stock's performance. Underacheiving does not come easily to Schrempp. A high school dropout who started at Daimler-Benz as an apprentice mechanic, the 55-year-old Schrempp has introduced bold risk-taking to Germany Inc.'s consensus-driven culture. Even before becoming Daimler-Benz chairman in 1995, he shook things up by streamlining the company's aerospace activities. His performance helped him get the top job. His takeover of Chrysler was hailed as a groundbreaking transatlantic deal.

But then came disappointment, as a stream of Chrysler execs walked away from what was clearly not the ''merger of equals'' first announced. Margins have been under pressure too, as Chrysler resorts to rebates to keep sales up.

The marriage of Daimler and Chrysler may yet prove inspired. But now Schrempp must prove he can manage deals as well as make them.

Werner Seifert (int'l edition)

It once was one of the most backward stock exchanges in Europe. Now, Frankfurt's Deutsche Borse is an international powerhouse spurring change in the way securities are traded across Europe. The driving force behind the transformation: Werner G. Seifert, CEO of the Borse since 1993.

Time and again, Seifert, 50, has challenged the established order and won. But it was just last April that he pulled off his biggest coup yet: a merger between Deutsche Borse and its erstwhile archrival, the London Stock Exchange. The new entity, to be known as iX, will account for 53% of all traded volume in Europe. Although the merger came close to unraveling because of hostility from some institutions in Frankfurt, Deutsche Borse's board voted in favor of it on May 23. Now, it's expected that members of the LSE will do the same when they meet in September. Seifert will be CEO if the deal is approved.

Seifert's earlier coups include taking on the London International Financial Futures & Options Exchange, where the lion's share of German government bond contracts were then traded. By merging Frankfurt's fledgling derivatives exchange with its Swiss counterpart in 1997 to create Eurex--an all-electronic exchange--he lured 95% of the business back within a year, causing near-panic in the City. Eurex is now the biggest derivatives exchange in the world. Seifert was also the brains behind the Neuer Markt, which was established in March, 1997, and quickly became the dominant market for high-growth stocks in Europe.

Forceful and frank, Seifert is as unpopular as he is respected. ''Negotiating with him is like negotiating with a tank,'' says a senior official at one Continental exchange. Born in Switzerland, Seifert did an internship at Deutsche Bank before spending seven years at McKinsey & Co. and six years at Swiss Re. In his spare time, he's a jazz lover and pianist.

The key to Seifert's success, say both rivals and peers, is his understanding of what stock exchange customers want--namely, cheap, efficient trading. ''We are building a business,'' he says. ''Maybe other stock exchanges lost sight of that fact.'' If so, Seifert will be there to exploit their lack of foresight.

Juan Villalonga (int'l edition)

Juan Villalonga has always vied to be No. 1, even during his days as an MBA student at the University of Navarra in Barcelona. A caricature of his graduate class depicts the unconventional scholar as a feisty bulldog sporting an elegant tie, sitting out in front of all his classmates. Now the chief executive of Telefonica, Villalonga, 47, is driving to make the Spanish telecom giant a global leader in everything from Internet access to media content.

He has already built an impressive $22 billion empire out of a company that, just a few years ago, did little business outside Spain. In four years Villalonga has acquired the top slot in Latin America's phone market, with 30 million customers. Profits in 1999 jumped 38% to $2 billion, while market cap has risen sixfold to $15 billion.

Now comes the crucial part of the game, as Villalonga extends his reach to North America, Europe, and Asia. On May 16, his Internet subsidiary, Terra Networks, nabbed Lycos for $12.5 billion, making Villalonga the first European CEO to buy a major U.S. Internet company. The Lycos deal was a rapid-fire rebound from Villalonga's merger bid for Dutch telecom giant KPN, which the Spanish government shot down. But other deals are already done, such as Telefonica's March purchase of successful Dutch TV programmer Endomol Entertainment Holding. Villalonga is set on building the critical mass to challenge the America Online-Time Warner combo. Unless, of course, a rival checkmates him first.