Forest Laboratories Inc.
Howard Solomon
, 74
CEO since 1977
Industry:
Health Care
Sales:
$1.5 billion
Net Income:
$311 million
Corporate Snapshot:
FRX
It's a true David vs. Goliath story. In 1998, New York's Forest Labs rolled out Celexa, an antidepressant that the drugmaker had licensed from a Danish company. But while Forest is dwarfed by rivals even now--with just 1,500 U.S. sales reps, compared with 8,200 for Pfizer--Celexa made a big splash. It grabbed 17% of the market for drugs like Eli Lilly's Prozac because it has fewer drug interactions. Forest's net income was up 79% last year. To keep the growth going, Forest has licensed several new drugs, including a hypertension treatment that could roll out late this year. It also is preparing a new antidepressant that may have fewer side effects.
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H&R Block Inc.
Mark Ernst, 43
CEO since 2001
Industry:
Nonbank Financial
Sales:
$3.1 billion
Net Income:
$345 million
Corporate Snapshot:
HRB
The best-known tax preparer, based in Kansas City, Mo., has moved into a wide range of financial products under Ernst's leadership. It now acts as a financial adviser, mortgage lender, and discount broker as well. Wall Street liked the new menu so much that H&R Block's stock returned 108.5% in the past year. The company has already signed up more than 100,000 clients for its latest offering of retirement accounts. Another hot area was mortgage operations, with earnings rising to $140 million last year from $88 million in 2000. Still, tax operations contribute 55% of earnings. Thanks to the myriad changes in the tax law, analysts expect even more people to knock on its doors.
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Calpine Corp.
Peter Cartwright, 72
CEO since 1984
Industry:
Utilities & Energy Services
Sales:
$7.6 billion
Net Income:
$653 million
Corporate Snapshot:
CPN
Cartwright figured that America would always need power. And this electricity producer, which operates natural-gas-fired plants that funnel power to utilities and local government agencies nationwide, ramped up rapidly to supply it. Calpine's capacity exploded over the past three years, with sales jumping an annual average 148.6%. Until a few months ago, it was planning to keep expanding to produce 70,000 megawatts of power by 2005, up from about 11,000 now. But then the economic downturn hit. Demand for power fell sharply, and Cartwright put the brakes on plant expansion. Power prices plunged, slicing margins. Plus, Enron's collapse scared investors into questioning Calpine's finances and accounting. Now it is working to ensure it has enough cash to pay off about $13 billion in debt. To top things off, the Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating whether the San Jose company violated selective-disclosure rules in January, a charge it denies.
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Copyright 2002, Bloomberg L.P.
