In essence, Pam Alexander is trying to reinvent public relations. As the founder of Alexander Communications - which was acquired by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in 1998 - she built the company into one of the country's most influential tech PR firms by maintaining intense personal relationships, a knack for networking, and a laser-like focus on the convention circuit. She was named to Fortune Small Business'slist of the "25 Most Influential Women in Business" in 2001 and was selected as one of the San Francisco Business Times's "Most Influential Bay Area Business Women" in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

As the global practice leader for The Gallup Organization's Strengths Management practice for the last 15 years, Marcus Buckingham has helped his clients find, focus, and develop the most talented employees. He is the co-author of Gallup's book on great managers, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently and Now, Discover Your Strengths, which introduces the StrengthsFinder profile to the world and provides readers the chance to discover their five strongest themes of talent. His mission at Gallup? As he describes it: "to create a better marriage between the dreams of workers and the drive of companies to win."

When it comes to finding fresh talent from the world's best universities, IBM relies on Jane Harper. She is responsible for attracting, motivating, and retaining the best and most diverse young talent in the industry, and is also leading a company-wide effort to reinvent internships with Extreme Blue, IBM's leading project and team-based approach for driving speed and business innovation. Most recently, she led IBM's "Speed Team," a group formed internally to ignite IBM's information technology projects. She has been with the company for 22 years, and has a broad background of staff and management experience in IT, marketing, finance, and corporate strategy.

Born in Texas, raised in Holland, and educated in the U.K., Margaret Heffernan has leveraged her diverse background to work in several key positions throughout the world. She has produced prize-winning films for the BBC, developed software products with Tom Peters and Peter Lynch, and was CEO of the ZineZone and iCAST corporations. Last summer, her Fast Company article "The Female CEO" provoked a whirlwind response, and she is now finishing her book on the subject, to published in 2004. She has commented on women's business issues for NPR's "Marketplace" and currently sits on the boards of several companies in the U.S. and U.K.

Mary Lou Quinlan is the founder and CEO of Just Ask a Woman, a New York based marketing consultancy dedicated to building business with women for clients including CitiGroup, Johnson & Johnson, Estee Lauder, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Her 25-year marketing career led to her reputation as a brand turnaround expert, from director of sales motivation and advertising for Avon, to CEO of a major national advertising agency, for clients including Continental Airlines, General Motors and Procter & Gamble. She speaks frequently on women's issues and has written for Redbook, MORE, and Marie Claire.

When Continental chairman Gordon Bethune was putting together a core team to turn around the airline in 1994, one of the first people he hired was Bonnie Reitz. And by emphasizing personal relationships, restoring trust with frequent flyers, and inspiring the company's 56,000 employees to always be thinking about the customer, Reitz was able to play a huge part in saving the airline. The Continental turnaround has become a book, a case study at many business schools, and has captured the attention of Wall Street and consumers alike. And Reitz has been named one of the top 25 most influential executives in the travel industry, and won the prestigious 2000 Laurels Award from Aviation Week& Space Technology

A writer, consultant, and lecturer on leadership trends, Harriet Rubin is the author of the international best-seller The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women and Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition. In addition to Fast Company, her articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and a number of other publications. She has made appearances on The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, and National Public Radio's Marketplace, and she has been interviewed by hundreds of newspapers in the United States and abroad. She has lectured in the United States, Europe, South Africa, and South America.

With a career spanning education, professional sports, business, and consulting, Rayona Sharpnack has delivered her groundbreaking work on women's leadership throughout the United States and internationally, including the countries of Australia, Brazil, and Canada. She has worked extensively within Fortune 500 organizations with positions ranging from CEOs to individual contributors, to help unleash the contribution of women to produce business breakthroughs. As founder and president of the institute, she says her mission is to demonstrate and prove the business case for "investing in and empowering women as a key strategic advantage for organizations in the 20th century."

Sheila W. Wellington is the President of Catalyst, the nation's premier, nonprofit organization on women's private sector leadership. Having broken new ground for women in her own career, Ms. Wellington identifies strongly with women's efforts to advance in business. Ms. Wellington was the second woman officer of Yale University, serving as secretary for six years. Previously, she worked in the public health arena for more than 20 years, serving on the faculty of Yale Medical School and as director of two major mental health facilities. Since Ms. Wellington assumed the presidency of Catalyst in 1993, the company has tripled in size and opened new offices in Toronto and San Jose.