Robyn Benincasa's career as a world-class competitive athlete spans more than ten years,and includes six Ironman events. Ever in search of a new challenge, Benincasa was drawn to the sport of Adventure Racing,an extreme sport that combines paddling, hiking, biking, and navigating through wild terrain over several days. Proving her versatility, in 1998 she won both the National Judo Championship and became the first American to win the Raid Gauloises in Ecuador, the ultimate in team adventure racing. She has continued her winning ways with podium finishes at four World Championship races over the past three years -- all while working as a firefighter for the City of San Diego and "Director of Fun" for World Class Teams, which creates team-building events for corporations based on the model of Adventure Racing. Today, Benincasa is recognized as one of the most consistent and decorated adventure racers in the world,and her positive attitude and obvious love for the sport has made her a natural favorite among aspiring racers and the media.

In his latest book, What Should I Do With My Life?, Po Bronson tries to answer this omnipresent question by looking through the eyes of several individuals who have made drastic career changes in the wake of the dot-com fallout. His subjects include everyone from a Los Angeles lawyer who became a priest, an investment banker who became a catfish farmer, and an entertainment lawyer who became a long-haul trucker in Pennsylvania. His lesson for his readers? The tougher the times, the more clarity you gain about the difference between what really matters and what you only pretend to care about

Since Deborah Brooks was named executive director of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research in October 2000, the foundation has become the single largest funder of Parkinson's disease research outside of the U.S. government, funding or directing through partnerships more than $30 million in research to date. Brooks, who previously spent nine years at Goldman, Sachs & Co. as vice president of both the asset management and the fixed income divisions, has become one of the country's most powerful forces in fundraising thanks to her ability to apply her strategic background and business acumen to the nonprofit sector.

Paula E. Chauncey formed etre llc to help individuals pursue their distinct visions in the worlds of work, family, and avocation and play. The firm's approach centers on demystifying the disciplines of finance and investing, and equipping clients with the knowledge, confidence, and tools to use these disciplines to optimum advantage. Chauncey creates value for her clients by combining uncommon ideas with the technical skills, capital markets knowledge, and interdisciplinary business experience to execute sound financial and wealth-building strategies. She is also a board member of the Center for Women & Enterprise and an advisory board member of the Center for Women's Business Research (formerly the National Foundation for Women Business Owners).

Jennifer Corriero co-founded TakingITGlobal - a non-profit organization - with the aim of using communication and community to allow youth from around the world to realize the potential of technology. She brings tremendous insight into understanding, reaching, and motivating youth, stemming from her experience in developing and driving youth programs related to technology, collaboration, and entrepreneurship. She has been selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow, and has consulted for such companies as Xerox, J. Walter Thompson, TD Bank, Royal Bank, Nike, Swatch, and McDonalds.

Hailed as "The most exciting individual in American theater" by Newsweek in 1993 and profiled on 60 Minutes, Anna Deveare Smith - whose work explores the American character and our multifaceted national identity - has been acclaimed by the media, critics, and audiences across the country. Looking at controversial events from multiple points of view, Smith's plays - which include Twilight, Fires in the Mirror, and House Arrest - combine the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through her performance. Her film credits include roles in The American President, Dave, and Philadelphia, and she plays National Security Advisor Nancy McNally on NBC's The West Wing.

Liz Dolan is an independent marketing communications consultant and a host of the nationally syndicated talk show Satellite Sisterson the ABC Radio Network. Her expertise in branding and integrated marketing are skills gained during a decade at Nike, Inc, where she managed all of the company's worldwide brand and product development, advertising, sports marketing, public relations, and consumer research. During Dolan's tenure as global marketing director, company revenues grew from $4.2 billion to $9.1 billion. Satellite Sisters, her weekly three-hour "conversation radio" show, is hosted by herself and her four real-life sisters from studios in three cities around the world: Los Angeles, Portland, and Moscow.

One of the country's most recognized and original social commentators, author/journalist Barbara Ehrenreich has been a contributing writer for Time Magazine since 1990. Her articles, reviews, essays, and humor have appeared in a range of national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Ms., Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The Nation, The New Republic, Social Policy, Mirabella, as well as in newspapers throughout the world. Her most recent book, Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, looks at what effects globalization has had on the millions of women who have left third-world nations for domestic employment in more affluent countries.

With more than 20 years of experience leading some of the world's top apparel brands, Mindy Grossman was hired by Nike in 2000 to boost the company's global apparel business. Prior to joining Nike, Grossman was president and CEO of Polo Jeans Company, where she was responsible for the brand strategy, launch, and growth of Polo Jeans. She has also served as president of Chaps Ralph Lauren, and was the senior vice president of sales and merchandising for Tommy Hilfiger.

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.

As president and CEO of the Red Cross, Marsha "Marty" Johnson Evans leads an organization that, last year alone, assisted the victims of more than 70,000 disasters, collected and processed 7.2 million blood donations from 4 million volunteer donors, trained almost 12 million people in lifesaving skills such as first aid and CPR, and transmitted 14 million emergency messages and provided other direct assistance to more than half a million military families. She joined the Red Cross in 2002, bringing an impressive array of experience, not the least of which is a 29-year career with the U.S. Navy, where she held several command positions overseeing multi-million dollar budgets and hundreds of thousands of employees.

Ann Kaplan plays a very important role for Goldman Sachs; she specializes in providing wealth advisory services and financial education to women and their families. She has been with the firm for more than 25 years, and has chaired its diversity committee, and served on the firm's pension services, partner's practices, and charitable contributions committee. Outside of work, Kaplan is chairwoman of the northeast region of the Committee of 200, a prominent women's business organization, and serves on the boards of Smith College, the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, and the Women's Leadership Board of Harvard's JFK School of Government.

Monica Luechtefeld has been directing online initiatives for Office Depot since 1994, when she embarked on a joint project with MIT to develop a business-to-business Web site for ordering office supplies. Under her leadership, Office Depot's e-commerce initiatives have seen explosive growth, and the company was cited in 2001 as the world's second-largest e-tailer. Luechtefeld is responsible for driving all of the retailer's e-commerce strategies, including identifying and facilitating the development of customer-driven technologies, with an emphasis on Internet retailing and e-procurement for corporate and international customers.

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

If you have a daughter, Ivy Ross probably plays a big role in her life. As senior VP of design and development for Mattel's girls division, she oversees the design and development of more than $2 billion worth of girls' products and packaging including Barbie dolls and accessories, Diva Stars, Polly Pocket, as well as other unique brands. In addition, Ross is also in charge of the model shop, sound lab, and sculpting functions for all Mattel products. She came to the company from Calvin Klein, where she led a turnaround in the company's line of men's accessories. Ross is also a world-renowned artist, and won the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts grant for her innovative metal work in jewelry.

Libby Sartain
SVP Human Resources and Chief People Yahoo, Yahoo!

With more than 20 years of experience in human resources, including a stint as chairman of the Society for Human Resource Management, Sartain is responsible for leading Yahoo's global human resource efforts, and managing and developing the company's HR team. Specifically, she focuses on attracting, retaining, and developing employees who promote and strengthen the company's culture while representing the powerful Yahoo brand. Prior to joining Yahoo, Sartain was in charge of all human resource functions at Southwest Airlines, where she supervised a staff of 300.

Read more about Libby in Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/70/yahoo.html

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."

Linda Thomas Brooks is an executive vice president at GM and the managing director of General Motors MediaWorks/General Motors Cyberworks, the Detroit car manufacturer's in-house multi-media agency. She oversees the media negotiating unit for magazine, newspaper, outdoor, and interactive media as well as the unit responsible for managing media relationships related to new technologies for General Motors. In her role, she leads a team that serves as a resource for GM's business units and the entire roster of divisional marketing and advertising agencies. Since she joined the group, Mediaworks has expanded from seven to more than 40 employees.

Sharon Whiteley is a seasoned entrepreneur who founded and built five successful companies. She is the CEO of ThirdAge Inc., a leading online media, research, and direct-marketing company focusing on the aging marketplace, and a partner in 8 Wings Ventures LLC, a private-equity investor group focusing on women-led enterprises, which she co-founded. Sharon was formerly CEO of Crimson Solutions, an early-stage technology company serving university career centers. Preceding Crimson, she was president and chief creative officer of Contempo Colours Inc., a $50 million international manufacturer of paper tableware, gifts, and party goods, which she acquired through Peacock Papers, a gift-manufacturing company she founded in 1982.

As Nike's global director for women's performance footwear, a newly created role, Darcy Winslow is focused on building a strong relationship with the female athlete/consumer through innovation, product, communication, and retail. Having worked at Nike for 14 years, Winslow has held many positions within the company, including biomechanical research assistant, director of footwear and apparel product testing and product development manager. Most recently she was the general manager of sustainable business opportunities, a role focused on developing and implementing more environmental and socially sustainable business strategies across the organization, from long-range research and development, through product creation and the supply chain.

Shoshana Zuboff is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. She joined the HBS faculty in 1981, and became one of its first tenured women. Her revolutionary new book The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism was featured as idea number one in Business Week's recent special issue "25 Ideas For A Changing World." Author of the acclaimed classic In The Age of The Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, she has been called "the true prophet of the information age."