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"As far as I'm concerned," says David B. Marsing, "having to change your life when you arrive at work each morning is tantamount to slavery."

Revolutionary words from a professor or labor organizer? Not exactly. Dave Marsing, 41, sits in one of the highest pressure jobs in U.S. industry: plant manager of Intel Corp.'s http://www.intel.com $2 billion Fab II near Albuquerque, New Mexico, the largest microprocessor fabrication plant of the most successful electronics company in the world.

Marsing is an agent provocateur -- he calls himself a "transformational virus" -- in a company legendary for long hours and "creative confrontation." Marsing knows that "if I'm too aggressive, the corporate immune system will kick in" and consume him. He also knows that if he can successfully infect Intel, he will save it.

The medical analogy is no accident. Five years ago, at age 36, while trying to pull an Intel fabrication plant out of a crisis, Marsing suffered a near fatal heart attack. Lying on a gurney in the hospital, he remembers thinking, "How can I live my life as meaningfully as possible?" To this day, he visits cardiac units every six months, "just to look at the gray faces and remember."

It's tough to be a rebel in any business. But this is the semiconductor industry, a take-no-prisoners battle among silicon killers, hardly the kind of place to find a soft-spoken nice guy -- especially one who's using a multibillion-dollar facility to experiment with new management theories.

Intel corporate knows only a little about the intensity of Marsing's views. But it does know the bottom line -- and here Marsing excels. According to Marsing's boss Mike Splinter, 45, vice president and general manager of the company's components-manufacturing group, Marsing is one of Intel's best fab managers. Throughout his career, he's surpassed every target and quota set for him; every plant Marsing has run has ranked number one on the company's productivity charts.

That's why Intel's management has selected Marsing to help train its next generation of fab managers as the company prepares to springboard off the success of the Pentium chip into the greatest expansion in its history. By the end of the decade, Intel will have at least 10 giant new fabs directed by as many as 300 newly trained managers. Intel also expects to be the most profitable company in the world.

By placing Dave Marsing in charge of its next generation of leaders, Intel, long known for its business brains, may unwittingly have made its smartest move yet. And if Marsing succeeds, he may not only transform his own company but also set the model for the new breed of manager who will lead U.S. industry into the next century.

The Road to Damascus

Like most apostles of change, Dave Marsing had an awakening on his own road to Damascus.

Until five years ago, his had been a typical career for a young manager in high tech. After earning a degree in physics from the University of Oregon in 1976, Marsing followed his interest in thin-film technology and solar power to Texas Instruments to work with industry legend Jack Kilby on that company's then-secret solar-panel project. Marsing got the job he wanted, only to see the project collapse a year later.