Last year's position : Not Placed

As the boss of Yahoo! Terry Semel has orchestrated one of the most dramatic dot-com rebounds. This time last year, shares in Yahoo! were trading around $10. Twelve months later they are up to $40. What Semel has done is to take a company built around the unquantifiable artifice of the dot-com phenomenon and turn it into a money-making machine, with ad revenues and premium content swelling the coffers. This former Hollywood man identified what areas could generate profits and which couldn't and he has played to his company's strengths with almost unrivalled success.