Software entrepreneur Larry Levy founded Protégé to help North American technology start-ups expand into Europe. Since 1996, Protégé has successfully launched 22 US companies in Europe, providing senior management for the initial growth phase before handing control back to the parent company in return for an equity stake. Levy began his business career selling fake
Glenda Stone is the founder and managing director of Busygirl.co.uk, a website for businesswomen. An energetic, exciting character, she moved to the UK from Australia two years ago, accompanied by a passion for bringing women online
Dru Edmonstone is the embodiment of the Internet dream: a 28-year old with a big equity stake in one of Europe’s biggest e-success stories. Durlacher, which he joined just after its relaunch in 1996, is now Europe’s leading Internet investment bank, having invested in start-ups like Demon Internet, 365 Corporation and Autonomy. We asked Edmonstone how
Sonia Lo is the founder and chief executive of eZoka, the website providing business services to SMEs. Sonia graduated from university at 19, speaks seven languages and has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and has even given Lord Hollick a scare. She shares her wisdom on the future for ecommerce
Martin Frost, 49, is the non-executive chairman of Infobank, a business to business e-commerce software venture. He moved over from drinks and entertainment giant Seagram full-time in June 1999, after a long and successful career in the old economy, beginning as a graduate trainee for Unilever. He lives on Putney Heath in London with his
Azim Premji, chairman of Indian software company Wipro, is the world’s third richest man after Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Wal-Mart’s Robson Walton. His personal fortune of $54.7bn dwarfs that of the Sultan of Brunei at $29.3bn. Justpeople asked him for the secrets of his success
Thomas Fitch, 29, quit his job as a highly successful trader for US banking group Chase Manhattan to pursue a career in e-commerce. He set up his own online video courier service Reelsonwheels.com two years ago. Fitch admits it is sometimes tough going, but remains positive he can attract investors to the site. We asked him
Mark Zaleski, 37, is senior vice-president of area operations for US online grocery company Webvan. The firm, which has a net income of more than $231m, is currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a national delivery infra-structure with the aim of becoming the dominant door-to-door retailer in America. Zaleski lives in the
Henry Martinez is responsible for all Discovery Networks’ cable channels in Latin America and Iberia. He was born in Cuba and grew up in Colombia and Brazil. He majored in communications at Los Angeles’ Pepperdine University, before going on to do an MBA at the University of Miami in Florida
Peter Howarth, 35, has been UK editor of Esquire magazine for the past three years. He trod an unconventional path into journalism, reaching the editor’s desk via the Paris catwalk. He began his journalistic career by writing freelance magazine features. We asked him about his job and what advice he would give aspiring journalists
David Bell is media giant Pearson plc’s director for people and chairman of the Financial Times. He tells us that the best journalists are inquisitive, individualistic and therefore ‘somewhat irritating’. Bell talks about his own career both as a writer and a recruiter and gives tips on how to land a job at Pearson
Richard Tait is editor in chief of ITN, the London-based company that produces news programmes for broadcasters including ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. ITN also provides radio and online news services, operates pan-European 24-hour news channel EuroNews and is gearing up to launch its own UK TV rolling news service. Tait came relatively late
Abigail Chisman has been promoted from editor of Vogue Online, to editor of publishing company Conde Nast’s entire online operations. Cambridge University graduate Chisman, a self-confessed, champagne-quaffing socialite, studied fashion journalism before landing her first job at Conde Nast. We asked her about her new job and what the future holds
Broadcaster Alastair Stewart might have been Chancellor of the Exchequer or a real-life Rumpole of the Bailey had fate not intervened and directed him towards a career in television. He reveals some of the high points of his journalistic career and gives some tips on how to get ahead in television
Michael Prescott is political editor of The Sunday Times where he has been a journalist for more than ten years. Educated at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University, he then went on to do a degree in journalism at the Center for Journalism Studies, Cardiff University. He lives in Islington, with his wife Rachel Storm –
Gerard Baker is the Financial Times‘ bureau chief in Washington, where he lives with his wife and three daughters in American University Park. The combination of his exhaustive research and lucid style has given him an enviable reputation as an economic expert on both sides of the Atlantic. We caught up with him in the
Amanda Farnsworth, 35, has recently taken on a new role in BBC News, as planning editor for the whole of television. She was formerly deputy editor of the BBC’s respected TV current affairs programme Newsnight. Here she gives us a few tips on how to get a foot in the door at the BBC and how
Jane Frost, is the BBC’s controller, corporate marketing and was behind the much-lauded corporate promo Perfect Day. Jane says she believes in the BBC so much she wants to ‘grab people and tell them about it’. Her advice to graduates interested in a career in marketing is that if you like people there isn’t a
Andrea Coleman, 22, is an editorial assistant for Institutional Finance at Financial Times Business, a division of the The Financial Times that covers newsstand and trade publications such as The Investors Chronicle
Ruth Whippman, 26, has worked for the News and Current Affairs department at the BBC as a broadcast journalist for the last two and a half years, and is about to start a new job as an assistant producer on Back to the Floor. She talks to us about the delights of freelancing, and the
