Loretta Würtenberger, German, 28 Co-founder and co-CEO of Munich-based Webmiles (www.webmiles.de) Ph.D. in law from the Max Planck Institute Würtenberger has the distinction of having been Germany's youngest judge: at the tender age of 25, she spent a year presiding over criminal cases in Berlin's district court. But then she made the leap from criminals to terminals, and ended up creating an Internet company with Patrick Boos, whom she met at a party in Bonn while they were high school students. Their paths didn't cross again until Boos came up with a plan to go into business — with Würtenberger's husband. Boos ended up going into business with her instead. They brainstormed Webmiles, which launched last July. The company sells webmiles to participating Internet e-commerce merchants, who pass them on to consumers as rewards for buying from their sites. The miles can be redeemed for a range of products and services. Sites are already operating in eight European countries. Over 100 Web merchants are participating and Webmiles hopes to have over a million users by year's end, and to be profitable within two years. Best line: "Information technology has been very male-dominated but it is changing. We are in a field that is very young and very progressive and that can work to [women's] advantage."

Women in Technology TIME Digital Europe - September 2000