World Beaters

Giovanni Angelini
Innkeeper
He once waited tables in a hotel on the Adriatic coast, but today Giovanni Angelini, 60, has a different European adventure on his mind. As CEO of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, a group of 46 luxury properties in Asia, he is finally returning to the continent of his youth, with plans for a London hotel in 2009. Next stops: Paris, Frankfurt, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. He aims to capitalize on the some 2.5 million Chinese tourists who travel abroad each year. Angelini spent a decade looking for the right London site, one that made financial sense, he says: "I don't want to go over there and make ego trips."
—By Nellie Huang/Hong Kong

Frida Giannini
Shoe-In
She possesses what may be the fashion industry's top commodity, a knack for creating a must-have. So successful has Frida Giannini been as Gucci's accessories designer, one of many posts left vacant when design deity Tom Ford departed the $2 billion luxury house last year, that she has been tapped to take over the women's ready-to-wear collection. Among Giannini's credentials: five years designing at Fendi and two seasons reinventing Gucci accessories (which make up more than 80% of sales); this spring's floral shoes and next fall's velvet-and-leather Pelham bags are on every fashionista's shopping list.
—By Kristina Zimbalist

Jean-Paul Ago
Beauty Buff
"Because he's worth it" is now the mantra of Jean-Paul Agon, 48, the French cosmetic giant's new CEO-designate. The head of U.S. operations for L'Oréal since 2001, he will take over next year for Lindsay Owen-Jones, who stays on as chairman. A graduate of the Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Agon will need the skill of a makeup artist to keep L'Oréal looking as good as it has under Owen-Jones, who steered the $19 billion company through two decades of annualized double-digit profit gains. On Agon's to-do list: promoting L'Oréal's new antiaging skin-care line for men.
—By Dody Tsiantar