Philippe Brawermann
REEF
President and CEO
40, Belgian
www.reef.com
Last year Brawerman, the former head of Cisco Europe, was No. 1 on Time Digital Europe's Top 25. After a year in which many of Europe's software stars have burned out, Reef is still going strong.
It has beaten both its profit and revenue numbers for six consecutive quarters, and second-quarter revenues were up 500% over 2000. Why has Reef continued to sparkle in the darkness of the downturn? Good management, focus on the bottom line and an ability to save its customers money.
Brawerman and his team concentrate on cutting companies' website costs and putting data management back in the hands of the people who use it. Reef's software often pays for itself within a month or two, a deal many chief financial officers find hard to resist.
Among Reef's big name clients: Air Liquide, Siemens and Vivendi. The software company currently does 65% of its business in the U.S.
The Vision Thing: "Our goal is to have people collaborate easily by hiding the complexity and keeping the creative interface simple."
Forward Spin: Reef is continuing to develop online collaborative tools that enable users to cut and paste web presentations on the fly. The company is betting that customers will want to adapt content to multiple platforms, such as TV, mobile phones and computers.