Mrs. Big's Big Deals

And business is what she brought back to life in Poland. At the fund, Lundberg helped spawn dozens of enterprises employing upwards of 100,000 Poles and with aggregate sales of more than $1 billion. "Without her the fund would have been a complete failure," says Henryka Bochniarz, a former Minister of Industry and Trade who now runs a private consulting firm in Warsaw. Bochniarz says Lundberg's prior experience as vice president of corporate finance at Kidder Peabody in New York City introduced a level of managerial and financial expertise that did not exist in Poland 10 years ago. "She brought a completely new quality to our business," says Bochniarz. Her non-Polish background also helped when it came to making tough decisions at Elektrim.

Lundberg is thought to be the highest paid executive in Warsaw, though all she will say is that she's earned less than she would have made in the U.S. over the same period. If she didn't have Polish roots to start with, she's tried to grow them on the job. In 1994 Lundberg bought a home on the outskirts of Warsaw (relocating six families in the process) and characteristically took it down to bare bricks before renovating from scratch with the help of renowned local artisans. She can follow a conversation in Polish, and her two children now speak the language fluently. She says that Poles are even more "anarchist" than Americans and that she believes there is a cultural fit between the two peoples, as both are consumed with entrepreneurial energy and at times reassuringly informal.

Not that she has lost her ability to surprise. Lundberg recently presided at a ceremony at one of Elektrim's power plants where, according to Polish tradition, she smashed a bottle of champagne on a new boiler and became its official guardian. "I am the first godmother of a boiler in Poland!" she says with a grin. For most Poles, Lundberg continues to shatter all molds.