World Beaters

By Nellie Huang; Unmesh Kher

LI XIAOLIN Star Power

When China Power International launched its Hong Kong IPO in mid-October, the local press treated CEO Li, 43, like a movie star. She got more space in the South China Morning Post than did Elton John, who had performed in Hong Kong that week. That's because in Asia, Li is almost royalty. Not only is she the first female boss of a foreign-listed, state-owned Chinese company, but her father is former Chinese Premier Li Peng, a controversial figure who became the public face of the Communist Party's hard line against democracy protesters in 1989. Li Peng, who stepped down last year, was also once minister of the power industry, so his daughter has dealt for years with charges of nepotism. Being his daughter "does come with a lot of tension and, with that, pressure," says Li. "But I've worked hard to get to this stage of my career." Li, who graduated from Tsinghua University with a master's degree in engineering, helped found China Power and worked her way up from vice president. As CEO, the charismatic Li has led the company, which is 67% state-owned and one of China's top five electric-power producers, through two acquisitions. Says Li: "We have a number of new opportunities and challenges ahead." Indeed, China Power, which raised $369 million on its opening day, has promised to triple capacity and deliver a 25% dividend in five years.--By Nellie Huang

H. THOMAS WATKINS Pill Pusher

As president of TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Watkins, 51, proved his mettle as both master marketer and manager. Not only did he help turn its antacid Prevacid into a $3.2 billion ueber-blockbuster and double the company's annual revenues, to $4 billion; he also helped the firm clean up its act after it paid $875 million in fines and civil penalties in 2001, in part for bribing doctors to prescribe one of its drugs. Now as the new CEO of Human Genome Sciences, in Rockville, Md., Watkins has taken on a different challenge. Since HGS was founded in 1992 by scientist William Haseltine, the company has not taken a single drug to market. It's a good thing Watkins is an accomplished manager of late-stage drug development. Aside from shepherding HGS's candidate drugs for cancer and lupus through clinical trials, Watkins hopes to license out potential drugs to other pharmaceutical companies to help build a revenue stream for HGS, which lost $185 million last year.--By Unmesh Kher