World Beaters

By Jane Walker/Madrid, Joyce Huang/Taipei, Nelly Sindayen/Manila

Amparo Moraleda IBM'S EUROSTAR IBM couldn't keep Moraleda, 41, holed up in the Iberian Peninsula. After she led IBM Spain to 7% revenue growth last year, handily outpacing her counterparts in the rest of Western Europe, the company added Israel, Greece and Turkey to her portfolio. (She already had Portugal.) Moraleda was managing a small Spanish IBM subsidiary when ex-chairman Louis Gerstner picked her as his top assistant for international operations. Her ascent has turned the mother of two into a role model in Spain, where women still struggle for acceptance in the boardroom. --By Jane Walker/Madrid

Rick Tsai CHIP CZAR Don't tell Tsai, 54, the new CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), that replacing a legend is daunting. Chip mogul Morris Chang, who founded TSMC in 1987 and built it into the world's largest manufacturer of custom-made chips, named Tsai, a 15-year TSMC veteran, his successor. (Chang remains chairman.) Tsai is already forecasting a gaudy 43% quarterly gross-profit margin for the $8 billion company. Tsai knows TSMC inside out, having held nearly every senior position, and has lived up to his strong nickname: Buffalo. --By Joyce Huang/Taipei

Rolando Hortaleza BEAUTY KING He used his wedding-gift cash to start his cosmetics company in a garage 20 years ago, and he had to bribe Manila's sidewalk vendors to sell his products, but since then, Hortaleza, CEO of Splash Corp., has cleaned up well. His firm's revenues have jumped 66%, to $90 million, over the past two years, and Splash now exports face cleansers and skin toners to more than 15 countries across Asia and the Middle East. A medical-school graduate, Hortaleza, 45, is returning to his health roots: Splash has joined the booming market for nutraceuticals. --By Nelly Sindayen/Manila