People to Watch in International Business

By Sean Gregory, James Graff/Paris

Heidi Ueberroth GLOBAL PLAYER

With basketball's popularity surging in China, Heidi Ueberroth, 40, is taking the game beyond Beijing. As the NBA's top global marketing and media exec, she recently brokered deals to broadcast games for the first time in four inland regions, including Chongqing (pop. 32 million) and Inner Mongolia (pop. 24 million). She also struck a deal with China Mobile, which will offer NBA highlights to 231 million cell-phone subscribers, and added eight new marketing partners in China, like video-game giant EA Sports and computer maker Tong Fang. This season Chinese fans will be able to watch an NBA game of the week on broadband. "There's nothing little about what we're doing in China," says Ueberroth, who in her 11 years with the league has negotiated television and sponsorship deals in Mexico City, Moscow and New Delhi. (When not selling hoops in faraway places, she visits them, having scuba-dived in Fiji and Belize.) Sports run in Ueberroth's blood: her father Peter organized the 1984 Olympics, ran Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989 and is now the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee. --By Sean Gregory

Patrick Thomas LORD OF LUXURY

Patrick Thomas has a class act to follow: generations of them, in fact. When Jean-Louis Dumas, 67, steps down from the helm of the French luxury house Hermes in January, he will be ending five generations of family leadership that began with harness maker Thierry Hermes in 1837. Says CEO designate Thomas: "I would be a fool to change the strategy." But Thomas, 58, co-CEO since last year, doesn't plan to stand still, either: "Hermes is going to be more and more Asian. When I joined in 1989, a third of our business was in Asia; now it's 50% and in 20 years, it will be 66%." The scion of a Burgundy wine family, he worked for Hermes from 1989 to 1997 before leaving for leadership posts at perfumer Coty and whiskey distiller William Grant & Sons--both family-run firms. Thomas plans to maintain the company's historic 10% sales growth and 15% profit growth. Hermes generated $1.64 billion in sales last year and $259 million in profits. The hottest market right now is the U.S., despite the headline dustup with Oprah Winfrey (all has been forgiven). Says Thomas: "We're probably better known there than we were before." --By James Graff/Paris