Rob Lawes: CEO of Hit Entertainment

With help from an animated construction worker, he's building a kids'-media empire

Rob Lawes got his start in show biz at 17 as a runner for the TV production company of British funnyman John Cleese, and only a few years later helped launch London-based HIT Entertainment, a distributor of children's programming. Lawes pushed HIT to evolve into a creative studio, and today its most popular program, Bob the Builder, an animated show about a construction worker and his talking machines, is aired in 140 countries. One of the top preschool programs in Australia, Britain, Germany and Japan, it has sold 4 million videos in the U.S., where it also plays on Nickelodeon.

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