People to Watch in International Business

By Barbara Kiviat Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004
    • FRANCISCO D'SOUZA
    Outstanding Outsourcer
    As companies send software development abroad, sales at IT outsourcing firm Cognizant Technology Solutions have boomed, from $89 million in 1999 to $229 million three years later. D'Souza, 35, built that growth as head of operations in North America and Europe for the New Jersey — based company. Now he's COO. His plan: court European clients and expand in India, where the company is building a facility for 6,500 software pros. Next up: China, where Cognizant won its first client last year.

    MICHAEL PHALEN
    Dough Boy
    As an investment banker who helped take Krispy Kreme Doughnuts public, Phalen, 33, became well acquainted with the company, based in Winston-Salem, N.C. In January he became CFO of the rapidly growing chain. His experience with consumer companies while he was in corporate finance at CIBC World Markets will come in handy as he manages Krispy Kreme's balance sheet for future growth. The firm, with about 340 shops in the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia, enters Mexico this winter and is eyeing Asia.

    MICHELLE GUTHRIE
    TV Star
    Satellite TV company Star Group, the Asian arm of News Corp., turned its first profit last year, thanks largely to revenue from selling ads and content in India. Guthrie, 38, who took Star Group's helm in November after heading regional distribution and business development, aims to continue that momentum. In China, she's seeking to expand channel distribution and break even by 2005. Guthrie will also guide the launch of a pay-TV service in India later this year.

    MARY MCDOWELL
    Mobile Manager
    McDowell, 39, joined Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia to head the new Enterprise Solutions business group. She arrived from Hewlett-Packard, where she ran strategic planning. At HP, McDowell, a systems engineer, helped build and run the industry-standard servers group, which became a $7 billion business and market leader. The challenge at Nokia: to pull together existing products and services, and develop new ones, to give companies seamless mobile-communication capabilities, from PDAs to network security.