Amy Norquist was a rising star of the environmental nonprofit world, having toiled at half a dozen nonprofits, each with the word earth in its name, and having become, in 2003, deputy director at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries in New York. Read More
Thirteen women, mostly in their 20s, are shaking their hips and pumping their arms on a Monday evening in a Brooklyn, New York, loft. They are sweating and smiling. Pop music is pumping. This is Zumba. Read More
Even before he traveled into space as a NASA astronaut a record-tying seven times, Franklin Chang Diaz, 60, had already made a perilous and impressive journey. In 1968, at 18, Chang Diaz, unable to speak English, left his native Costa Rica and came to the United States with $50 in his pocket -- and a dream of becoming an astronaut. After a year of high school, he landed a scholarship to college; he went on to earn his doctorate in plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; then a 25-year stint at NASA followed. His research into propulsion systems for rocket engines eventually formed the basis of his company, Ad Astra Rocket Company, and Chang Diaz hopes it will lead to yet his greatest journey yet -- a manned space flight to Mars. Read More
Many big companies sell to the teen demographic, but most are blissfully unaware of what exactly resonates with their target market. Tina Wells, 30, founder and CEO of Buzz Marketing Group, delivers the truth straight from a small army of 9,000 kids, teens, and young adults, whom she anoints as buzzSpotters. That's good for Wells's clients (which include Procter & Gamble, American Eagle, Sony Music, and the like) but perhaps even better for these young people, who now know that they can change the way a company addresses them. "I used to think, Who am I to have an opinion that matters?" says Meghan Mahony, a buzzSpotter who last year joined Buzz Marketing Group as a part-time employee. "It's really cool that my opinion is something these companies care about." Read More
Lynn Jurich has been called a financial genius in an energy-genius costume, and nowhere is her monetary acumen more evident than in her approach to risk. When she married a colleague at an investment firm, the couple agreed to take a portfolio approach to building their future. One of them would land a steady job. The other would go for broke by starting a company. "We both wanted to do the entrepreneur thing, so it was a race as to who would find the better idea first," says Jurich, 31. "I won." Read More
For four days each spring, about 1,500 of the world's deepest thinkers gather in Long Beach, California, for the annual TED Conference, at which they discuss the ideas and technologies that will change the world. It's where game changers such as the compact disc and Macintosh computer received some of their earliest demos. And it may be the only place in the world in which names like Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Sarah Silverman, and David Byrne somehow fit naturally on the same speaking lineup. Read More
Larry O'Toole understands that when customers are difficult, it's often because they are going through something really hard. So the employees of his moving company learn not only how to pack trucks but also how to unpack the contents of the human heart. "You don't know what kind of stress someone is dealing with," says O'Toole, an Irish immigrant who is imposing of stature and soft of speech. "Diagnosed with a terrible illness. Death in the family. Divorce. You have to be able to read your customer. You see what they need, and you give it to them." Read More
Nothing against iFart. Or FarmVille. Or any of the thousands of popular games currently offered as apps for the iPhone, Android, and Facebook. But let's be honest: Most of these apps are dumb. Read More
Robbie Vitrano has trouble defining what he does for a living, but look almost anywhere in his hometown of New Orleans, and you will find his footprint.
It's there at the Icehouse, a 12,000-square-foot, $1.5 million commercial real estate development in the once-flooded Seventh Ward. The building is owned by and serves as the headquarters for Trumpet, Vitrano's branding agency. The development boasts an 80 percent occupancy rate; its 10 tenants include start-ups, nonprofits, and small companies that all share Vitrano's passion for serving New Orleans. Read More
