``The 50 CEOs shine for what they have accomplished to date and who, Worth believes, stand the best chance of excelling well into the future,'' the magazine said. It noted that the 50 leaders ``are anything but uniform in philosophy or personal style.'' Kathwari, a native of Kashmir, used to run a furniture import business that eventually merged with Ethan Allen.But Kathwari reinvented the Ethan Allen brand, once known to many customers as the manufacturer of expensive colonial home furnishings, by phasing out almost 90 per cent of its product line and by introducing furniture with a more casual and classic style. Kathwari, who has been the CEO since 1988, mortgaged everything he owned, including his home, during a 1989 restructuring that required an immediate infusion of cash.

The reinvigorated Ethan Allen unabashedly bowed to middlebrow American sensibilities, the magazine noted. Furniture prices were slashed, friendlier new storefronts were designed and a national advertising campaign, with a price-tag of $65 million, was created last year.

``If I had known what it would take to change our image, I might have just changed our name,'' Kathwari said.But obviously the result was worth the effort as from 1995 to 1998, earnings at the company went to $71.9 million from $22.7 million. ``We are not in the business of selling furniture, but of creating beautifulhomes,'' Kathwari said in what the magazine described as his business philosophy.

Kathwari, who came to the US for higher education at the age of 20, speaks several languages and works with scholars, business executives and diplomats to help resolve the Kashmir issue. He was instrumental in sending a fact-finding team to Kashmir and have a report prepared in 1997 by such scholars as Ainslie Embree, professor emeritus, Columbia University, and Joseph Schwartzberg of the University of Minnesota.

Desi makes it again

An engineering graduate from Punjab University has been appointed president and CEO of a company making e-business portal software that gives business users quick access to global information, reports IANS.

Sonia Bhanot, who has 13 years of business development, strategic planning and international management experience at Hewlett-Packard, Enterprise Software Company and Curasoft Inc, was appointed president and CEO of Verano based in Mountain View, California.

Bhanot will beresponsible for leading the next phase of Verano's corporate growth and championing the context management software for deployment of fast and effective corporate portals and e-business applications, according to the company. ``Sonia's proven track record with start-ups and computer giants will help Verano translate its technology innovations into market leadership,'' said Gordon Campbell, president of Techfarm, a Verano investor and a venture capital company.

Launched earlier this month, Verano's Illuminar 2.0 context management software unifies access to e-business content, personalises its delivery, enables global control of metadata and information policies and measures usage for maximising return on investment.

``Companies are rushing to e-business and Verano is leading the charge to develop and deploy enterprise portals while integrating business context with content,'' Bhanot said.

``Metadata is the key to unlocking the value of distributed business information. Verano's cutting edge softwarepackages metadata for e-business applications, so critical meaning is not lost as electronic information goes into the intranet abyss,'' she said.

Bhanot served as vice-president of sales and marketing at Curasoft, a leading vendor of event management software for information technology (IT) professionals. Before that, she held senior business planning, marketing and channel development positions at Hewlett-Packard, where she brought to market several products and programmes worldwide and secured key Internet partnerships. Campbell said that while dozens of software companies are jumping onto the corporate portal bandwagon, Verano is one of the few to bring new expertise to the table.

Fresh talent in Rediff

To bring in fresh senior talent to Rediffusion-DY&R brand communications, the agency has made a number of appointments. The most significant entry has been the joining of former Lintas creative supremo Kersey Katrak. Katrak, whose career straddles decades of high quality creative work andmany awards, has joined Rediffusion as a consultant and will be a national resource for the agency. Said Sandeep Goyal, president, Rediffusion-DY&R: ``It is an honour to be able to work with Katrak, who is a veritable pillar of Indian advertising. Rediffusion has been much enriched by his entry.''In another senior appointment, Rozanne Singh has joined Rediffusion-DY&R as creative director, Mumbai. She joins the organisation from Contract, Mumbai.Also, Milind Nabar has joined as creative director, Delhi; Maia Katrak and Yayati Godbole as creative directors, Mumbai.