(FORTUNE Magazine) – Ronald D. Murakami Murakami, 36, wants to ensure that serious jocks won't be the only people | buying Adidas sneakers. Since becoming general manager for Adidas's U.S. footwear division, he has come up with 100 new styles ranging from purple and gold sneakers for the fashion conscious to aerobic shoes for the workout force. Adidas used to run its U.S. operations from Europe, but the West German company recruited Murakami from rival Puma last year when it began losing ground to more agile players in the American market like Reebok and Nike. ''I discontinued 20 styles in the wink of an eye,'' says Murakami, who has nearly doubled store orders for next year. Patrick S. Smith As president of New England Critical Care Inc., Smith, 34, has freed thousands of patients from hospitals by supplying them with intravenous equipment and nursing care at home. Profits at the five-year-old company, which recently went public, exceed $2 million this year. Smith was about to enter medical school when he decided he would rather be in the hospital supply business. While making his rounds he realized some cancer patients and people with digestive problems could receive intravenous treatment at home. He established six regional centers that distribute equipment and says he can now treat most intravenous patients east of the Mississippi. Thomas N. Tureen Since founding the Maine investment bank Tribal Assets Management in 1983, Tureen has worked with 20 American Indian tribes to buy regional companies that will bring jobs and revenues to impoverished reservations. ''There's no reason Indians can't participate in the mainstream economy,'' says Tureen, 43, who decided to work with native Americans when he taught in a South Dakota boarding school for Indians during his sophomore year at Princeton. His firm has negotiated the purchases and arranged the financing for $100 million in leveraged buyouts. In its most recent deal Tribal Assets helped the Cherokees of North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains buy Carolina Mirror Corp. for $28.8 million. Ronald S. Posner Posner, 44, likes to help high-tech companies grow up. He's raised three and is now nurturing a fourth as the new president of Ansa Software, which is funded by the venture capital firm Sevin Rosen. Ansa's only product is a microcomputer database called Paradox -- so named because the filing and sorting program is both easy to use and highly sophisticated. Some software analysts say Ansa's sales of $9 million are disappointing, but Posner hopes to increase revenues by marketing Paradox overseas. He's also on the lookout for small software companies in need of a father figure and Ansa's financing. Posner knows his competition well. He just completed two years running the international division of Ashton-Tate, a $210-million database software company. Under Posner's direction Ashton's international sales grew from 7% of total revenues to 25%. Jeanette W. Loeb Recently appointed the first woman partner of Goldman Sachs, Loeb, 34, has climbed the ladder by staying put. She has never worked at another firm and never strayed from the private finance department. Over the past four years Loeb has built a new specialty for Goldman Sachs: supplier financing. She works out the terms of purchases between corporations and their equipment suppliers. Under Loeb's guidance, clients such as USX and Inland Steel have bought $4 billion worth of equipment, frequently by borrowing money from suppliers at below-market rates. Loeb arrived at Goldman Sachs with a degree in economics from Wellesley College and an MBA from Harvard. What's the next rung on the ladder? She says, ''There's nothing beyond Goldman Sachs for me.''