(FORTUNE Magazine) – Anthony Dub

An avid skier, Dub, 37, knows how exhilarating it is to be at the top of a mountain. He's positioned on a high peak now as head of First Boston's asset finance team. Under Dub's direction, First Boston buys corporate receivables such as computer and car loans, then sells bonds backed by the incoming payments. First Boston underwrote $9.3 billion of asset-backed securities in 1986, making it the leader in the field. In the largest corporate debt offering ever, First Boston put together a $4-billion bond supported by GM auto loans. Musing about potential competitors, Dub, a Princeton philosophy major, says: ''I pity them. This is a complicated field.''

Hideo Ohkubo

Ohkubo, 32, is a man with a mission. ''I want to spread the spirit of American entrepreneurs to the Japanese,'' says the founder of Shin-Nihon Kohan, Japan's second-largest telephone equipment company after giant NTT. To that end, Ohkubo put a new twist on the ancient Japanese business of matchmaking. Last spring he began a monthly Japanese-language magazine called Success Sensor that identifies U.S. businesses looking for Japanese joint-venture partners or distributors. So far Ohkubo has arranged ten matches and has 30 under way. His fees range from $1,000 to $10,000, depending on the size of the project the couple has in mind.

Constance Wodlinger

Wodlinger, 35, has an ear for what music lovers want to hear. She bought three failing radio stations in Missouri and turned them around by changing their tunes from religious and experimental rock to pop and country western. The chief executive of Houston-based Wodlinger Broadcasting estimates her - properties are worth about $15 million, seven times the price she paid. Wodlinger, who also built two Florida FM stations from scratch, recently made her debut in the television business. She is spending up to $25 million to establish a 24-hour network called Hit Video USA, a direct competitor to MTV, the music video network. In a back-channel attack on MTV, she has filed a $250-million antitrust suit against the network, claiming that it is conspiring with record companies for exclusive showings of certain videos. MTV denies the charges.

David Wood

Companies that can't find the right names for their products often turn to Wood of David Wood Associates. Since 1979 he has christened some 500, including PepsiCo's Slice drink, Polaroid's Spectra camera, and Upjohn's Nuprin painkiller. ''A name should instantly conjure up an image and a feeling,'' says Wood, 43, who charges anywhere from $30,000 to over $100,000. Since the most obviously marketable words have already been trademarked, the name game can get quite complicated. Wood uses linguists, marketers, and computers to devise evocative monikers like Priazzo for Pizza Hut's sandwich pizzas.

Wendy Luscombe

Contrarian that she is, Luscombe goes to movies that get bad reviews. And since she began buying U.S. real estate for the British National Coal Board's pension fund eight years ago, she has built a $1-billion portfolio by avoiding property everyone else seems to want. Luscombe, 35, a British surveyor and appraiser, has bought some 70 U.S. buildings, including shopping malls, hotels, and Washington's famous Watergate complex, which has appreciated 300% since she acquired it in 1979. Because other foreigners -- chiefly the Japanese -- are pushing up the prices of U.S. real estate, Luscombe has done more selling than buying lately. She unloaded $50 million worth of buildings in 1986. An accomplished horseback rider, she intends to sit tight in the saddle until prices come down again.