(FORTUNE Magazine) – LEW FRANKFORT, 43 COACH LEATHERWARE INC. When the founder of this handbag company approached Frankfort, then the commissioner of New York City's agency for child development, it wasn't to talk politics. ''He was looking for someone with a good value system and proven managment skills to bring into the business,'' says Frankfort, who helped save the city's Head Start program during the fiscal crisis of the mid- 1970s. As vice president for special projects, Frankfort launched a mail- order business and opened Coach's first specialty stores. He became president in 1985, when Sara Lee bought the company. Since then he has added briefcases and gloves to Coach's product line, expanded overseas, and increased the number of U.S. stores from six to 40. Sales have quintupled to $100 million in four years.

BARBARA A. RES, 39 TRUMP ORGANIZATION It takes more than a hard hat for a woman to get ahead in the construction industry. Trump's youngest executive vice president has developed her own strategy for success. Says Res: ''I let people underestimate me and run with it.'' One of four women to earn an engineering degree from New York's City College in 1972, Res spent five years working for electrical contractors before joining New York's HRH Construction, where she rose to become a superintendent in charge of building Manhattan's Grand Hyatt Hotel. Donald Trump, a partner in the Hyatt project, lured her away in 1980 to supervise the raising of his capitalist temple, Trump Tower. Now Res oversees development and construction of all Trump's commercial properties. One future project: an amusement park in Atlantic City.

RICHARD M. SALEM, 35 WEARGUARD CORP. Since he took over as president ten years ago, Salem has transformed this Norwell, Massachusetts, company from a $1 million chain of Army-Navy stores into a national supplier of work uniforms with over $130 million in sales. ''We've grown like a weed by applying high technology to a low-tech business,'' he says. Elaborate computer systems manage inventory, process orders (in two days, vs. two weeks for most competitors), and even measure the performance of WearGuard's 1,500 employees. Says Salem: ''We use technology to recognize and reward accomplishments that might otherwise be overlooked.''