The full Andy

(Fortune Magazine) -- Fortune has a new managing editor at its helm, and regular readers of the magazine will recognize his name: Andy Serwer.

For many years now Andy has been the most prolific writer at the magazine - and among the most provocative. With his regular columns, cover stories and features, Andy has given us all a pretty wild ride through the world of business - which almost always becomes fascinating when he's at the wheel. Here's Andy in a tent in the Saudi desert with Prince Alwaleed, discussing his investment philosophy.

There's Andy in Bentonville, Ark., getting inside the Walton family's thinking about what to do with its enormous fortune. Now here he is hanging out with the young Michael Dell. Over there he's talking business with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones Inc. Now he's inside the Robin Hood foundation. Or profiling the "Man Who Bought Elvis."

You get the idea. Andy knows business and everybody in it. And like Fortune, Andy means business. While he likes to have fun with the personalities and foibles of the corporate world, he's equally comfortable sitting down with the real powers of the global economy and talking substance.

Why, there he is in the cover story of this very issue engaging in an exclusive interview (along with Fortune Washington bureau chief Nina Easton) with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson - one of the first people to call Andy and congratulate him on his new job. And there he is just a few pages later with a fascinating feature on Bill Miller, the iconoclastic Legg Mason mutual fund manager, who has beaten the stock market for 15 straight years.

In his spare time Andy has managed to win over audiences as the business anchor of CNN's American Morning news show. He was also Fortune's first Internet star with his popular "Street Life" market wrap-up cum basketball-odds-making column. Oh, yes, and there's his wife, Fran, a former Fortune designer, and their two kids. Andy has been a very busy man.

No less an authority than Fortune's Carol Loomis, one of the premier business reporters of all time, has this to say about Andy: "He's very creative, and he has a great grasp of business, including the ins and outs of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and just about anywhere business is done. To use a baseball metaphor, he's also got this wicked curve ball that makes him a great storyteller."

But don't think Andy doesn't pack a blazing fastball. He can be relentless in his pursuit of a story - he's been known to hound a subject for a year or longer to get inside.

Andy's predecessor as managing editor, Eric Pooley, was no less relentless in the job, it should be noted. His fierce determination is what brought the magazine to its current excellent state, and he is the one most responsible for twisting the arms of all the powerful business leaders who agreed to pose for portraits in this issue. Andy has a tough act to follow.

Many of you already know Andy - from the pages of Fortune, from his morning visits to your kitchen TV, or from CNNMoney.com. Now, for all of us who love to read Fortune, you're about to experience what we've come to think of as the "full Andy." I am certain you are in for a real treat.

JOHN W. HUEY JR., Editor in Chief