Mission Creek

from forbes.com

This is a very interesting article with insight into some young executives running some substantial organizations:

San Francisco -

There’s a fittingly playful nature at the offices of children’s clothier Gymboree. A lot of that has to do with the tone set by 33-year-old Matthew McCauley, the youngest CEO ever to head the $700 million outfit in its 30-year history. A graduate of Brigham Young University who got his start handling distribution at Payless Shoes and The Gap, McCauley suspects his youth keeps him open to new perspectives.

“I love to riff and bounce ideas off of people. Regardless of what their function is, [Gymboree’s employees] are all talented, bright people,” says McCauley, who routinely solicits feedback from staffers throughout the company and in different departments. That open strategy seems to be working: Gymboree’s first-quarter sales reached $189 million in April, up 16% compared with the same quarter last year.

But being young and in charge isn’t a typical scenario for the top brass of publicly traded companies. Of the companies on Wall Street’s Russell 2000 Index, there are just eight chiefs age 35 or under. Among the small group, McCauley, who began with Gymboree (nasdaq: GYMB - news - people ) in 2001 heading inventory allocations, is the lone CEO to race up the corporate ladder. Three of the chiefs take the reins of their family firms, and the remaining four founded their own companies. Each recognized quite early a desire to take a leadership role.

See some of America’s youngest CEOs…

full story here