Joe Forehand: Chairman and CEO, Accenture

The slogan consulting giant Accenture adopted earlier this year is, "Now, it gets interesting." Anybody following the company has to agree. Few companies have experienced as much volatility--or change. Arguably, none has emerged better-positioned. Following a bitter split with Big Five sister firm Arthur Andersen last year, Accenture began 2001 forging a new identity. A few months later, it pulled off a successful $1.67 billion IPO, turning Accenture into the largest publicly held consultancy in the industry. The man responsible for navigating the $11.4 billion firm is Joe W. Forehand, CEO since 1999. Forehand joined Accenture's Atlanta office in 1972 and became a partner 10 years later. During his career, he led 11 of the company's 18 industry groups and was a driving force behind Accenture's e-commerce efforts.

Since Forehand's ascension, Accenture has emphasized business-transformation outsourcing, which combines traditional outsourcing with consulting and other capabilities to improve key business functions and achieve a significant and sustainable improvement in enterprise-level performance.

Now Forehand wants to make Accenture a No. 1 company in IT services. It's a difficult assignment, but that's nothing new to the company's tough CEO.