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Janine DiGioacchino, 36
General Manager
Madame Tussauds New York
The celebrities choose the outfits and poses of their wax figures at Madame Tussauds New York. Everything else falls to Janine DiGioacchino.
Under Ms. DiGioacchino, the museum's performance has--like its J. Lo in a tight dress--turned heads in the entertainment industry. Revenues have risen in each of her six years, even after Sept. 11, 2001, and have doubled over all to $22 million. Attendance is up 20%, to 775,000 a year.
Not bad for someone who didn't even know what a wax museum was when she was when she was recruited from Planet Hollywood International by Madame Tussauds' London-based owners.
"They wanted a New Yorker," says Ms. DiGioacchino, a big Yankee fan who had lived here for 12 years. It's no coincidence that the museum boasts five Yankee figures.
Next fall, she will launch a Madame Tussauds in Washington, D.C., while running the New York venue--and raising her twin toddlers in Princeton, N.J. The Philadelphia native has a second-floor office with a picture window overlooking West 42nd Street, but much of her time is spent patrolling her museum's 10 floors, even helping patrons and ripping tickets.
"She is one of those people who gets it all done. A superwoman," says Stacy Shuster, the museum's director of marketing and sales. "If you're on her senior team, failure is not an option. And it's not just, `You go and do it'; it's, `I'm going to be in the trenches with you.' She rolls up her sleeves."