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Joel Simon, 39

President and Chief Executive

JSM Music Inc.

In high school, Joel Simon wanted to be a rock star; at Cornell University, a lawyer. But his epiphany came seven months into a what-the-heck job he'd taken writing ad jingles, when 50 mysterious envelopes arrived. "They were all checks," Mr. Simon says. "Every single one." They were residuals from a Clorox jingle he'd written for a small commercial music house, JSM Music. Every time it aired, he got paid--more than $70,000 in all. "I had no idea how much money could be made," the Brooklyn native admits.

He would soon find out. Mr Simon cold-called a company that sold its juicers through infomercials, offering to produce original scores for the same $2,000 the firm had been paying for canned music. He added another incentive: a cut of his residuals. Before long, he'd cornered the infomercial market, and hundreds of thousands of dollars rolled in every quarter.

In 1997, Mr. Simon used the cash to buy JSM, which he turned into the largest commercial music producer in the city. Awards piled up, and revenues surpassed $10 million. As record labels began using commercials to promote their artists, the rock world that forsook Mr. Simon came calling. "High-powered record executives I could not get on the phone five years ago, now I can't get off the phone," he says.

Ad executives praise Mr. Simon for pushing JSM forward in a fast-changing business. "He has embraced the volatility of our industry," says Karl Westman, senior partner at Ogilvy & Mather. "It's easy for people to ride the same highway, but he gets off the beaten path."

Especially when he drives his Ferrari Modena convertible.

- Erik Engquist

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