Robert Greenberg

After its Shape-up shoes tripped Skechers up—the company settled FTC charges that it made excessive claims about their effect on losing weight and toning muscle—at the end of 2011, Greenberg shaped up the company’s operations and marketing to reach a record market cap of $8 billion this summer. He followed that by announcing the highest quarterly sales in the company’s 23-year history in October—but the stock fell sharply because Skechers missed its earnings target due to unexpectedly high costs. Increases in international sales and expanding retail operations, with a goal of over 1,280 Skechers’ stores worldwide by the end of 2015, have pushed sales upward. Greenberg’s effective marketing campaigns—Kim Kardashian, Demi Lovato and Ringo Starr all endorse products—have helped the company sprint past competition like Adidas to become the No. 2 sports-footwear brand in America (behind only Nike) and the No. 1 kids-footwear brand worldwide.