From entertainment and technology to politics and finance, these 50 top playersunder 40 represent our editors’ picks

during his training. In 2001, he won a one-year fellowship to the famed Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado, where many professional athletes seek treatment. “The goal is to create a state-of-the-art practice that caters to elite athletes as well as recreational athletes,” says Johnson.

Karl Kani
Entrepreneur Age: 35
For more than a decade, Kani (born Carl Williams) has been a major player in the fashion scene. His company, Karl Kani Infinity Inc., has earned more than $1 billion in net sales since 1994. In February, Kani teamed up with Cash Money Records’ co-CEO Bryan “Baby” Williams for a new clothing line, which he expects to pull in $40 million in sales by the end of 2004. The company is No. 49 on the BE INDUSTRIAL SERVICE 100 list with $71.2 million in sales.

Walter Latham
Entrepreneur Age: 32
Latham is laughing all the way to the bank as CEO of Latham Entertainment (LE) which grossed $10 million in 2002. The comedy tour promoter, who’s responsible for promoting Chris Tucker, Martin Lawrence, and Bernie Mac, launched the Kings of Comedy tour in 1997, which grossed $39 million in the first three years. Latham brought the tour to the big screen in The Original Kings of Comedy, directed by Spike Lee. Budgeted for $3 million, the film grossed more than $38 million and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. In early 2003, the company partnered with Miller Lite to produce a 13-episode reality search television program titled The Miller Lite Kings and Queens of Comedy Search.

Alfred C. Liggins III
CEO Age: 38
Liggins has been spearheading new business ventures for Radio One Inc. (No. 8 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list with $335.8 million in revenues), the seventh-largest radio broadcasting company and the largest targeting African American and urban listeners. As CEO, he took the company public in 2000 and engineered the expansion of Radio One which operates 66 radio stations in 22 urban markets. Most recently, the company entered into a deal with cable giant Comcast to form TV One L.L.C., a cable network targeted at African American viewers which is scheduled to launch in January 2004.

William Lighten
Investment Banker Age: 39
Lehman Bros. tapped him as managing director to elevate its profile in global structured finance business. The firm went from having no pres
ence in global structured finance business to being No. 1 in The Wall Street Journal‘s 2003 third-quarter results. Lighten manages more than $100 billion in new-issue structured bonds and recently managed a $6 billion deal for Ford Motor Credit Corp.

Kwame M. Kilpatrick
The youngest mayor of any major city in U.S. history is revving up the Motor City. Since his election in 2001, he’s balanced a city budget that once had a $196 million deficit, and his restructuring of the police department and its improved response time has reduced crime by roughly 6%. And that’s not all. His administration has brokered six hotel deals, initiated construction of more than 4,000 new low-, moderate-, and high-end housing units, and green-lighted the development of Detroit’s east