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Who

Calhoun is the chairman and CEO of Nielsen Company, the company formerly known as VNU.

Backstory

It was generally assumed that Calhoun would be a GE lifer: He started with the company straight out of college in 1979 and worked his way up through the ranks to head up the company's lighting division beginning in the late-'90s. He later held the top job at several other divisions, including GE Aircraft Engines and the company's sprawling Infrastructure subsidiary. But like other longtime GE execs who become hot properties on the open market, he soon found himself fielding offers from other companies and in 2006, he finally bailed, accepting an offer to turn around the Dutch media company VNU. Formerly a public company in the Netherlands, VNU was taken private when a consortium of buyout firms, including Steve Schwarzman's Blackstone Group and Henry Kravis's KKR, coughed up $9.5 billion to purchase the company in 2006. Calhoun was installed as CEO with a mission any GE exec would be familiar with—boost revenues and cut costs.

Of note

In January 2007, the company changed its name from VNU to Nielsen Company as part of an effort to better define the company and accentuate its most valuable brands. Nielsen, of course, is known for providing TV viewership data through its ratings business. But the company is responsible for compiling ratings across a number of industries: ACNielsen tracks consumer habits, Bookscan tracks the sales of books, and the company also owns a majority stake in NetRatings, which monitors web trends. Nielson is also the parent company of a number of media-centric trade titles, including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. Calhoun, who was once described by Fortune as one of the country's "most lusted-after managerial star," hasn't just been focused on the company's identity issues. He immediately announced plans to lay off 10 percent of the workforce and has been busy slashing costs both in the U.S. and abroad to improve margins.

Keeping score

Calhoun's compensation package to join Nielson was reportedly worth more than $100 million.

Personal

Calhoun and his wife, Barbara, have four children: Amy, Jessica, Corey, and Devon. In addition to a home in New Canaan, which they paid $4.995 million for in 2005, the Calhouns own a home in Sullivan County, N.H., which they bought for $1.8 million in 2006.