Ling Chai, who was named a criminal by the Chinese government for her role in the Tiananmen Square protests, escaped from her homeland 13 years ago by huddling inside a crate that was nailed shut and shipped to Hong Kong. Chai says the 108-hour journey helped mold her into an effective business leader.

"I've overcome a lot of difficulties, and I've been in situations where I didn't know what was going to happen next," says Chai, president and chief operating officer at Jenzabar Inc., an education-software company. "My escape from China taught me patience, faith, and tenacity."

	ON LIFE AT THE OFFICE: Chai, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, sometimes needs to be reminded to wear suits to important meetings

Chai is seeing the rewards of her belief system. While many software companies struggle, 4-year-old Jenzabar expects to close the year profitably, with a 20% rise in annual revenue, to $50 million. Jenzabar provides software to more than 700 educational institutions for running portals that give students access to class schedules and admissions, and for integrated back-end financial and human-resources systems.

Chai is petite, soft-spoken, and approachable, but has a tendency to take her convictions to extremes. She led a seven-day hunger strike in the pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and was one of the few leaders who stayed after soldiers tried to disperse the crowd with gunshots and tanks. "She's very passionate and believes in what she's doing, and you see that in all of her speeches and communications," says Sashi Parthasarathi, Jenzabar's VP of client services. "Her strength is her ability to think outside the box and to push the envelope with new ideas."

A graduate of Beijing University, Chai earned master's degrees from Princeton and Harvard. She started Jenzabar, which means "the best and the brightest" in Mandarin, in the basement of her home. The company employs 260 people and has completed several rounds of private financing. Still, Chai admits to rough spots along the way as a woman from a different culture. "What's good about this country, though, is the culture is a meritocracy," Chai says. "It's results driven. When investors see the results of a company, they start believing in it and forget about things like race and gender."

Some Chinese dissidents have accused Chai of using her past notoriety to draw attention to Jenzabar. Still, she hopes to visit China soon and says she's not willing to compromise her goals for changing her homeland in order to get back in. Says Chai, "I hope to have the opportunity to go back so we can bring enough experience to help restructure a new China."
--Mary Hayes