With a globe-trotting schedule that takes her from Japan to Afghanistan, Julia Sloan gets a lot of work done on her way to somewhere else.

"I spend considerably more time in airports and airplanes than at home," says Sloan, president of New York-based Sloan International, an executive development firm specializing in emerging and existing markets.

Dividing her professional efforts between Fortune 100 companies and non-profit organizations (including the United Nations), she brings the same tenacious attitude to both. "My role is to ask questions that encourage executives to stretch their thinking to the point of aggravation, appreciation and eventually action." Her willingness to dig has earned Sloan the nickname "E," short for "The Excavator."

This holder of a doctorate from TC in Organizational Leadership and Development also is channeling her global executive training expertise into two book projects-one of which offers insights into "developing strong managers in the world's least developed countries."

Published Friday, Jan. 14, 2005