CEO of the year.

• Author: Stewart, Heather
• Position: Chief executive officer

Our eight honorees come from a variety of companies and industries, from manufacturing to real estate to the cutting edge of technology. But whether they represent global, publicly held companies or up-and-coming organizations, one thread unites them all: an unflinching refusal to let the recession hold their company back. With innovation, adaptability, determination and decisiveness, these eight CEOs demonstrate the essence of leadership while spearheading an economic revival.

"I grew up in this business," says Jim Loveland, whose father, James Loveland, founded Xactware Solutions in 1986. Loveland took his first job in the company while he was in high school in 1988 and worked his way through college at Xactware. He has worked in nearly every department of the company, from shipping to customer support to programming.

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This extensive background enabled him to see "all the nooks and crannies" of the business, he says.

Jim Evans, COO of Exactware, agrees. "He's worked in the trenches ... when Jim holds a meeting and talks to [employees], they know that he understands what they're talking about," he says.

Xactware Solutions provides data analytics and software solutions for the property and casualty insurance industry. Loveland was appointed CEO in 2005 and since that time, the company's revenues have quadrupled to more than $100 million. The company's market share has grown to more than 85 percent among insurance repair contractors and to nearly 70 percent among property insurers.

Loveland says that a focus on innovation keeps him engaged and motivated, "being able to create innovative new tools for our customers that really streamline and enhance their lives and their workflows."

Jim Loveland

President and CEO, Xactware Solutions, Inc.

He has brought that innovative spirit alive at Xactware. For example, shortly after he became CEO, Loveland decided to bring the company's customer support call center back in-house. While a third-party provider was less costly, Loveland knew that internal support would create greater customer satisfaction and provide a training ground for knowledgeable employees.

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Loveland also oversaw the opening of a European office in London. More importantly, he engineered a merger with Verisk Analytics, one of the oldest service providers in the insurance industry. This new partnership gave Xactware access to a broad spectrum of insurance services and helped it to accelerate its international expansion.

Evans says he most admires Loveland's "ability and desire to improve and change." The company routinely holds 360-degree evaluations of top leadership. "Jim over the years has always been willing to take that feedback and make changes, and that's what's prepared him to be the CEO that he is today. A lot of times people will say, 'I want to have feedback,' but then they don't want to hear what people have to say. Jim takes that. It hasn't always been pleasant, especially in the early years, but he's taken it, he's learned from it, he's grown from it."

Going forward, Loveland intends to help Xactware find I new vertical markets for its products and services. He is also focusing on new product development and applications that take advantage of the capabilities of the latest mobile devices.

Loveland serves on the national advisory board for the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business and on the board of the Living Planet Aquarium. He is committed to helping his 350 employees also discover the value of community involvement through matched charitable donations, volunteer opportunities and other activities.

"Hopefully you're making a tremendous impact on the community, not just through the employees that you have and the lives that you are able to support through their families, but also in other types of community events," he says.

Fred Lampropoulos

Chairman and CEO, Merit Medical Systems, Inc.

"I'm a regular guy. I got lucky and I've been fortunate," says Fred Lampropoulos, whose history spans an astounding range of experiences. When his family first moved to the Salt Lake Valley, they spent time living in Pioneer Park. "We were homeless" he says. He was the first in his family to graduate high school and, later, college. Upon graduation, he joined the army and became a commissioned Special Forces officer during Vietnam. Rack in the civilian world, he became a stock broker and then a real estate developer.

Today, Lampropoulos is the head of Utah's largest medical device company, with annual revenues in excess of $250 million.

"All of those skill sets--leadership as an infantry officer, finance, construction and development--are all things that have helped me do the things that I do today," he says.

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Lampropoulos founded Merit Medical Systems in 1983, after previously serving as chairman and CEO of Utah Medical. The company has grown tremendously from a startup with no investor funding into a global enterprise with a presence in Europe, Russia, China and South America.

Just during the past year, Merit Medical introduced several new products, acquired BioSphere Medical in France, opened an office in Beijing and began a $45 million expansion project on a 240,000-square-foot facility in Utah that will eventually employ 700 new workers.

Not only is Lampropoulos a shrewd businessman, he is a gifted inventor with nearly 200 U.S. patents to...