Cree's new CEO focuses on executing bright ideas.

• Position: Chuck Swoboda - Brief Article

Growing up in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, Chuck Swoboda knew he'd hear about it from his old man if a chore weren't done right. "There were times when I mowed the lawn twice a week to make sure it looked right."

Dad isn't peering over his shoulder anymore. In fact, at Durhambased Cree Inc., Swoboda, at 34, plays the father figure. As the new CEO -- and before that, president and chief operating officer for two years -- he is the guy who makes sure ideas batted around in meetings don't evaporate in a swirl of hot air.

Others are more "visionary." Neal Hunter -- one of Cree's founders and Swoboda's predecessor as CEO and the new executive chairman -- fits that category. Cree will need both -- ideas and execution -- to keep its market leadership in light-emitting diodes and expand into new product lines. LEDs are semiconductors used as backlighting in celiphones and other products. Cree makes about 35% of the blue and green LEDs sold worldwide.

Despite a slowdown in the fourth quarter, the fiscal year that...