Going down with his ship led to his rise in business.

• Position: Red Storm Entertainment Inc. CEO and Pres. Doug Littlejohns

Doug Littlejohns, president and CEO of Morrisville-based Red Storm Entertainment Inc., was a British submarine captain when he first met Tom Clancy 14 years ago. The best-selling author was on a book tour promoting The Hunt for Red October, which Littlejohns had just read. "I was most impressed with his knowledge of submarines," Littlejohns says.

Littlejohns knows a bit about them, too, having commanded a couple during his 30-year career with the Royal Navy. The men became friends, and in 1995 Clancy turned to Littlejohns as his military expert on his Tom Clancy SSN computer game, developed by Cary-based Virtus Corp.

On Littlejohns' advice, Clancy spun Red Storm Entertainment Inc. off from Virtus in late 1996. Red Storm - the name is based on Clancy's novel, Red Storm Rising - develops games based on Clancy's favorite post-Cold War themes of corporate intrigue and counterterrorism. Clancy is chairman and majority shareholder; Littlejohns, Virtus and British media company Pearson PLC own stakes.

Littlejohns, 52, left his post as managing director of Britain's largest convention center to become Red Storm's CEO in 1996 and runs the daily...