The New Stars of Finance: Meet the financiers on a fast track: They're young, they're focused on global markets, and they're not afraid of new technology

Boris Fyodorov and Charlie Ryan, who built the Moscow-based United Financial Group, belong to a new generation of financiers whose careers have skyrocketed with the global political, economic, and technological sea changes of the past few years. These include the demise of communism, the decline of socialism, the crumbling of old-fashioned regulatory barriers, and the explosion of both laissez-faire capitalism and new, virtually unfettered global markets. Yet these new markets and financial strategies have a distinctly American flavor. In Europe, for example, the belated recognition that tradition-bound companies and economies need to become more open and efficient has given rise to an American-style merger, restructuring, and privatization boom, thrusting young investment bankers such as John Studzinski of Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discovery & Co. into the financial limelight. This new fast-track cadre is Americanizing global finance with a revolutionary zeal.