21. Andrea Wong

Degrees from MIT (electrical engineering) and Stanford (business) might seem overreaching for a cable network executive, but not for Wong. "I have absolutely no fear about solving problems because I will never solve harder problems than I had on a daily basis at MIT," she says. Wong started in TV with a summer job as an ABC News production assistant and fearlessly grabbed Lifetime's top slot last year after 14 years at ABC. Almost immediately she began making headlines, snagging "Project Runway" from Bravo and starting a legal dispute that is still unresolved. Elsewhere, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" was the network's most watched original movie in 13 years. And in 2009 Wong, who often starts her 15-hour workday with a spin class, will unspool original movies from Sigourney Weaver ("Prayers for Bobby") and Rosie O'Donnell ("America"), while Lifetime will launch a new suite of channels such as Lifetime on Demand and LMN Espanol on Demand.