52. Maren Christensen

When she's at her beach house, Universal's top lawyer entertains guests by breaking out the kayaks and boogie boards. And when she's on the road, as she often is promoting anti-piracy issues, Christensen makes sure she takes a couple vacation days to explore the scenery. Last year, when she visited Europe to speak to politicians, she sojourned in Bilbao, Spain. "I'm passionate about architecture, and I knew I had to fly from London just to see Frank Gehry's Guggenheim," she says.

Christensen often finds herself in Sweden or China personally lobbying state officials for stronger laws protecting intellectual property. Recently she helped strategize an important lawsuit filed by the MPAA against Real Networks over a new technology that lets consumers copy DVDs to their hard drives. And she'll be returning to the U.K. soon for more lobbying in advance of new copyright laws currently under discussion. "There's nothing more important to this industry than protecting content," she says. "That's the expertise I offer."