By Matthew Boyle, with BW staff

25 Managers Training to Take Over the Corner Office

A record 1,484 CEOs left their jobs in 2008, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and with one out of six CEOs of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index companies currently 63 or older, many more could step down this year and next as the recession wears down baby boomer corporate chiefs. So it’s a good time to take a look at some of the CEOs of tomorrow—25 senior executives around the globe who are not yet in the corner office but who have won the attention of peers, headhunters, and industry experts. While their backgrounds are diverse, what unites them is a knack for seizing new opportunities. As management guru Ram Charan says, these next-generation leaders "can get through this crisis successfully and at the same time keep an eye out for the next destination through the fog."