Age: 53
Occupation: President and CEO of Navy Pier

When Gardner began her tenure at Navy Pier in 1994, she was charged with promoting its grand reopening the following year. Now she finds herself selling Chicago on yet another reincarnation: the $278 million transformation — the centerpiece of which is a 222-room hotel due to open this year — of a fading tourist trap into a cultural destination that is, she dares to say, “cool.”