The job would then go to Jack Smith, the hard-charging executive who turned G.M.'s European operations around.

"A lot of these hard-charging executives are on drugs."

He also discusses his dreams of becoming a social activist and a writer - goals very different from those he pursued as a hard-charging executive.

A hard-charging executive, Mr. Cheney has denied that the attacks were the result of stress.

But his current reading list speaks volumes about how the prospect of retirement looms for this once hard-charging executive.

They would be glad to see girls grow up into hard-charging executives.

To me, this was a good blend of young, hard-charging executives and wise, seasoned, older veterans.

At Merrill, Mr. Mitchell had developed a reputation as one of the firm's most hard-charging and successful executives.

The purpose is to ferret out wrongdoers: The hard-charging executive who habitually shuns vacations may have a guiltier secret than workaholism.

But these working women had creative or nurturing jobs, as opposed to being hard-charging chief executive officers, Ms. Pecora said.