Hour Detroit July 1999

Their youth and talent could write them a ticket anywhere, but they choose to do what they do here. Chutzpah and creativity aside, their commitment to the area places them in a class of their own.

Russian Pointe
Aleksandra Efimova
Efimova didn′t join the unemployment line when the import/export company she worked for folded last year. Instead, she waltzed in and took over part of it. Her business now supplies slippers and toe shoes to seven major ballet companies and to 40 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Sales last year were $56,000; she expects to triple that this year. Lorraine Uhlaner, a professor of management at Eastern Michigan University, says Efimova stood out from all of the students she′s taught in 20 years. "She has extraordinary will and really throws herself into everything she does," Uhlaner says.