If asked to name the foreign business executive who has most dramatically turned around a financially troubled Japanese corporation, Glenn Gumpel might top the list.

Within two years of taking charge of USJ Co., the operator of the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, the 61-year-old American succeeded in making it a profitable company.

The New York-born Gumpel recalled that after taking over in June 2004, "We did a lot of things in a limited period of time. Now, USJ is reborn as a financially much stronger company."