Ralph de la Vega:
Chief Operating Officer of Cingular Wireless

Leader Lowdown

Thing you’re most afraid of:   Nothing
Person you respect or idolize most, other than family:   Martin Luther King Jr.
Favorite business book: Good to Great, by Jim Collins

Not many 10-year-olds go through a life-altering experience. But Ralph de la Vega is sure he did just that when as a boy he arrived in America by himself, having left his mother, father, and younger sister behind in Cuba. It was 1962, the year of the Cuban missile crisis, and his parents were in search of “freedom and democracy,” which they saw diminishing under Fidel Castro. But when the family arrived at the airport to fly to Miami together, only Ralph’s papers were in order. “I don’t know what made my parents decide to send me ahead. It was like a sleep-over, but it turned out to be for four years.”