Elizabeth Anne Blau, Vice President of Restaurant Development, Mirage Resorts, Inc., Las Vegas, NV

Age: 31. Why she's rising: Bellagio boasts some of the top marquee names in foodservice from Sirio Maccioni's Le Cirque to Todd English's Olives. It was Blau's efforts—drawn from her foodie upbringing, her education at Cornell and having spent more than half her life in food and beverage operations—that persuaded them to clone their concepts there. Those who know her well say she'll have no difficulty persuading other restaurant "headliners" to do likewise. Schooling: BA, government international relations, Georgetown University; MA, restaurant marketing, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. First job in foodser-vice: age 15, working in a Mexican restaurant, West Hartford, Conn. Mentors: Sirio Maccioni, Le Cirque, NYC; Steve Wynn, pres., Mirage Resorts, Inc. Wins praise for: her uncanny powers of persuasion in not just recruiting restaurant headliners, but in knowing which opera-tors/chefs have the organizational skills to absentee-manage a restaurant. She understands, almost instinctively, which concepts and trends will fly in Vegas, which ones won't. What the future holds : Coming up: Mirage/Atlantic City in 3 years.