After seven years in corporate M&A at PepsiCo Inc. and Nabisco Foods Co., Tarkan Gurkan went to Lehman Brothers Inc. in 2001 to broaden his perspective and get a look at the strategies of other consumer food and beverage companies. The plan was to stay three or four years and then take what he'd learned back to a strategic. He ended up staying seven.

"I got sucked in," says Gurkan. "You keep chasing deals every day, and before you know it, the year is up. I didn't have time to think. When the market slowed down in 2007, I had time to think and realized I'd stayed past my life cycle in investment banking."

Not long after that, Campbell Soup Co. decided to formalize its internal M&A and to hire a dealmaker to lead it. Gurkan was an obvious choice, and in May he became its vice president of corporate development. Not only was Campbell a client, Gurkan and Campbell CEO Douglas Conant and former CFO Robert Schiffner went back 14 years to when the three worked together at Nabisco. - Suzanne Stevens

• Making a career of corporate development at J&J
• Moving to a line business at Pitney Bowes
• Colonel Tapp and Northrop Grumman's new flight path
• From Shearman & Sterling to the middle of the Bristol-Myers makeover
• On the inside at Brocade, but with roots in consulting
• Internal networking at ATMI
• Finding a faster ship at Glam Media
  

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