This is the 2 yr grow chart of the Herbalife's stock (NYSE:HLF)

Herbalife Ltd

HLF (NYSE) 40.30

Change:UNCHUNCH

Volume:n/a delayed quote data 4:02pm 7/5/2007

CORNER OFFICE
Herbalife CEO is readers' choice
MarketWatch readers tap Michael Johnson as CEO of year
By Dan Burrows, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:56 AM ET Dec 6, 2005
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Herbalife Ltd.'s Michael Johnson leapfrogged several of the best-known U.S. chief executives to win the MarketWatch Readers' Choice CEO of the Year award, topping such notables as Apple Computer Inc.'s Steven Jobs, Microsoft Corp.'s Steven Ballmer and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric Co.
Johnson won with 55% of the vote, handily surpassing Jobs, who came in second with 15%. Google Inc.'s Eric Schmidt placed third with 9% of the tally.
Herbalife (HLF :
herbalife ltd com usd shs
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 40.70+0.29+0.72%3:45am 07/10/2007Delayed quote data
Add to portfolioAnalyst Create alert
InsiderDiscussFinancials
Sponsored by:
HLF40.70, +0.29, +0.7%) , based in Los Angeles, sells weight-management products, nutritional supplements and personal-care items through a network of more than 1 million independent distributors in 60 countries.
Although Herbalife's $1.3 billion in annual sales and $2.05 billion market capitalization are dwarfed by those of Johnson's rivals in the Readers' Choice poll, grassroots support from the company's army of distributors carried Johnson to victory.
A company spokeswoman allowed that Herbalife distributors in Europe had been first to take note of the MarketWatch competition, mounting a characteristically enthusiastic e-mail campaign among their colleagues.
That's not to say Johnson is undeserving of the honor.
Johnson, 51, who came to Herbalife in April 2003, first engineered a recapitalization, reducing Herbalife's debt load and returning $380 million to shareholders. That helped put the company -- which had lost its founding CEO to an accidental prescription-drug overdose earlier in the decade -- on financial footing for an initial public offering, the anniversary of which is Dec. 16.
Since then shares in Herbalife have more than doubled from an opening price of $14 on the first day of trading to as much as $33.75 in early November 2005. Recently the stock has traded north of $29 a share.
From Hollywood to Herbalife
At first glance Johnson's prior experience seems an incongruous fit with his post at the helm of a company that sells health and wellness products. Prior to joining Herbalife, he spent 17 years as a high-level executive at Walt Disney Co. (DIS :
Walt Disney Company
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 34.46-0.03-0.09%3:45am 07/10/2007Delayed quote data
Add to portfolioAnalyst Create alert
InsiderDiscussFinancials
Sponsored by:
DIS34.46, -0.03, -0.1%) , most notably as president of Walt Disney International and head of Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
But put that show-business background aside and the move from Hollywood to healthful living makes more sense: Johnson has been competing in triathlons for more than 15 years.
In addition to putting the company's financials in order, Johnson has been vital in developing and expanding Herbalife's portfolio of goods, establishing medical and scientific advisory boards, and funding the creation the Hughes Cellular and Molecular Nutrition Laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles, named for Herbalife's late founder, Mark Hughes.

Those efforts are intended to serve Johnson's strategy for Herbalife: one "mega" product launch per year, keeping the pipeline of products fresh and distributors motivated. Products introduced during Johnson's tenure range from the ShapeWorks weight-management program to the NouriFusion skin-care line.
Herbalife is observing a Securities and Exchange Commission-mandated quiet period ahead of a secondary stock offering, but in August Johnson spoke with MarketWatch about Herbalife's global growth plans.
"We have been launching new products, and we have been launching a much more unified distributor base throughout the world," Johnson said at the time.
"Our distributors are working together better than ever before, we have global expansion, and we have some wonderful new products that have been very energizing to our distributors." Watch Johnson interview.
The aggressive rollout of new items has indeed resonated with the company's customers and distributors, if the company's most recent results are any indication. For the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Herbalife saw its earnings more than double to $27.1 million, or 37 cents a share, from $11.5 million, or 21 cents, a year before. Excluding nonrecurring charges, earnings were 34 cents, surpassing the Thomson First Call average estimate by 1 cent a share.
Scott Van Winkle, an analyst with Adams Harkness, told clients it was "as close to a flawless quarter" as he's seen.
"Herbalife," Van Winkle wrote in a note to clients, "is a consistent cash-flow and growth story with new management, new products and considerable opportunity for operational improvement that should drive higher productivity, earnings and stock price." Dan Burrows is a reporter for MarketWatch in New York.
Related Blog Posts & Articles

David Heber is the Director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles, a Professor of Medicine and Public Health, the founding Chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Medicine and the Founding Director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA. He directs the NCI-funded Clinical Nutrition Research Unit and the NIH Nutrition and Obesity Training Grants at UCLA. Dr. Heber is board-certified in Internal Medicine, and Endocrinology and Metabolism by the American Board of Internal Medicine and in Clinical Nutrition by the American Board of Nutrition. He earned his MD at Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. in Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Heber served as a Director of the American Board of Nutrition and past chair of the Education Committee of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition. He is included in the 2000 listing of The Best Doctors in America, based on a survey of over 35,000 doctors throughout the nation, and is listed in Who's Who in America for 2001. Dr. Heber's primary areas of research are obesity treatment and prevention, the role of nutrition, phytochemicals,and botanical dietary supplements in the prevention and treatment of common forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. David Heber是加州大學洛杉磯分校（UCLA）人類營養研究中心的主席，並指導美國國家健康中心（NIH）以草本植物進行減重的研究。他同時指導國家癌症研究中心（NCI）以及在UCLA進行肥胖控制的研究。Dr.Heber專攻肥胖研究、癌症預防及治療，他的論文在醫學專刊上時有所見，關於營養研究的出版品達25本，在營養、健康與體重控制方面享譽盛名，成績卓越。
*美國加州大學生理學博士

*曾獲美國最佳醫師獎項

*美國加州大學醫學系教授

*美國加州大學人類營養學中心&草本植物營養補充品研究中心主任