Local Pair Make Playboy's Sexiest CEOs List
Love 'em or leave 'em, there's no denying the breadth of Chicago-based Playboy Magazine. And leave it to Playboy to try to turn our frowns upside-down during this recession by focusing on the...more pleasant aspects of the economy. It's this desire that has led to their new list: Women on Top: America's Sexiest CEOs [page is SFW but test your office monitoring software at your own peril]. And the list has a local flavor, with a pair of women CEOs making an appearance.
Photo: Flirty Girl Fitness The first local is Kerry Knee, CEO of Flirty Girl Fitness. The company, founded in 2005, employs 120 and is based in the West Loop. Originally started in Toronto in 2005, the company expanded to a location here in 2007. Says the Bunny, "A former IT exec and calculus major from Toronto, Kerry—and her sister Krista—opened Flirty Girl Fitness as a social club where women can sweat hard in classes like Hottie Body Boxing and XXX Power Strip, then play hard at the "Flirty Girl Bar" afterward."
Photo: NASDAQ The other local to grace the list is Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods. The Morton Grove-based company produces Kefir and other "specialty functional dairy foods for health-conscious consumers." Quoth the Bunny: "Julie became CEO, treasurer and president when her father, the founder, died of a sudden heart attack. She went back to work the next morning, and under her direction the company more than quadrupled its stock price. A fitness junkie, she ends every day with a trip to the gym."