When HSBC trimmed its investment banking ambitions a few years ago, Stuart Gulliver, 50, decided to sharpen the unit’s focus. So he emphasized global debt financing and targeted equity and advisory efforts on emerging markets. The formula worked splendidly.

In the first half of 2009, even as HSBC’s U.S. consumer banking business hemorrhaged, Gulliver’s global banking and markets unit spared the bank from a loss by posting $6.3 billion in pretax profits. Gulliver’s reward? Gaining oversight of all of HSBC’s activities in Europe and the Middle East when CEO Michael Geoghegan moves to Hong Kong early in 2010. That puts Gulliver in pole position to succeed the CEO one day.