DEA types ranged from street smart to corporate climber.

Mrs. Heim, whose first job as a teenager was to welcome customers to a department store while dressed as a Christmas tree, says she isn't a skilled corporate climber.

In a city where corporate founders and builders always outrank corporate climbers, Annette, more than compensating for his social unease, helped him to assume prominence.

"Satellite" could be described as a yuppie "Bonnie and Clyde" in which alienated corporate climbers break the rules, but instead of robbing banks, they commit petty crimes.

Even in a suit at New York headquarters, he bears little resemblance to the corporate climbers who had dominated this most image-conscious of companies.

A duplicitous corporate climber who pretends to be an expert on angels, she is a bundle of quirks that don't add up.

But then she transforms into a mature, savvy corporate climber, living the American dream.

And when a corporate climber in most any field hits a home run, business friends are apt to attribute it to being in the right place at the right time.

Mr. Daly's Frank is a duplicitous corporate climber with the face of the boy next door and the soul of Machiavelli.