The popularity of emerging markets seems to know no bounds today, as this issue amply demonstrates. Our annual ranking "The Emerging EMEA Research Team" and our semiannual survey of country credit ("Let the Good Times Roll"), attest to the heightened interest in these regions and the perception of unprecedentedly low risk in investing in them. Barely 15 years ago most of these markets were off-limits for global investors.

That this investment terrain has opened up can be credited in no small part to the efforts of pioneers like Richard and Christopher Chandler. Over the past 20 years, the New Zealand­born brothers have turned a modest family fortune of $10 million into a powerful $5 billion fund -- all of it their own money -- by making bold bets in risky markets around the world. The fund, Sovereign Global Investment, was among the first portfolio investors in Brazil and the Czech Republic in the early '90s, and it waged landmark corporate governance battles in Russia and South Korea. The Chandlers' success was matched only by their penchant for secrecy, which left them virtual unknowns in the financial community.

In recent months senior writer David Lanchner followed the brothers' trail from Monaco to Dubai and Singapore. His painstaking efforts earned him an interview with Richard Chandler -- the first that either of the brothers has ever given. Chandler speaks passionately about the art of investing, the importance of business ethics and his belief that Asia offers the best prospective returns today. The story of the Chandlers' unusual methods and success, recounted in "Secrets of Sovereign," makes a fascinating read.

This issue also contains a coda to our December/January cover story, "How Harvard Lost Russia." That article by David McClintick, one of the longest investigative pieces Institutional Investor has ever published, certainly drew notice inside Harvard Yard. The exposé added to the storm of controversy surrounding university president Lawrence Summers, and in many professors' minds, played a role in his resignation last month. We follow up in "How Summers Lost Harvard."