On a recent morning Nardelli sat alone in the front row of the 250-seat amphitheater at Chrysler's headquarters for a monthly quality review session.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas

Last weekend a cacophony reverberated through Ramallah, the Palestinian seat of government in the West Bank, as protesters outside the newly fortified walls of his headquarters called on drivers opposed to talking to Israel to hoot.

ECONOMIST: Israel and Palestine

Afterwards, Egypt's Grand Imam summoned rival political factions, youth groups and church officials to the headquarters of al-Azhar, the 1, 000-year-old institution that is the top seat of Sunni Islam.

BBC: Egypt: Betrayed but not broken