newsobserver.com | Unleashing the underdog:

Bill Amelio spends a lot of time in airports.

When he spots travelers using ThinkPad laptops, he stops to talk about the computers and give out replacement rubber covers for their tiny fingertip joysticks.

But Amelio hands out something else, too -- his business card as CEO of the world's third-largest computer manufacturer.

With offices in Research Triangle Park, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Paris, Amelio is always on the go, meeting with Lenovo's customers and employees around the world.

'I believe in the cause,' he said in an interview in RTP this week. 'That's why I'm investing this kind of energy into this company.'

Amelio leads Lenovo, a company with sales of $13.3 billion last year. He has an underdog attitude and grand ambitions of cracking the U.S. consumer market while building a new kind of global business.

'PCs are tough, so we take two steps forward and we get knocked back a step, but we're making progress and we're pushing in the right direction,' he said. 'I believe we're onto something that's really unique. This is a breakthrough opportunity.'

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