Headquarters: Boca Raton

Lines of Business: Supplying nurses and other health professionals such as therapists to hospitals (54% of revenue as of the first quarter). Most are "travel nurses" — temporary nurses who work for a hospital for up to three months. The company is one of the top two players in that market, though it also supplies "per diem" nurses who work for a day or so at a time.

• Placing doctors in temporary assignments (26% of revenue), where it's in the top three nationally.
• Providing contract staffing and other support work for clinical trials (20% of revenue).
• Until the recession, Florida traditionally ranked as its second-biggest nursing and healthcare staffing market after California.

CEO: Joseph Boshart began with W.R. Grace in 1979 as an economist and later served on President Reagan's Grace Commission, a panel led by businessman J. Peter Grace to find government waste. W.R. Grace began acquiring Cross Country in 1991 and put Boshart, an economist, in command in 1993. Now in his 17th year at the company, Boshart remained at the helm after leading Cross Country through its acquisition by New York private equity firm Charterhouse Group in 1999 and an initial public offering in 2001. As a public company, its reputation has been for conservative and long-term management.