PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: business
45th and 47th president of the United States
Donald Trump is a former real estate mogul and reality TV star who has served as the 45th and 47th president of the United States. The scion of renowned New York real estate developer Fred Trump, Donald...
South African-born American entrepreneur
Elon Musk is a South African–born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic payment firm PayPal and formed SpaceX, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant...
prime minister of Cape Colony
Cecil Rhodes was a financier, statesman, and empire builder of British South Africa. He was prime minister of Cape Colony (1890–96) and organizer of the giant diamond-mining company De Beers Consolidated...
American financier and convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier and convicted sex offender who was accused of serial sex trafficking of women and girls. Through his successful financial career, Epstein became a multimillionaire...
American industrialist
Henry Ford was an American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods. (Read Henry Ford’s 1926 Britannica essay on mass production.) Ford spent most of his life...
prime minister of Pakistan
Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as prime minister in 1990–93, 1997–99, and 2013–17. He was disqualified from holding public office in 2017 over allegations of corruption...
American rapper and entrepreneur
JAY-Z is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who became one of the most influential figures in hip-hop in the 1990s and early 21st century. A classic self-made music mogul, he parlayed...
Governor of Illinois
J.B. Pritzker is an American Democratic politician and businessman who is governor of Illinois (2019– ). He is a member of the prominent Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain and is one of...
president of Kenya
William Ruto is a Kenyan businessman and politician who has served as president of Kenya since 2022. Before that, he was deputy president (2013–22) under Uhuru Kenyatta. Ruto was born in Sambut village...
founder and CEO of Theranos
Elizabeth Holmes (born February 3, 1984, Washington, D.C.) is an American entrepreneur who was the founder and CEO (2003–18) of the blood-testing company Theranos Inc. In 2014—at age 30—she was dubbed...
Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian
Viola Desmond was a Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian who built a career as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture. However,...
American political strategist and media executive
Steve Bannon is an American political strategist, media executive, and filmmaker who served (2017) as senior counselor and chief White House strategist for U.S. Pres. Donald Trump. Despite leaving the...
American film producer and media executive
David Ellison is an American film producer and media executive who founded Skydance Media, the studio behind some of the most commercially successful films of the early 21st century. After establishing...
prime minister of Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif is a Pakistani businessman and politician, and the second brother of his family to serve as prime minister (2022–23; 2024– ). He began his political career in the late 1980s after his elder...
American entrepreneur
A beauty pageant winner, an athlete, an entrepreneur, a Christian podcaster, a wife, and a mother. That pretty much described Erika Kirk’s life until September 10, 2025, when her husband, Charlie Kirk,...
Italian media magnate and prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon who served three times as prime minister of Italy (1994, 2001–06, and 2008–11). After graduating from the University of Milan with a degree in law, Berlusconi...
American entrepreneur
Vivek Ramaswamy is an American biotech entrepreneur who drew national attention with his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. He first gained notice for his outspoken...
American businessman
Steve Jobs was the cofounder of Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.), and a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer era. Jobs was raised by adoptive parents in Cupertino, California, located in what...
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
Dolly Parton was an American country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress who pioneered the interface between country and pop music styles and became one of the most iconic entertainment figures...
American film producer
Walt Disney was an American motion-picture and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of animated cartoon films and as the creator of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck....
New York developer, Donald Trump’s father
Fred Trump was an enormously successful and wealthy real estate developer who played a pivotal role in shaping the 20th-century landscape of residential housing in New York City and its surrounding areas....
French box maker and entrepreneur
Louis Vuitton was a French box maker and entrepreneur who founded his namesake brand of luxury trunks and luggage in 1854. During his lifetime, Vuitton introduced a number of innovations to luggage, and...
Taiwanese-born American engineer and business executive
When Lisa Su became chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2014, the semiconductor company was struggling to compete with industry leader Intel (INTC). AMD’s market share had declined,...
American industrialist and inventor
George M. Pullman was an American industrialist and inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, a luxurious railroad coach designed for overnight travel. In 1894, workers at his Pullman’s Palace Car Company...
American investor
William Albert “Bill” Ackman (born May 11, 1966, Chappaqua, New York, U.S.), is an American billionaire hedge fund manager. Ackman is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Pershing Square Capital...
American attorney and businessman
Hunter Biden is an American attorney and businessman and the sole surviving son of Joe Biden, 46th president of the United States. The Yale-educated lawyer has held an array of positions at law firms,...
American film producer
Harvey Weinstein is a former film producer who became a powerful figure in Hollywood as the cofounder and cochairman of Miramax Films (1979–2005) and later the Weinstein Company (2005–17). His movies won...
South African businessman and politician
Mmusi Maimane is a South African businessman and politician who has been active in opposition parties in the country. Since 2022, he has been the head of the Build One South Africa (BOSA) party, which...
American philanthropist and novelist
MacKenzie Scott is an American billionaire, philanthropist, and novelist. According to Forbes magazine, in March 2025 she had a net worth of $28.2 billion, making her the 68th richest person in the world...
American computer programmer and entrepreneur
Mark Zuckerberg is an American technology executive and computer programmer who cofounded the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg is chief executive officer (2004– ) of both Facebook and its parent...
Indian industrialist
Gautam Adani is an Indian industrialist and founder of the global conglomerate Adani Group. Adani, who gained great admiration across India for his rags-to-riches biography, rose from a modest mercantile...
American fashion model
Cindy Crawford is an American fashion model and television personality who first gained fame in the 1980s and was among the first “supermodels.” Crawford grew up in DeKalb, Illinois, near Chicago, where...
president of Madagascar
Marc Ravalomanana is a Malagasy entrepreneur and politician who served as president of Madagascar (2002–09). He stepped down in the midst of a political crisis in 2009 and went into exile before returning...
American businessman
Phil Knight is an American businessman who cofounded (1964) the multinational sportswear and sports equipment corporation Nike, Inc. (originally called Blue Ribbon Sports). During his time as an executive...
Ivoirian-born businessman and politician
Tidjane Thiam is an Ivoirian-born international businessman and politician who has headed prominent global financial institutions as well as worked in the Ivoirian government. He has served as president...
American businessman and kidnapper
Tony Kiritsis was an American businessman who took mortgage executive Richard (Dick) Hall hostage for some 63 hours in February 1977 because of a business dispute. The incident became national news as...
American entrepreneur
Sam Altman is an American entrepreneur who was president of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019 and chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since 2019....
prime minister of Lebanon
Saad al-Hariri is a Saudi-born Lebanese businessman and prime minister of Lebanon (2009–11; 2016–20). The son of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic al-Hariri, Saad entered politics following his father’s...
American entrepreneur
As a founder of artificial intelligence giant Anthropic, Dario Amodei is, as Time magazine declared in 2025, one of the architects of modern AI. He is also a study in contrasts. Consider: Dario Amodei...
Taiwanese-born American entrepreneur
Jensen Huang is a Taiwanese-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the American semiconductor company NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA). During Huang’s 33 years leading NVIDIA, the company became one of the...
Commerce secretary in second Trump administration
Howard Lutnick avoided death on 9/11 because he decided to take his five-year-old son to his first day of kindergarten. His younger brother and best friend were among the 658 employees of Cantor Fitzgerald,...
Indian businessman
Mukesh Ambani is an Indian business mogul who serves as chairman and managing director of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a multinational conglomerate with businesses across...
American businessman and entrepreneur
Larry Ellison (born August 17, 1944, New York City, New York) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who cofounded the software company Oracle Corporation (ORCL) and was its chief executive officer...
American real estate developer
Jared Kushner is a billionaire real estate developer, a two-time Nobel Peace Prize-nominee, the first son-in-law, and a close adviser to U.S. Pres. Donald Trump, such that he has been called the “Trump...
German economist and engineer
For more than half a century, Klaus Schwab presided over the World Economic Forum, transforming it from a modest European business gathering into one of the most visible global stages for political, corporate,...
president of Chile
Sebastián Piñera was a Chilean businessman and politician who served two terms as president of Chile (2010–14; 2018–22). He was the first conservative to lead the country since the end of the dictatorial...
American businessman
Sam Bankman-Fried was the founder and former chief executive officer (2019–22) of FTX Trading Ltd., a cryptocurrency exchange. The exchange became the second largest of its kind, making Bankman-Fried a...
Indian businessman
Ratan Tata was an Indian businessman who became chairman (1991–2012 and 2016–17) of the Tata Group, a Mumbai-based conglomerate. He was known for his leadership of one of the country’s largest business...
American engineer and automobile manufacturer
Walter P. Chrysler was an American engineer and automobile manufacturer, founder of Chrysler Corporation. (Read Lee Iacocca’s Britannica entry on Chrysler.) Chrysler was the third of four children of Henry...
American chef and restaurateur
Thomas Keller is an American chef and restaurateur whose restaurant the French Laundry, in Yountville, California, consistently ranks among the best in the world. Keller is the first—and as of 2024 the...
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