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Founders

81 people, across 7 fields.

Steve Jobs 1955–2011Technology & InventionCo-founder of Apple who revolutionized personal computing, music, and mobile communications.Thomas Edison 1847–1931Technology & InventionInventor and scientist whose research laboratory model and electrical innovations transformed modern life.Alexander Graham Bell 1847–1922Technology & InventionInventor of the telephone and founder of AT&T, transforming global communication.Walt Disney 1901–1966Film, Television & ComedyAnimator and business magnate who created Mickey Mouse and built the world's largest entertainment empire.Henry Ford 1863–1947Business, Finance & IndustryIndustrialist who revolutionized manufacturing with the assembly line and made automobiles affordable.Elon Musk b. 1971Technology & InventionEngineer and entrepreneur whose companies have advanced electric vehicles, reusable rockets, and neural interfaces.John D. Rockefeller 1839–1937Business, Finance & IndustryEstablished the Rockefeller Foundation and funded medical research, education, and public health initiatives.Bill Gates b. 1955Technology & InventionCo-founder of Microsoft who, through the Gates Foundation, has donated billions to global health and education.Jeff Bezos b. 1964Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of Amazon who transformed e-commerce and cloud computing, becoming one of the wealthiest people in history.Mark Zuckerberg b. 1984Technology & InventionCo-founder of Facebook who built the world's largest social media platform and reshaped global communication.George Lucas b. 1944Film, Television & ComedyFilmmaker who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones, later selling Lucasfilm to Disney for over $4 billion.Sam Walton 1918–1992Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of Walmart and Sam's Club who built the world's largest retail empire.Jay-Z b. 1969MusicRapper and entrepreneur whose career helped move hip-hop from a subculture to the center of American business and culture.Rupert Murdoch b. 1931Journalism & Mass MediaMedia mogul whose News Corp and Fox Corporation shaped global news and entertainment.Michael Bloomberg b. 1942Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of Bloomberg LP, three-term mayor of New York City, and major political donor.Steve Wozniak b. 1950Technology & InventionCo-founder of Apple who designed the Apple I and Apple II computers, sparking the personal computer revolution.Larry Page b. 1973Technology & InventionCo-founder of Google whose search algorithm became the foundation of the modern internet economy.George Eastman 1854–1932Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of Kodak who made photography affordable and created a model of mass consumer technology.George Westinghouse 1846–1914Engineering & ArchitectureEngineer and industrialist who championed alternating current and founded the Westinghouse Electric Company.Sergey Brin b. 1973Technology & InventionCo-founder of Google who helped develop the PageRank algorithm and expanded into AI and autonomous vehicles.Madam C. J. Walker 1867–1919Business, Finance & IndustryEntrepreneur who built a major Black hair-care company and used her wealth for philanthropy and civil-rights causes.Gordon Moore 1929–2023Technology & InventionCo-founder of Intel whose observation became Moore's Law, driving decades of semiconductor progress.Ray Kroc 1902–1984Business, Finance & IndustryBusinessman who transformed McDonald's from a single restaurant into the world's largest fast-food chain.Martha Stewart b. 1941Business, Finance & IndustryLifestyle entrepreneur who built a media and merchandising empire around domestic arts.Paul Allen 1953–2018Technology & InventionCo-founder of Microsoft who later invested in space, sports, and scientific research through the Allen Institute.Larry Ellison b. 1944Business, Finance & IndustryCo-founder of Oracle Corporation, a pioneer in database software and enterprise computing.Ralph Lauren b. 1939Business, Finance & IndustryFashion designer who created a global lifestyle brand synonymous with American style.Robert Noyce 1927–1990Technology & InventionCo-inventor of the integrated circuit and co-founder of Intel, earning him the title Mayor of Silicon Valley.Levi Strauss 1829–1902Business, Finance & IndustryImmigrant entrepreneur whose company helped turn blue jeans into an enduring American product and symbol.Ted Turner 1938–2026Journalism & Mass MediaMedia mogul who donated a billion dollars to the United Nations Foundation and championed environmental causes.Sam Altman b. 1985Technology & InventionTechnology executive and investor whose leadership in generative artificial intelligence has had major but still-unsettled historical consequences.Michael Dell b. 1965Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of Dell Technologies who built one of the world's largest PC and IT infrastructure companies.William Shockley 1910–1989Technology & InventionCo-inventor of the transistor at Bell Labs, earning the Nobel Prize and launching the semiconductor age.William Boeing 1881–1956Business, Finance & IndustryFounded the aircraft company that became the largest American commercial airplane manufacturer.Elizabeth Holmes b. 1984Notorious FiguresTheranos founder convicted of fraud over false claims about the company's blood-testing technology.Cyrus McCormick 1809–1884Technology & InventionInventor of the mechanical reaper that transformed agriculture and fed a growing nation.Ross Perot 1930–2019Political Leaders & StatecraftData-processing billionaire whose 1992 independent run won nearly a fifth of the vote.Jensen Huang b. 1963Technology & InventionCo-founder and CEO of NVIDIA whose GPUs became the engine of the AI revolution.Phil Knight b. 1938Business, Finance & IndustryCo-founder of Nike whose sneaker empire made him one of the wealthiest people in America.John C. Bogle 1929–2019Business, Finance & IndustryFounded Vanguard and launched the first index mutual fund for retail investors.ELEstée Lauder 1908–2004Business, Finance & IndustryCosmetics pioneer who built one of the world's largest beauty companies from her kitchen.Edwin Land 1909–1991Technology & InventionScientist and co-founder of Polaroid who invented instant photography.Howard Schultz b. 1953Business, Finance & IndustryFormer CEO of Starbucks who turned a Seattle coffee shop into a global coffeehouse phenomenon.Peter Thiel b. 1967Technology & InventionPayPal co-founder and first outside investor in Facebook whose contrarian views shaped Silicon Valley culture.Fred Smith 1944–2025Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of FedEx who pioneered overnight delivery and transformed global logistics.Marc Andreessen b. 1971Technology & InventionCo-author of the first web browser and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm.Sheldon Adelson 1933–2021Business, Finance & IndustryCasino magnate and political donor who built Las Vegas Sands into a global resort empire.Sal Khan b. 1976EducationFounder of Khan Academy, whose free online lessons have reached hundreds of millions of learners globally.Pierre Omidyar b. 1967Business, Finance & IndustryeBay founder whose Omidyar Network supports entrepreneurship, human rights, and governance reform.Reed Hastings b. 1960Technology & InventionCo-founder of Netflix who disrupted the entertainment industry by pioneering streaming video.Vera Wang b. 1949Business, Finance & IndustryFashion designer who revolutionized the bridal industry and built a global luxury brand.Willis Carrier 1876–1950Technology & InventionEngineer who invented modern air conditioning, transforming industry, architecture, and daily life.Aaron Swartz 1986–2013Technology & InventionInternet activist and Reddit co-founder whose work on open access and web standards left a lasting legacy.Alice Waters b. 1944Environment, Agriculture & FoodChef and activist who popularized farm-to-table dining, seasonal ingredients, and food education in the United States.Jack Dorsey b. 1976Technology & InventionCo-founder of Twitter and Square who shaped social media and mobile payments.Amadeo Giannini 1870–1949Business, Finance & IndustryFounded Bank of Italy and grew it into Bank of America by lending to ordinary depositors.Charles Schwab b. 1937Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of the discount brokerage that democratized stock trading for ordinary investors.Gustavus Franklin Swift 1839–1903Engineering & ArchitectureMeatpacking pioneer who developed the refrigerated rail car, transforming the food industry.Travis Kalanick b. 1976Technology & InventionCo-founder of Uber who popularized the gig economy and transformed urban transportation worldwide.Brian Chesky b. 1981Technology & InventionCo-founder of Airbnb who created the global home-sharing marketplace that disrupted the hotel industry.Robert Metcalfe b. 1946Technology & InventionCo-invented Ethernet at Xerox PARC and founded 3Com to commercialize local area networking.Eli Broad 1933–2021Business, Finance & IndustryBusinessman and art collector whose foundation invested billions in education, science, and the arts.Herman Hollerith 1860–1929Technology & InventionInvented punched-card tabulating machines used in the 1890 census and founded a corporate predecessor of IBM.Bill Joy b. 1954Technology & InventionPrincipal author of Berkeley Unix and co-founder and chief scientist of Sun Microsystems.KGKen Griffin b. 1968Business, Finance & IndustryHedge fund manager who founded Citadel and became one of the most successful investors in history.Reid Hoffman b. 1967Technology & InventionCo-founder of LinkedIn and influential venture capitalist who helped build Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem.Wendy Kopp b. 1967EducationFounder of Teach for America, which places college graduates as teachers in underserved schools.Sara Blakely b. 1971Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of Spanx who became the youngest self-made female billionaire in America.Laurene Powell Jobs b. 1963Business, Finance & IndustryBusinesswoman and Emerson Collective founder investing in education, immigration, and social justice.Dustin Moskovitz b. 1984Business, Finance & IndustryFacebook co-founder who left to build Asana and became one of the youngest self-made billionaires.Evan Spiegel b. 1990Technology & InventionCo-founder of Snapchat who pioneered ephemeral messaging and augmented reality social media.Barbara Corcoran b. 1949Business, Finance & IndustryReal estate entrepreneur who turned a $1,000 loan into a billion-dollar brokerage.TBTory Burch b. 1966Business, Finance & IndustryFashion designer and philanthropist whose eponymous brand became a billion-dollar empire.Geoffrey Canada b. 1952EducationSocial activist who founded the Harlem Children's Zone, a model for comprehensive community-based education.CFChuck Feeney 1931–2023Business, Finance & IndustryDuty Free Shops founder who gave away his entire fortune anonymously through Atlantic Philanthropies.Alexis Ohanian b. 1983Technology & InventionCo-founder of Reddit and venture capitalist who has championed open internet and paternity leave.Federico Faggin b. 1941Technology & InventionLed design of the Intel 4004 microprocessor and later co-founded Zilog.Len Blavatnik b. 1957Business, Finance & IndustryUkrainian-American industrialist and Warner Music owner whose Access Industries spans chemicals and media.Daymond John b. 1969Business, Finance & IndustryFounder of FUBU and Shark Tank investor who built a streetwear empire from a Queens home.John Paul DeJoria b. 1944Business, Finance & IndustryCo-founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and Patrón tequila who rose from homelessness.Drew Houston b. 1983Technology & InventionCo-founder of Dropbox who made cloud file storage simple and ubiquitous for millions.