induction motor), U.S., Yugoslavia (born in Austro-Hungarian Empire)
*
Alessandro Torlonia (banking), Italy
[Daniela Felisini, Alessandro Torlonia. The Pope's Banker, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016]
*
Richard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He w ...
(mining and steam engines), Great Britain
*
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
(railroads), U.S.
*
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...
(railroad braking, switching, and signalling systems; commercialization of natural gas; development, transmission and application of AC electricity), U.S.
20th-century entrepreneurs
*
Agha Hasan Abedi
Agha Hasan Abedi ( ur, ), (14 May 1922 – 5 August 1995) was a Pakistani banker and convicted felon who founded Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and saw its collapse after one of the biggest banking fraud scandals in history ...
(banking), Pakistan
*
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which ...
(computers, scientific research, real estate, media, education, entertainment, artificial intelligence, space, philanthropy), U.S.
*
Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (28 December 1932 – 6 July 2002), popularly known as Dhirubhai Ambani, was an Indian business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries. Ambani took Reliance public in 1977 and was worth US$2.9 billion in 2002 upon hi ...
(reliance industries), India
*
Mary Kay Ash
Mary Kay Ash (born Mary Kathlyn Wagner; May 12, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc. At her death, she had a fortune of $98 million, and her company had more than $1.2 billion in sa ...
(cosmetics), U.S.
*
Bang Si-hyuk
Bang Si-hyuk (born August 9, 1972), known professionally as "Hitman" Bang (stylized as "hitman" bang), is a South Korean lyricist, composer, producer, and record executive. He is the founder of Big Hit Music (formerly Big Hit Entertainment) and ...
(music), South Korea
*
Otto Beisheim (retail), Germany
*
William Boeing
William Edward Boeing (; October 1, 1881 – September 28, 1956) was an American aviation pioneer who founded the Pacific Airplane Company in 1916, which a year later was renamed to The Boeing Company, now the largest exporter in the United S ...
(aviation), U.S.
*
Richard Branson (media, transportation, space), UK
*
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...
(fashion), France
*
Michael Dell
Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. He is ranked the ...
(computers), U.S.
*
Richard M. DeVos, Sr. (multi-level marketing), U.S.
*
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
(animation), U.S.
*
Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...
(computers), U.S.
*
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobil ...
(sports cars), Italy
*
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
(automobile manufacturing), U.S.
*
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
(computers, philanthropy, investments) U.S.
*
Henry Hu
Henry Hu Hung-lick GBM GBS JP (, born 20 January 1920) is a barrister in Hong Kong, formerly served as the vice-chairman of the Reform Club, Legislative Council member, and vice-chairperson of Urban Council during 1 April 1975 to 31 March ...
(technology), Hong Kong
*
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
(aviation, film), U.S.
*
Steve Jobs (computers, technology, animation), U.S.
*
Dean Kamen
Dean Lawrence Kamen (born April 5, 1951) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1, ...
(technology), U.S.
*
Ingvar Kamprad
Feodor Ingvar Kamprad (; 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish billionaire best known for founding IKEA, a multinational retail company specialising in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014.
Early life and family
...
(retail), Sweden
*
Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla (born 28 January 1955) is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas suc ...
(technology), U.S.
*
Ferruccio Lamborghini (sports cars), Italy
*
Estée Lauder (cosmetics), U.S.
*
Jorge Loring Martinez
Jorge Loring Martinez (Málaga, Spain, October 12, 1889Charles Henry Pope''Loring Genealogy'' (1917), p.313/ref> – Madrid, Spain, September 22, 1936) was a Spanish engineer and entrepreneur, pioneer of civil aviation in that country, and conside ...
(aviation), Spain
*
Vijay Mallya (breweries), India
*
Terry Matthews (technology), Canada
*
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (biotechnology), India
*
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American media proprietor and retired professional wrestling promoter, executive, and performer. From 1982 to 2022, he served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the ...
(entertainment media), U.S.
*
Sunil Mittal (telecommunication), India
*
N. R. Narayana Murthy (information technology), India
*
Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu (transportation, manufacturing), Nigeria
*
Anita Roddick
Dame Anita Lucia Roddick (23 October 1942 – 10 September 2007) was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of the British version of The Body Shop, now The Body Shop Internationa ...
(retail), UK
*
Michael J. Saylor (Internet), U.S.
*
Magnús Scheving (entertainment, health), Iceland
*
Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú (; born 28 January 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the '' Forbes'' business magazine. He derived his fortune from h ...
(telecommunications), Mexico
*
Alan Sugar
Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics com ...
(technology), UK
*
J. R. D. Tata (steel, aviation, information technology, transportation, cosmetics, consumer products, education), France/India
*
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...
(entertainment media), U.S.
*
Madam C.J. Walker
Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the ''Gu ...
(retail, philanthropy), U.S.
*
Sam M. Walton (retail), US
*
Oprah Winfrey (entertainment), U.S.
*
Steve Wozniak (computers, technology, education, philanthropy), U.S.
*
George Lucas (entertainment), U.S.
21st-century entrepreneurs
*
Annisul Huq (Business and television)
*
Brian Acton (Internet), U.S.
*
Ritesh Agarwal (Internet), India
*
Bhavish Aggarwal
Bhavish Aggarwal (born 28 August 1985) is an Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of Ola Cabs and Ola Electric. Aggarwal was included in ''Time'' magazine's ''100 Most Influential People of 2018.''
Early life
Aggarwal was born and brought ...
(Internet), India
*
Charles T. Akre (securities), U.S.
*
Folorunso Alakija (fashion, oil and gas), Nigeria
*
Rod Aldridge
Sir Rodney Malcolm Aldridge (born 7 November 1947) is the founder and former executive chairman of Capita, a British company specialising in business process outsourcing.
He is a former Chair of Vinspired, a charity launched in May 2006 aiming ...
(
business process outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
, education), UK
*
Pierre Andurand
Pierre Andurand (born February 1977) is a French businessman and hedge fund manager. In 2008, Forbes Magazine placed him in its list of the top 20 highest-earning hedge-fund managers. His funds have approximately $2bn in assets under management a ...
(investments), France
*
Trishneet Arora (Cyber Security), India
*
Sachin Bansal
Sachin Bansal (born August 5, 1981) is an Indian entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Flipkart During his over 11 year career at Flipkart, Bansal was CEO and chairman. In 2018, Bansal exited Flipkart following the Walmart deal.
In ...
(Internet), India
*
Eike Batista (mining, oil and gas exploration), Brazil
*
Steve Baxter (Internet), Australia
*
David Benaron (
digital health), U.S.
*
Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
(Internet, space), U.S.
*
Constantin Bisanz (Investor), U.S.
*
Joe Blackman (events, entertainment), UK/U.S.
*
Ryan Blair (
multi-level marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...
), U.S.
*
Sara Blakely
Sara Treleaven Blakely (born February 27, 1971) is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the founder of Spanx, an American intimate apparel company with pants and leggings, founded in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2012, Blakely was named in ...
(retail), U.S.
*
Hernán Botbol (Internet), Argentina
*
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (russian: link=no, Сергей Михайлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Google with Larry Page. Brin was th ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Tory Burch
Tory Burch (née Robinson; born June 17, 1966) is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC. She was listed as the 88th most powerf ...
(retail), U.S.
*
Malcolm CasSelle (Internet), U.S./China
*
Lee Chambers (psychologist)
Lee Chambers (born 22 May 1985) is a British businessman and radio host. Chambers has been interviewed by ''Vogue'', ''The Guardian'', and ''Newsweek'', and is known for analyzing inclusion and wellbeing in the workplace. He was born in Bolto ...
(healthcare), UK
*
Sean Combs
Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...
(music and entertainment), U.S.
*
Nancy Cruickshank
Nancy Cruickshank is a British entrepreneur in beauty, fashion, and technology. She has founded three start-ups and helped launch several others. Since 2018, she is the Chief Digital Officer at Carlsberg group A/S.
Early life and education
Nancy ...
(Internet), UK
*
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor whose net worth is an estimated $4.8 billion, according to ''Forbes'', and ranked No. 177 on the 2020 ''Forbes'' 400 list ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Nick D'Aloisio (Internet), UK
*
Aliko Dangote ''For people with the given name, see Aliko (given name).''
Aliko ( sq-definite, Alikoi; ) is a village and a former commune in Vlorë County, southern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Fini ...
(manufacturing, real estate, oil and gas), Nigeria
*
Jack Dorsey
Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squa ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Helmy Eltoukhy (
genomics), U.S.
*
Shawn Fanning
Shawn Fanning (born November 22, 1980) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing platforms, in 1999. The popularity of Napster was widespr ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Rihanna (cosmetics), Barbados
*
Jon Fisher
Jon Fisher (born January 19, 1972) is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and writer.
Jon sold his own Non-fungible token, NFTs before founding software company, ViciNFT. As a co-inventor and co-founding CEO, Fisher built three companies including Bh ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Peter Gilgan (construction), Canada
*
Vishal Gondal (video gaming), India
*
Reid Hoffman
Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Drew Houston
Andrew W. Houston (; born March 4, 1983) is an American Internet entrepreneur, and the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service. According to ''Forbes'', his net worth is about $2.2 billion. Houston held 24.4 percent ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of '' Th ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Steve Huffman
Steve Huffman, also known by his Reddit username spez (), is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, a social news and discussion website, which ranks in the top 20 websites in the world. He also co ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Jessica Huie (greeting cards), UK
*
Mohammed Ibrahim (telecommunication), Sudan
*
Daymond John (clothing), U.S.
*
Lisa S. Jones (technology), U.S.
*
Elle Kaplan (finance), U.S.
*
David Karp
David Karp (born July 6, 1986) is an American webmaster, entrepreneur, and blogger, best known as the founder and former CEO of the short-form blogging platform Tumblr.
Karp began his career, without having received a high school diploma, as ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Sal Khan
Salman Amin Khan (born October 11, 1976), commonly known as Sal Khan, is an American educator and the founder of Khan Academy, a free online non-profit educational platform and an organization with which he has produced over 6,500 vi ...
(education), U.S.
*
Jin Koh (entrepreneur), U.S.
*
Jan Koum
Jan Koum ( ua, link=yes, Ян Кум; born Yan Borysovych Kum, ua, Ян Борисович Кум, on February 24, 1976) is a Ukrainian-American billionaire businessman and computer engineer. He is the co-founder and former CEO of WhatsApp, a ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Jeremy Levitt (Internet), Australia
*
Jack Ma
Jack Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964) is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. In addition, he co-founded Yunfen ...
(Internet), China
*
Ana Maiques (healthcare), Spain
*
Fadi Makki
Fadi Makki ( ar, فادي مكّي) is a pioneer in the application of behavioural economics to public policy in the Middle East, where he led a large number of RCTs in policy areas such as healthy life style, compliance and rule of law, sustain ...
(trade), Middle East (Lebanon, Qatar)
*
Strive Masiyiwa (telecommunication), Zimbabwe
*
Rudy A. Mazzocchi (healthcare), U.S.
*
Javier Moll (media), Spain/Australia
*
Dave Morin (Internet), U.S.
*
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
(media, entertainment), UK/U.S.
*
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
(Internet, space, energy, neurotechnology, transportation, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, electric cars), U.S./South Africa
*
Carrie Rose (Internet), UK
*
Andrew Nisbet (catering), UK
*
Phiwa Nkambule (Internet), South Africa
*
Alexis Ohanian
Alexis Kerry Ohanian ( hy, Ալեքսիս Քերի Օհանյան; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Ste ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Larry Page
Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin.
Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unti ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Sean Parker
Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the file-sharing computer service Napster, and serving as the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Melanie Perkins (Internet), Australia
*
Stefano Pessina
Stefano Pessina (born 4 June 1941) is an Italian-Monegasque billionaire businessman; he is the executive chairman and largest single shareholder of Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Early life
Pessina was born in Pescara and grew up between Milan, ...
(healthcare), Italy
*
Michelle Phan (Internet), U.S.
*
Manny Phesto (music, cannabis/CBD), U.S.
*
Azim Premji
Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian businessman, investor, engineer, and philanthropist, who was the chairman of Wipro Limited. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and founder chairman. He is informally known as ...
(information technology services), India
*
Kelsey Ramsden (construction, children's toys), Canada
*
Burton Rocks
Burton Evan Rocks (June 25, 1972), born in New York City, is an American sports attorney/agent, and writer. Rocks collaborated with Yankee outfielder Paul O'Neill on the 2003 ''New York Times'' bestseller ''Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir''.
...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Kevin Rose (Internet), U.S.
*
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born July 15, 1978) is an Indian technology entrepreneur and billionaire businessman. He is the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of One97 Communications and its consumer brand Paytm. He founded Paytm in 2010.
In Januar ...
(Internet), India
*
Param Singh (Internet, property), UK
*
Lane Sutton (Internet), U.S.
*
Kevin Systrom
Kevin Systrom (born December 30, 1983) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Instagram, the world's largest photo sharing website, along with Mike Krieger.
Systrom was included on the list of America's Richest Entrep ...
(Internet), U.S.
*
Rodrigo Teijeiro (Internet), Argentina/Brazil
*
Tânia Tomé (Consultancy, Investment & training), Mozambique
*
Wang Jianlin
Wang Jianlin (; born 24 October 1954) is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder of Dalian Wanda Group, China's largest real estate development company, and the world's largest movie theater operator. He previo ...
(real estate development), China
*
Emily Weiss (beauty), U.S.
*
Anne Wojcicki
Anne E. Wojcicki ( ; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded and serves as CEO of the personal genomics company 23andMe. She founded the company in 2006 with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza to provide the general public access ...
(
personal genomics
Personal genomics or consumer genetics is the branch of genomics concerned with the sequencing, analysis and interpretation of the genome of an individual. The genotyping stage employs different techniques, including single-nucleotide polymorphi ...
), U.S.
*
Wu Yajun (property developer), China
*
Malala YoU.S.fzai (education), Pakistan
*
Mark Zuckerberg (Internet), U.S.
*
Dylan Field (Software), U.S.
See also
*
List of Brazilian entrepreneurs
*
List of Indian entrepreneurs
This is a list of notable Indian entrepreneurs.
References
{{Lists of people considered founders by specific groups, state=autocollapse
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this defi ...
*
List of Indonesians
*
List of Internet entrepreneurs
*
List of Japanese entrepreneurs
*
List of Nigerian entrepreneurs
*
List of social entrepreneurs
*
List of Swedish entrepreneurs
*
List of Turkish entrepreneurs
*
List of Zambian entrepreneurs
References
{{Lists of people considered founders by specific groups, state=autocollapse
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...