The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

As part of its 100th anniversary, Forbes released on Tuesday, September 19, the results of its special study, which highlights the world’s 100 greatest business minds.

When creating the list, Forbes experts selected people who had a strong influence on the processes taking place in the business world, or who inspired the development of entrepreneurship.

Here is what the top 10 most prominent businessmen of our time according to Forbes looks like. All of them are listed alphabetically, not in order of “highest to lowest”.

10Marc Benioff

The man who founded Salesforce started his business at the age of 15. It was at this age that he created Liberty Software, which creates games for the Atari 800 computer. By the age of 16, the young man was earning $ 1,500 a month, enough to pay for his studies at the University of Southern California.

Benioff spent a summer at Apple, working as a programmer in the Macintosh division under Steve Jobs. This experience was useful to him later, as he realized that revolutionary ideas could be encouraged by entrepreneurs.

Currently, Benioff is the head of a company that develops a cloud-based CRM system of the same name. This longtime Oracle rival is valued at $40 billion. The specific idea behind Salesforce was to move away from selling software that companies had to install on their servers. Salesforce allowed people to access business applications from a web browser. And even if you don’t surprise anyone with this now, in the late nineties it was a revolutionary idea.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

9Jeff Bezos

Owns Amazon, one of the world’s largest online retailers.

It’s hard to imagine now that such a successful company was headquartered in the future billionaire’s garage, where, along with a few employees, he started developing software for an online bookstore. Subsequently, the office expanded into a two-room house. In 1995, the entrepreneur opened Amazon.com, named after a winding South American river.

The businessman, through large retail partnerships, constantly expanded the range of products that Amazon was ready to offer. Books were joined by CDs, and later clothing, electronics, toys, and more. Although many of the dot-coms went bankrupt in the early 90s, Amazon prospered, and its annual sales soared from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011.

Bezos is currently worth $72.8 billion.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

eight Warren Buffett



Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett donates billions of dollars to charitable causes, refuting the stereotype of the greed and heartlessness of the "sharks of capitalism." He tops the list of billionaire philanthropists, having donated more than $46 billion to various causes since 2000. This makes up about 71% of his fortune. By comparison, Bill Gates has donated $18 billion since 2000, or 22% of his fortune.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

7Bernard Arnault

This French businessman is one of the owners of luxury conglomerate LVMH and one of the richest people in the world. According to Forbes, Arno's fortune reaches 34 billion dollars.

Arnault earned the nickname "the wolf in cashmere" from his acquisitions of many fashion and beauty brands including Givenchy, Guerlain, Sephora, Fendi and Loro Piana, as well as numerous jewelry brands including TAG Heuer, De Beers and Bulgari. . Many did not believe in the expediency of gathering "under one roof" a variety of brands, as this does not allow focusing on one direction, moreover, some of the companies acquired by Arno were direct competitors.

However, Arno, as a true brilliant entrepreneur, did not pay attention to critics. He changed the pricing policy of the conglomerate, making branded products affordable not only for very wealthy buyers, but also for people with average incomes. And those who are dissatisfied with such “averaging” can always buy things from expensive limited editions of clothes and accessories.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

6Giorgio Armani

The founder of Armani is a visible proof of the theory that a beautiful person ages gracefully. During his life, he tried many jobs: from assistant photographer to window dresser, but Armani's fame and fortune came from creating fashion models. Initially, he did this for various Italian brands, and then in 1974 he introduced clothes under his own name. A year later, succumbing to the persuasion of a friend of the architect Sergio Galeotti, Armani created his own company.

This Italian fashion designer was hired to design costumes for iconic films such as The Matrix, American Gigolo and The Untouchables.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

5Philip Anschutz



The American businessman, despite his multi-billion dollar fortune ($12.5 billion), leads a fairly modest lifestyle and is not too keen on publicity. He very rarely gives interviews to the press (he gave the last detailed interview already in 1974). However, it is known that Anschutz is the head of one of the largest oil companies in the United States, owns several football clubs and cinemas, a railway and a huge number of farms. Anschutz also owns the telecommunications company Qwest Communications, one of the industry leaders in America.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

4Paul Allen

Paul Allen first made his mark on the business world when he co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. This happened in 1975, and since then Allen has been one of the main innovators in the field of entrepreneurship and technology. He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., which oversees the businessman's philanthropic and business interests, from sports teams like the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers to heritage preservation projects like the Seattle Cinerama and the Museum of Pop Culture.

Through his commercial and philanthropic investments, the Microsoft co-founder has spearheaded important developments and innovations in science, technology, space, education, and the arts. For example, since 2003 he has invested more than $500 million in basic brain research by opening the Allen Institute for Brain Science. He also created the Allen Institute for Cellular Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

3Michael Eisner

For 21 years, Eisner was the permanent head of The Walt Disney Company. Under him, a division of Walt Disney Television Animation appeared, releasing cartoons for TV. Children love cartoons in the morning and the ratings from this decision were very good. In addition, Eisner allowed television companies to sell the rights to show old Disney cartoons and films. These steps significantly strengthened the financial position of the company. However, Disney veterans criticized Eisner's actions, reproaching him that he was only focused on making a profit and the studio's new products had lost the proverbial Disney spirit. In 2005, the boss of the Disney Company resigned from his post.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

2Carl Icahn



Aikan made his fortune as one of the notorious Wall Street Raiders in the 1980s. He owned large stakes in corporations such as RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum and Viacom. In addition to raiding, he was engaged in the so-called "greenmail": the repurchase of company shares at an inflated price. Aikan's success was such that he inspired the scriptwriters in many ways when creating the image of the famous Gordon Gekko from the movie "Wall Street".

Currently, 81-year-old Aikan is ranked 43rd in the Forbes richest people ranking.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

oneSheldon Adelson

On the first line in the selection of the best business minds of our time is one of the leaders in the global gaming business, the founder of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and an influential sponsor of Republicans in the US.

The source of Adelson's wealth and current investments was the COMDEX computer exhibition designed for the computer industry. It was an innovative solution that had incredible popularity. The first event took place in 1979, and in 1995 the businessman sold COMDEX to the Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank Japan for $862 million. After that, in 1988, the businessman acquired the popular gambling establishment The Sands Hotel & Casino. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin played there, and Ocean's 11 in 1960 was filmed.

However, later Adelson personally blew up The Sands Hotel & Casino in order to build in its place the luxurious Venetian-style hotel-casino, decorated in the Venetian style (up to canals and gondoliers). And then he entered the international arena, building luxury hotel-casino complexes in a number of countries.

Throughout his career, Sheldon Adelson has created over 50 diverse companies.

The most prominent businessmen of our time, Forbes list

Russia was represented in the list of outstanding entrepreneurs of the century by Yuri Milner (55th place). He participated in the creation of Mail.Ru Group and the international venture fund DST Global.