List of Famous Business Magnates
- Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and a business magnate, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle-class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the 20th century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently. Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I, and for promoting antisemitic content, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, through his newspaper The Dearborn Independent and the book The International Jew, having an influence on the development of Nazism and Adolf Hitler.
- Michael Bloomberg is a name synonymous with business acumen, philanthropy and political leadership. Born in 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts, Bloomberg climbed the ranks from a middle-class upbringing to become one of the world's most influential billionaires. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in electrical engineering, and later pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School, laying a strong foundation for his illustrious career. Bloomberg embarked on his financial career at Salomon Brothers, a Wall Street Investment Bank. After being let go from the company in 1981, he utilized his severance package to start Innovative Market Systems, later renamed Bloomberg LP. This company revolutionized the financial industry by providing high-quality data, news, and analytics to professionals via the Bloomberg Terminal. His entrepreneurial success catapulted him into the ranks of the world's wealthiest individuals. However, Bloomberg's ambitions extended beyond the realm of business. In 2001, defying skeptics, he was elected as the Mayor of New York City. Over three terms, he implemented policies that aimed to improve public health, education and sustainability, leaving a lasting impact on the city. Beyond his mayoral roles, Bloomberg showcased his commitment to global issues through his philanthropic efforts. Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, he donated generously to various causes including climate change, public health and education.
- Martha Stewart, born Martha Helen Kostyra in 1941, is a household name in the realms of lifestyle, cooking, and business. This American entrepreneur, with Polish descent, was born and raised in New Jersey and demonstrated her entrepreneurial instincts from a young age. She started her career as a model to pay for her tuition fees at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she graduated with a double major in History and Architectural History. Stewart's trajectory took a significant turn when she transitioned into the world of gourmet cooking and catering. Stewart built a multimillion-dollar empire, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, encompassing television shows, books, magazines, and household products. Her rise to fame began in earnest with the publication of her first book, Entertaining, in 1982, which set a new standard for hosting and home decor. This was followed by numerous other publications which solidified her status as an authority on "domestic arts." However, Stewart's career was not without controversy. In 2004, she served a five-month term in a federal prison for insider trading, a chapter that could have spelled disaster for many public figures, but Stewart managed to bounce back and rebuild her brand. This resilience showcased Stewart's determination and tenacity, qualities that have underpinned her success in transforming the way millions approach cooking, entertaining, and home decorating. Despite the ups and downs, Martha Stewart continues to be a significant figure in American pop culture and an icon in the world of business and lifestyle.
- George Soros, born on August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, is a renowned financier, philanthropist, and political activist. His journey to fame and fortune began when he fled Hungary during the Second World War and resettled in England. There, he attended the London School of Economics, where he was deeply influenced by philosopher Karl Popper's ideas about open societies. Upon his graduation in 1952, he entered the world of finance and started carving out an illustrious career in investment banking. Soros, often dubbed as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England," made headlines in 1992, when he bet against the British pound and generated a profit of $1 billion overnight in an event known as Black Wednesday. This audacious move solidified Soros's status as one of the world's most astute currency traders. In 1973, he founded the hedge fund company, Soros Fund Management, which went on to become one of the most successful firms in the industry, pushing his net worth into the billions. However, Soros's impact extends beyond the realm of finance. He channelled a significant portion of his wealth into philanthropic endeavours, primarily through the Open Society Foundations. These organizations support projects in education, public health, and civil liberties in more than 120 countries worldwide. As a political activist, Soros has been a vocal critic of various international policies and has used his influence to advocate for changes. He has also authored several books on topics such as global capitalism, geopolitics, and open societies, further demonstrating his multifaceted persona.
- John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that became known as J.P. Morgan and Co., he played a central role in the wave of industrial consolidation during the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1892, Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. He also played important roles in the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, International Harvester and AT&T. At the height of Morgan's career during the early twentieth century, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and had significant influence over the nation's high finance and United States Congress members. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business. Adrian Wooldridge characterized Morgan as America's "greatest banker".Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr. Biographer Ron Chernow estimated his fortune at only $118 million (of which approximately $50 million was attributed to his vast art collection), a net worth which allegedly prompted John D. Rockefeller to say: "and to think, he wasn't even a rich man."
- Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. He also created the internationally popular game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his television production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.
- Andrew Carnegie kar-NAY-gee (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States and in the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away $350 million (conservatively $65 billion in 2019 dollars, based on percentage of GDP) to charities, foundations, and universities – almost 90 percent of his fortune. His 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1848 at age 12. Carnegie started work as a telegrapher, and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman, raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $303,450,000. It became the U.S. Steel Corporation. After selling Carnegie Steel, he surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American for the next several years. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education, and scientific research. With the fortune he made from business, he built Carnegie Hall in New York, NY, and the Peace Palace and founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Hero Fund, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, among others.
- Rex David Thomas (July 2, 1932 – January 8, 2002) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and fast-food tycoon. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for appearing in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history.
- Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault (French: [bɛʁnaːʁ aʁno]; born 5 March 1949) is a French business magnate, investor, and art collector. Arnault is the Chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, commonly referred to as LVMH, the world's largest luxury-goods company. He is the richest person in Europe and the third-richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $108 billion, as of July 2019. In April 2018, he became the richest person in fashion, topping Zara's Amancio Ortega.
Stefan Persson
Carl Stefan Erling Persson (Swedish: [ˈsteːfan ˈpæːʂɔn]; born 4 October 1947) is a Swedish business magnate. In March 2013, Forbes reported Persson's net worth as $28 billion making him the richest of Sweden's 12 billionaires and the 17th richest person in the world; he has since dropped to number 80. Persson is the chairman and main shareholder in fashion company H&M, which was founded by his father Erling Persson in 1947. Persson took over the company from his father in 1982 and served as its manager until 1998. Persson also owns a substantial stake in the Swedish technology company Hexagon AB. Through his privately held real estate company Ramsbury Invest, Persson owns a large number of properties in London, Paris and Stockholm. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Persson had a net worth of US $31.9 billion in 2014, making him the 17th richest person in the world at the time.- Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-'Amoudi (Amharic: ሙሀመድ አልዐሙዲ, Arabic: محمد حسين علي العمودي) is a Saudi billionaire businessman. He was born in Ethiopia in 1946 to a Yemeni father and an Ethiopian mother. In 2016, his net worth was estimated by Forbes at approximately $10.9 billion and a relative fall in net value was linked to the global fall in oil and gold prices at the time of estimation. He was also listed as Ethiopia's richest man, the second richest Saudi Arabian citizen in the world and the second richest black person in the world. Al Amoudi made his fortune in construction and real estate before branching out to buy oil refineries in Sweden and Morocco. He is the largest individual foreign investor in Ethiopia and a major investor in Sweden.
- Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. When Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, the UK declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first eight months of the Second World War. After working in business and local government, and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father, Joseph Chamberlain, and older half-brother, Austen Chamberlain, in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election for the new Birmingham Ladywood division at the age of 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short-lived Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931. When Stanley Baldwin retired in May 1937, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards an increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among the British at the time. When Hitler continued his aggression, Chamberlain pledged Britain to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought his country into war when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939. Chamberlain resigned the premiership on 10 May 1940 as the Allies were being forced to retreat from Norway, as he believed that a government supported by all parties was essential, and the Labour and Liberal parties would not join a government he headed. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well regarded in Parliament, especially among Conservatives. Before ill health forced him to resign, he was an important member of Churchill's war cabinet as Lord President of the Council, heading the Cabinet in the new premier's absence. Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving the premiership. Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians, the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, led by Churchill in The Gathering Storm. Some later historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the Thirty Year Rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared. Nonetheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British Prime Ministers.
- Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, banker, intellectual, and politician, who served as German Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic. Rathenau initiated the Treaty of Rapallo, which removed major obstacles to trading with Soviet Russia. Although Russia was already aiding Germany's secret rearmament programme, right-wing nationalist groups branded Rathenau a revolutionary, when he was in fact a moderate liberal who openly condemned Soviet methods. They also resented his background as a successful Jewish businessman.Two months after signing the treaty, he was assassinated in Berlin by the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul. Some members of the public viewed Rathenau as a democratic martyr until the Nazis banned all commemorations of him.
- Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791 – April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and politician. He designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb, founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and served as the Greenback Party's candidate in the 1876 presidential election. Cooper began tinkering at a young age while working in various positions in New York City. He purchased a glue factory in 1821 and used that factory's profits to found the Canton Iron Works, where he earned even larger profits by assembling the Tom Thumb. Cooper's success as a businessman and inventor continued over the ensuing decades, and he became the first mill operator to successfully use anthracite coal to puddle iron. He also developed numerous patents for products such as gelatin and participated in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. During the Gilded Age, Cooper became an ardent critic of the gold standard and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency, advocating instead for government-issued banknotes. Cooper was nominated for president at the 1876 Greenback National Convention, and the Greenback ticket of Cooper and Samuel Fenton Cary won just under one percent of the popular vote in the 1876 general election. His son, Edward Cooper, and his son-in-law, Abram Hewitt, both served as Mayor of New York City.
- Prince Shah Karim Al Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, (Arabic: شاه كريم الحسيني، الآقاخان الرابع; Persian: شاه کریم حسینی، آقاخان چهارم; Urdu: شاه کریم حسینی، آقاخان چهارم; Aga Khan is also transliterated as Aqa Khan and Agha Khan; born 13 December 1936) is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism, a denomination of Isma'ilism within Shia Islam with an estimated 10–15 million adherents (10–12% of the world's Shia Muslim population). The Aga Khan is a business magnate with British citizenship, as well as a racehorse owner and breeder. He has held this position of Imam, under the title of Aga Khan IV, since 11 July 1957, when, at the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III. It is believed that the Aga Khan is a direct lineal descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, considered the first Imam in Shia Islam, and Ali's wife Fatima az-Zahra, Muhammad's daughter from his first marriage. Forbes describes the Aga Khan as one of the world's ten richest royals with an estimated net worth of US$3 billion. Additionally he is unique among the richest royals as he does not rule over a geographic territory. Among the goals the Aga Khan has said he works toward are the elimination of global poverty; the promotion and implementation of religious pluralism; the advancement of the status of women; and the honouring of Islamic art and architecture. He is the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, one of the largest private development networks in the world. The organisation works toward improvement of the environment, health, education, architecture, culture, microfinance, rural development, disaster reduction, the promotion of private-sector enterprise and the revitalisation of historic cities.Since his ascension to the Imamate of Nizari Ismailis in 1957, the Aga Khan has been involved in complex political and economic changes which have affected his Nizari Ismaili followers, including the independence of African countries from colonial rule, expulsion of Asians from Uganda, the independence of Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan from the former Soviet Union and the continuous turmoil in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Aga Khan IV became the first faith leader to address the Joint Session of the Parliament of Canada on 27 February 2014.
John Fredriksen
John Fredriksen (born 10 May 1944) is a Norwegian-born oil tanker and shipping magnate, who owns the world's largest oil tanker fleet. He also has major interests in the offshore driller Seadrill, the fish farming company Mowi, the dry bulk company Golden Ocean Group, and the supply vessel company Deep Sea Supply. Through his investment companies Hemen Holdings and Meisha, Fredriksen controls the companies Frontline and Golar LNG. In 2010–2011, Frontline owned 9.6 percent of another large tanker company, Overseas Shipholding Group. North Atlantic Drilling, Sevan Drilling, and Asia Offshore Drilling are partly owned by Seadrill.Born in Oslo, Norway, Fredriksen is a Cypriot citizen who resides in London. Before abandoning his Norwegian citizenship, he was Norway's richest man. Norwegian magazine Kapital listed Fredriksen in 2013 with a net worth of NOK 69,75 billion (US$11.9 billion). In 2012, he was included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine. He was named in the top 10 most influential people in the shipping industry according to Lloyds List 2014.- Robert Paxton McCulloch (May 11, 1911 – February 25, 1977) was an American entrepreneur from Missouri, best known for McCulloch chainsaws and purchasing the "New" London Bridge, which he moved to one of the cities he founded, Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
- Elwood Haynes (October 14, 1857 – April 13, 1925) was an American inventor, metallurgist, automotive pioneer, entrepreneur and industrialist. He invented the metal alloys stellite and martensitic stainless steel and designed one of the earliest automobiles made in the United States. He is recognized for having created the earliest American design that was feasible for mass production and, with the Apperson brothers, he formed the first company in the United States to produce automobiles profitably. He made many advances in the automotive industry. Early in his career, while serving as a field superintendent at gas and oil companies during Indiana's gas boom, Haynes invented several devices important to the advance of the natural gas industry. When working for the Indiana Natural Gas and Oil Company, he oversaw the construction of the first long-distance natural gas pipeline in the United States, connecting Chicago with the Trenton Gas Field 150 miles (240 km) away. He began to formulate plans for a motorized vehicle in the early 1890s; he successfully road tested his first car, the Pioneer, on July 4, 1894—eight years after the first automobile was patented in Germany. He formed a partnership with Elmer and Edgar Apperson in 1896 to start Haynes-Apperson for the commercial production of automobiles. He renamed it Haynes Automobile Company in 1905, following the loss of his partners. Working in his laboratory to develop new corrosion-resistant metals for auto parts, Haynes discovered that mixing tungsten with chromium, steel and iron resulted in the formation of strong and lightweight alloys that were impervious to corrosion, and could endure high temperatures. In 1912, he formed Haynes Stellite Company to produce one of the new alloys, and received lucrative contracts during World War I, making Haynes a millionaire in 1916. He sold his patent for stainless steel to the American Stainless Steel Company in exchange for enough stock to gain a seat at the company's board of directors, a position he held for 12 years. He merged the Haynes Stellite company with Union Carbide in 1920. After passing through different owners, the company was renamed and is now called Haynes International. Haynes returned his focus to his automotive company, but in the economic recession of the 1920s the business went bankrupt and was liquidated. An outspoken advocate of prohibition, he made substantial donations to the Prohibition Party and Indiana's prohibitionist leader Frank Hanly. Haynes ran an unsuccessful campaign in Indiana for the U.S. Senate in 1916 as a prohibition candidate and remained active in the party until prohibition became law. Later, he became a philanthropist and served two terms as president of the YMCA, five years on the Indiana Board of Education, and was an active member of the Presbyterian church. After his death from complications arising from influenza, his Kokomo mansion was converted into the Elwood Haynes Museum and is open to the public where many of his original inventions and automobiles are on display.
- Baron Dr. Carl (Karl) Ludwig von Reichenbach (full name: Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Reichenbach) (February 12, 1788 – January 1869) was a notable chemist, geologist, metallurgist, naturalist, industrialist and philosopher, and a member of the prestigious Prussian Academy of Sciences. He is best known for his discoveries of several chemical products of economic importance, extracted from tar, such as eupione, waxy paraffin, pittacal (the first synthetic dye) and phenol (an antiseptic). He also dedicated himself in his last years to research an unproved field of energy combining electricity, magnetism and heat, emanating from all living things, which he called the Odic force.
- Henry John Heinz (October 11, 1844 – May 14, 1919) was a German-American entrepreneur who founded the H. J. Heinz Company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was born in that city, the son of German immigrants who came independently to the United States in the early 1840s. Heinz developed his business into a national company which made more than 60 food products; one of its first was tomato ketchup. He was influential for introducing high sanitary standards for food manufacturing. He also exercised a paternal relationship with his workers, providing health benefits, recreation facilities, and cultural amenities. Heinz was the great-grandfather of former U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III of Pennsylvania and a second cousin of Frederick Trump, paternal grandfather of Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States.
- John Graham Cuckney, Baron Cuckney (12 July 1925 – 30 October 2008) was a British industrialist, civil servant and peer.
- Johann Zacherl (1814 – 30 June 1888) was an Austrian inventor, industrialist and manufacturer. Johann Zacherl made a fortune in the late 19th century by selling dried flower heads of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium as an insecticide.
- James Howard Marshall II (January 24, 1905 – August 4, 1995) was an American businessman, academic, attorney, and government official. His life spanned nine decades and almost the entire history of the oil industry. He was involved with and invested in the oil industry via academic, government and commercial endeavors. He owned 16% of Koch Industries. Marshall was married to model and celebrity Anna Nicole Smith during the last 14 months of his life. His estate became the subject of protracted litigation, which was reviewed by the Supreme Court in Marshall v. Marshall and Stern v. Marshall.
- Charles Thomas Beaird (July 17, 1922 – April 18, 2006) was an industrialist, newspaper publisher, philanthropist, and civic leader from Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana. A self-identified "liberal Republican", Beaird was an early champion of civil rights legislation.
Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata
Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (R.D. Tata, 1856–1926) was an Indian businessman who played a pivotal role in the growth of the Tata Group in India. He was the first cousin of Jamsetji Tata, a pioneering industrialist of India and the Founder of Tata Sons. He was one of the partners in Tata Sons founded by Jamsetji Tata. Ratanji is the father of J. R. D. Tata.- Ebenezer McBurney Byers (April 12, 1880 – March 31, 1932) was a wealthy American socialite, athlete, and industrialist. He won the 1906 U.S. Amateur in golf. He earned notoriety in the early 1930s when he died from multiple radiation-induced cancers after consuming Radithor, a popular patent medicine made from radium dissolved in water.
- Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was an American soldier, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded the Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical corporation. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and recruited a company of men to serve with him in the 18th Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery. He was later promoted to major and then colonel, and was given command of the 9th Regiment Indiana Cavalry. Lilly was captured in September 1864 and held as a prisoner of war until January 1865. After the war, he attempted to run a plantation in Mississippi, but it failed and he returned to his pharmacy profession after the death of his first wife. Lilly remarried and worked with business partners in several pharmacies in Indiana and Illinois before opening his own business in 1876 in Indianapolis. Lilly's company manufactured drugs and marketed them on a wholesale basis to pharmacies. Lilly's pharmaceutical firm proved to be successful and he soon became wealthy after making numerous advances in medicinal drug manufacturing. Two of the early advances he pioneered were creating gelatin capsules to contain medicines and developing fruit flavorings. Eli Lilly and Company became one of the first pharmaceutical firms of its kind to staff a dedicated research department and put into place numerous quality-assurance measures. Using his wealth, Lilly engaged in numerous philanthropic pursuits. He turned over the management of the company to his son, Josiah K. Lilly, Sr., around 1890 to allow himself more time to continue his involvement in charitable organizations and civic advancement. Colonel Lilly helped found the Commercial Club, the forerunner to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, and became the primary patron of Indiana's branch of the Charity Organization Society. He personally funded a children's hospital in Indianapolis, known as Eleanor Hospital (closed in 1909). Lilly continued his active involvement with many other organizations until his death from cancer in 1898. Colonel Lilly was an advocate of federal regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, and many of his suggested reforms were enacted into law in 1906, resulting in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. He was also among the pioneers of the concept of prescriptions, and helped form what became the common practice of giving addictive or dangerous medicines only to people who had first seen a physician. The company he founded has since grown into one of the largest and most influential pharmaceutical corporations in the world, and the largest corporation in Indiana. Using the wealth generated by the company, his son, J. K., and grandsons, Eli Jr. and Josiah Jr. (Joe), established the Lilly Endowment in 1937; it remains as one of the largest charitable benefactors in the world and continues the Lilly legacy of philanthropy.
- Sakıp Sabancı (7 April 1933 – 10 April 2004) was a prominent Turkish business tycoon and philanthropist.
- Ivar Kreuger (Swedish: [ˈiːvar ˈkryːɡɛr]; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. By aggressive investments and innovative financial instruments, he built a global match and financial empire. Between the two world wars, he negotiated match monopolies with European, Central American and South American governments, and finally controlled between two thirds and three quarters of worldwide match production, becoming known as the "Match King".Kreuger's financial empire has been described by one biographer as a Ponzi scheme, based on the supposedly fantastic profitability of his match monopolies. However, in a Ponzi scheme early investors are paid dividends from their own money or that of subsequent investors. Although Kreuger did this to some extent, he also controlled many legitimate and often very profitable businesses, and owned banks, real estate, a gold mine, and pulp and industrial companies, besides his many match companies. Many of them have survived to this day. Kreuger & Toll, for example, was composed of bona fide businesses, and there were others like it. Another biographer called Kreuger a "genius and swindler", and John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that he was the "Leonardo of larcenists". Kreuger's financial empire collapsed during the Great Depression. The Price Waterhouse autopsy of his financial empire stated: "The manipulations were so childish that anyone with but a rudimentary knowledge of bookkeeping could see the books were falsified." In March 1932, he was found dead in the bedroom of his flat in Paris. The police concluded that he had committed suicide, but decades later, his brother Torsten claimed that he had been murdered, which spawned some controversial literature on the subject.
- David James Davies (1893–1956), known as D. J. Davies, was a Welsh economist, industrialist, prize winning essayist, author, political activist, pilot, and an internationalist. Davies was a world traveller before returning home to Wales. Initially a founding member of the Welsh Labour Party in the Ammanford district, in 1925 he left Labour becoming a founding member of Plaid Cymru, the nationalist party of Wales.According to the historian John Davies, it was D. J. Davies' ideas which were more influential in shaping long-term Plaid Cymru ideology following the Second World War, and Davies was as "equally [a] significant figure" as Saunders Lewis in Welsh nationalism history, but it was Lewis' "brilliance and charismatic appeal" which was firmly associated with Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru of the 1930s.
- Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, popularly known as Dhirubhai Ambani (28 December 1932 – 6 July 2002) was an Indian business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries in Bombay and appeared in The Sunday Times top 50 businessmen in Asia. Ambani took Reliance public in 1977 and was worth $6 billion upon his death on 6 July 2002. In 2016, he was honored posthumously with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor for his contributions to trade and industry.
- Fritz Gunter Sachs (14 November 1932 – 7 May 2011) was a German photographer, author, industrialist, and latterly head of an institute that researched claims of astrology. As a young man he became a sportsman, then gained international fame as a documentary film-maker, documentary photographer, and third husband of Brigitte Bardot.
- Jean Paul Getty (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976), known widely as J. Paul Getty, was a naturalized British American petrol-industrialist, and the patriarch of the Getty family. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $7.2 billion in 2018). At his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $21 billion in 2018). A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th richest American who ever lived, based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product.Despite his vast wealth, Getty was infamously frugal, notably negotiating his grandson's Italian kidnapping ransom in 1973. Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities. His collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, and more than $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death. He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, and operates the J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes: The Getty Center, The Getty Villa and the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.
- John Philip Jacob Elkann (born 1 April 1976) is an Italian industrialist. He was the chosen heir of his grandfather Gianni Agnelli, and chairs and controls the automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (which owns the Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Lancia, Maserati, Mopar and Ram brands), which has formerly represented 4.4% of Italy's GDP. He is the chairman and CEO of Exor, the holding company controlled by the Agnelli family, which also owns Partner Re and holds a controlling stake in Ferrari, CNH Industrial and Juventus F.C.. In July 2018 he was appointed as chairman of Ferrari after Sergio Marchionne had to leave due to health issues. Elkann was born in New York and holds both Italian and American citizenship.
- Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 1867 – 14 December 1947) was a British Conservative statesman who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as Prime Minister on three occasions. Born to a prosperous family in Bewdley, Worcestershire, Baldwin was educated at Hawtreys, Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the family iron and steel making business and entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the Member of Parliament for Bewdley, succeeding his father Alfred. He served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1917–1921) and President of the Board of Trade (1921–1922) in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George and then rose rapidly: in 1922, Baldwin was one of the prime movers in the withdrawal of Conservative support from Lloyd George; he subsequently became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Bonar Law's Conservative ministry. Upon Bonar Law's resignation due to health reasons in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party. He called an election in December 1923 on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives' parliamentary majority, after which Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government. After winning the 1924 general election, Baldwin formed his second government, which saw important tenures of office by Sir Austen Chamberlain (Foreign Secretary), Winston Churchill (at the Exchequer) and Neville Chamberlain (Health). The latter two ministers strengthened Conservative appeal by reforms in areas formerly associated with the Liberal Party. They included industrial conciliation, unemployment insurance, a more extensive old-age pension system, slum clearance, more private housing and expansion of maternal and childcare. However, continuing sluggish economic growth and declines in mining and heavy industry weakened Baldwin's base of support and his government also saw the General Strike in 1926 and the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 to curb the powers of trade unions.Baldwin narrowly lost the 1929 general election and his continued leadership of the party was subject to extensive criticism by the press barons Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook. In 1931, with the onset of the Great Depression Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, most of whose ministers were Conservatives, and which won an enormous majority at the 1931 general election. As Lord President of the Council, and one of four Conservatives among the small ten-member Cabinet, Baldwin took over many of the Prime Minister's duties due to MacDonald's failing health. This government saw an Act delivering increased self-government for India, a measure opposed by Churchill and by many rank-and-file Conservatives. The Statute of Westminster 1931 gave Dominion status to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, while establishing the first step towards the Commonwealth of Nations. As party leader, Baldwin made many striking innovations, such as clever use of radio and film, that made him highly visible to the public and strengthened Conservative appeal. In 1935, Baldwin officially replaced MacDonald as Prime Minister of the National Government, and won the 1935 general election with another large majority. During this time, he oversaw the beginning of the rearmament process of the British military, as well as the abdication crisis of King Edward VIII. Baldwin's third government saw a number of crises in foreign affairs, including the public uproar over the Hoare–Laval Pact, the remilitarisation of the Rhineland and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Baldwin retired in 1937 and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain. At that time, Baldwin was regarded as a popular and successful Prime Minister, but for the final decade of his life and for many years afterwards he was vilified for having presided over high unemployment in the 1930s and as one of the "Guilty Men" who had tried to appease Adolf Hitler and who had supposedly not rearmed sufficiently to prepare for the Second World War. Today, modern scholars generally rank him in the upper half of British prime ministers.
- Loel Patrick Guinness is a philanthropist, film producer and adventurer. He is descended from Samuel Guinness, a Dublin goldsmith, the younger brother of the Guinness brewery's founder Arthur Guinness. In 2010 he married the Thai model Natanyawit Choomkomont.
Howard Gilman
Howard Gilman (February 15, 1924 – January 3, 1998) was descendant of Isaac Gilman, who had founded the Gilman Paper Company in 1884.Mario Santo Domingo
Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga was the eldest son of Julio Mario Santo Domingo and Edyala Braga, of the same family as Eduardo Braga, current governor of Amazonas. He was the director of the Santo Domingo Group, his family's conglomerate of more than 100 companies.Pallonji Mistry
Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry (born 1929) is an Indian billionaire construction tycoon and chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji Group who is an Irish citizen since 2003. According to Forbes, his wealth is estimated to be US$20.1 billion as of January 2019. With his 18.3% stake in Tata Sons, he is the largest individual shareholder in India's largest private conglomerate, Tata Group, the primary shareholder of which is the Tata philanthropic Allied Trusts, with 66 per cent controlling interest.- Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, PC, FRS, DL (23 October 1868 – 27 December 1930), known as Sir Alfred Mond, Bt, between 1910 and 1928, was a British industrialist, financier and politician. In his later life he became an active Zionist.
- Chung Mong-joon or Chung Mong Joon (Korean: 정몽준, born October 17, 1951) is a South Korean businessman and politician. He is the sixth son of Chung Ju-yung, founder of Hyundai, the second-largest South Korean chaebol before its breakup in 2003. He remains the controlling shareholder of a Hyundai offshoot, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, parent of the world's largest shipbuilding company. He is also the chairman of the board of the University of Ulsan and Ulsan College in Ulsan, South Korea. He is the founder and the honorary chairman of The Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He was Honorary Vice-President of FIFA and president of the South Korean football association.
- Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (February 17, 1904 – October 20, 2003) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was Governor of Puerto Rico, serving from 1969 to 1973. He was the founding father of the New Progressive Party, which advocates for Puerto Rico to become a state of the United States of America. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Ferruccio Lamborghini (Italian pronunciation: [ferˈruttʃo lamborˈgiːni]; 28 April 1916 – 20 February 1993) was an Italian industrialist. In 1963, he created Automobili Lamborghini, a maker of high-end sports cars in Sant'Agata Bolognese. Born to grape farmers in Renazzo, from the comune of Cento in the Emilia-Romagna region, his mechanical know-how led him to enter the business of tractor manufacturing in 1948, when he founded Lamborghini Trattori, which quickly became an important manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the midst of Italy's post-WWII economic boom. In 1959, he opened an oil heater factory, Lamborghini Bruciatori, which later entered the business of producing air conditioning equipment. Lamborghini founded a fourth company, Lamborghini Oleodinamica in 1969 after creating Automobili Lamborghini in 1963. Lamborghini sold off many of his interests by the late 1970s and retired to an estate in Umbria, where he pursued winemaking.
- John Thomas Lupton (1862–1933) was an American lawyer, industrialist and philanthropist who along with Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, obtained exclusive rights from Asa Candler to bottle and sell Coca-Cola.
- Group Captain Thomas Loel Evelyn Bulkeley Guinness OBE (9 June 1906 – 31 December 1988) was a British Conservative politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (1931–1945), business magnate and philanthropist. Guinness also financed the purchase of the Calypso for the famous oceanic explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his movie The Silent World (1956).
- Joseph Wharton (March 3, 1826 – January 11, 1909) was an American industrialist. He was involved in mining, manufacturing and education. He founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founded the Bethlehem Steel company, and was one of the founders of Swarthmore College.
- Jean-Jacques Dessalines Michel Cincinnatus Leconte was President of Haiti from 15 August 1911 until his death on 8 August 1912. He was the great-grandson of Jean-Jacques Dessalines—a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti—and was an uncle of Joseph Laroche, the only black passenger to perish on the RMS Titanic.
- Truman Handy Newberry (November 5, 1864 – October 3, 1945) was an American businessman and political figure. He served as the Secretary of Navy between 1908 and 1909. He was a Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan between 1919 and 1922.
- Thérèse Rein (born 17 July 1958) is an Australian entrepreneur who is the founder of Ingeus, an international employment and business psychology services company. Rein is the wife of Kevin Rudd, who was the Prime Minister of Australia, holding the office from 2007 to 2010 and then again in 2013. She was the first Australian Prime Minister's wife to remain in the paid workforce while her husband was in office. She was awarded the Human Rights Medal by the Australian Human Rights Commission in December 2010 for her long-term dedication to human rights, especially the rights of people with disability. In December 2012 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of the University degree by Griffith University for her services to business, and the award of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by the University of Western Sydney in April 2014, in recognition of her service to the Australian community, commitment to human rights, engaging constructively with human rights mechanisms, eliminating poverty and injustice, and the illumination of disadvantage. In 2018, she was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.
Armand Hammer
Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American business manager and owner, most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran from 1957 until his death, though he was known as well for his art collection, his philanthropy, and for his close ties to the Soviet Union. Hammer's business interests around the world and his "citizen diplomacy" helped him cultivate a wide network of friends and associates. He appeared frequently on television, commenting on international relations or agitating for research into a cure for cancer. As of 2016, he has been the subject of six biographies—in 1975 (Considine, authorized biography), 1985 (Bryson, coffee table book), Weinberg 1989, Blumay 1992, Epstein 1996, and Alef 2009; and two autobiographies (1932 and a best seller in 1987). His art collection and his philanthropic projects were the subject of numerous publications.- Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli, (Italian: [ˈdʒanni aɲˈɲɛlli]; 12 March 1921 – 24 January 2003), also known as L'Avvocato ("The Lawyer"), was an influential Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research. He was the richest man in modern Italian history.Agnelli was regarded as having an impeccable and slightly eccentric fashion sense, which has influenced both Italian and international men's fashion. Agnelli was awarded the decoration Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1967 and the title Knight of Labour (Cavaliere del lavoro) in 1977. Following his death in 2003, control of the firm was gradually passed to his grandson and chosen heir, John Elkann.
- Henry Ludwig Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett (10 May 1898 – 22 January 1949) was a British politician, industrialist and financier.
- Rahul Bajaj (born 10 June 1938) is an Indian billionaire businessman, politician and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Indian conglomerate Bajaj Group and member of parliament. Bajaj comes from the business house started by a Rajasthani Marwadi businessman Jamnalal Bajaj. He was awarded the third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 2001. In a recent interview for the Creating Emerging Markets project at the Harvard Business School, Bajaj provides a devastating critique of Indian industrial policies before the liberalization in the 1990s.
- Adonis (born Michael A. Smith, current legal name Adonis M. Smith; January 4, 1963) is a pioneering American acid house musician. Adonis is best known for his early Chicago house tracks "No Way Back" and "We're Rockin Down the House", released on Trax Records.
- John Irvin Beggs (September 17, 1847 – October 17, 1925) was an American businessman. He was associated closely with the electric utility boom under Thomas Edison. He was also associated with Milwaukee, St. Louis, Missouri and other regional rail and interurban trolley systems. Beggs is also known for developing modern depreciation techniques for business accounting and for being one of the early directors of what became General Electric.
Toshio Okada
Toshio Okada (岡田 斗司夫, Okada Toshio, born July 1, 1958) is an anime producer, author, and lecturer. He is a co-founder and former president of the production company Gainax. He is portrayed by actor Gaku Hamada in the 2014 TV Drama Aoi Honō based on the autobiographical manga by his fellow Kazuhiko Shimamoto. His current talent agency is Yoshimoto Kogyo.- Johannes Hendrikus Hubert "John" de Mol Jr. (born 24 April 1955) is a Dutch media tycoon and television producer. De Mol is one of the men behind production companies Endemol and Talpa and is worth about US$ 1.5 billion. He is known for being the creator of the original Dutch versions of Big Brother and The Voice.
- Thomas Crapper (baptised 28 September 1836; died 27 January 1910) was an English plumber who founded Thomas Crapper & Co in London, a sanitary equipment company. Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating ballcock. He improved the S-bend trap in 1880 inventing the plumbing trap (U-bend). The firm's lavatorial equipment was manufactured at premises in nearby Marlborough Road (now Draycott Avenue). The company owned the world's first bath, toilet and sink showroom, in King's Road. Crapper was noted for the quality of his products and received several royal warrants. Manhole covers with Crapper's company's name on them in Westminster Abbey have become one of London's minor tourist attractions.
J. R. D. Tata
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (29 July 1904 – 29 November 1993) was an Indian aviator, entrepreneur, chairman of Tata Group and the shareholder of Tata Sons. Born into the Tata family of India, he was the son of noted businessman Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and his wife Suzanne Brière. His mother was the first woman in India to drive a car and, in 1929, he became the first licensed pilot in India. He is also best known for being the founder of several industries under the Tata Group, including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Titan Industries, Tata Salt, Voltas and Air India. In 1983, he was awarded the French Legion of Honour and in 1955 and 1992, he received two of India's highest civilian awards the Padma Vibhushan and the Bharat Ratna. These honors were bestowed on him for his contributions to Indian industry.Myron Charles Taylor
Myron Charles Taylor (January 18, 1874 – May 5, 1959) was an American industrialist, and later a diplomat involved in many of the most important geopolitical events during and after World War II. In addition he was a philanthropist, giving to his alma mater, Cornell University, and a number of other causes.Charles Tennant
Charles Tennant (3 May 1768 – 1 October 1838) was a Scottish chemist and industrialist. He discovered bleaching powder and founded an industrial dynasty.Nicolae Malaxa
Nicolae Malaxa (22 December [O.S. 10 December] 1884 – 1965) was a Romanian engineer and industrialist.- Camillo Castiglioni (22 October 1879 – 18 December 1957) was an Italian-Austrian financier and banker, and was the wealthiest man in Central Europe during World War I. Nicknamed “Austrian Stinnes”, he was active in aviation's pioneering days and invested in the arts. Castiglioni was credited as being instrumental to the founding of what would eventually become BMW AG.
Hugh Allan
Sir Hugh Allan (September 29, 1810 – December 9, 1882) was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier and capitalist. By the time of his death, the Allan Shipping Line had become the largest privately owned shipping empire in the world. He was responsible for transporting millions of British immigrants to Canada, and the businesses that he established from Montreal filtered across every sphere of Canadian life, cementing his reputation as an empire builder. His home, Ravenscrag, was the principal residence of the Golden Square Mile in Montreal.Carl Richard Nyberg
Carl Richard Nyberg (May 28, 1858, – 1939) was the founder of Max Sieverts Lödlampfabrik, then one of the largest industries in Sundbyberg, Sweden. Nyberg was born in Arboga. After school he started working for a jeweller and later he moved to Stockholm and worked with various metalworks. He later got work at J. E. Eriksons mekaniska verkstad (later renamed to "Mekanikus").While working there he had the idea of the blowtorch. He later worked on the idea and created a blowtorch with strong, directed heat and with several safety measures built in. He quit working at Mekanikus in 1882 and set up a workshop at Luntmakargatan in Stockholm making blowtorches. However the business didn't work well because it took too long to both manufacture and sell them. For a time he made a living selling rings supposedly for curing gout. In 1884 he moved his workshop to Sundbyberg. In 1886, he met Max Sievert at a country fair and Sievert became interested in Nyberg's blowtorch and started selling it. After encouragement by the owner of Sundbyberg gård he started AB Alpha and after encouragement from L. M. Ericsson he started producing wire.After Primus started producing blowtorches he also decided to make paraffin oil/kerosene cookers. The first model, called Viktoria, wasn't very successful, but the later Svea did better. He delivered many to Russia and soon he produced 3000 per week. In 1906 the company was changed into a stock company. He was generous to his workers and often gave them stock in the company. The workers became known as "Nybergs snobbar" (Nyberg's snobs) because they were generally better off than those who worked in other places. In 1922 the company was sold to Max Sievert who owned it until Esso bought it in 1964. Nyberg worked on many other inventions including steam engines, aeroplanes, boat propellers, and other machines. He was most famous as an aviation pioneer and he became known as "Flyg-Nyberg" (Flying-Nyberg). From 1897 and onward until around 1910, outside his home in Lidingö he built and tested his Flugan (The Fly) on a circular wood track in his garden and on the ice during the wintertime. However, due the lack of small effective gasoline engines at that time, he only managed a few short jumps. He worked hard with the help of professor J.E. Cederblom at KTH in the development of wing profiles but did not succeed to get The Fly in the air. He also designed and built his own wind tunnel to be able to make test of small wing models. The Fly had a wingspan of 5 meters, and the surface area of the wings was 13 m². The engine was a steam engine of his own design, with a boiler heated by four of his blowtorches. It produced a maximum of 10 hp (7 kW) at 2000 rpm. The total weight of the plane was 80 kg.- Amar Singh (born 27 January 1956) is an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh who was one of the leaders of Samajwadi Party. He was the general secretary of the Samajwadi Party and was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. On 6 January 2010, he resigned from all the posts of Samajwadi Party and was later expelled from the party by its chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, on 2 February 2010. He spent a brief period in judicial custody in 2011. He finally retired from politics. In his statement he mentioned, "I want to give more time to my wife and my family. Therefore after the last day of polling (on May 13), I will retire from politics." In 2016, he was elected to Rajya Sabha with support from Samajwadi Party even after facing a stiff opposition from a section of the party including the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav. He was also reinstated as one of the general secretaries of the party in October 2016.
Joseph G. Butler, Jr.
Joseph Green Butler Jr. (December 21, 1840 – December 20, 1927) was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and popular historian. He is remembered primarily for establishing the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to American art.- Sir John Tomlinson Brunner, 1st Baronet, (8 February 1842 – 1 July 1919) was a British chemical industrialist and Liberal Party politician. At Hutchinson's alkali works in Widnes he rose to the position of general manager. There he met Ludwig Mond, with whom he later formed a partnership to create the chemical company Brunner Mond & Co., initially making alkali by the Solvay process. As a Member of Parliament he represented Northwich, Cheshire, in 1885–1886 and then from 1887–1910. He was a paternalistic employer and as a politician supported Irish Home Rule, trade unions, free trade, welfare reforms and, leading up to the First World War, a more sympathetic stance towards Germany. Brunner was a prominent Freemason, and a generous benefactor to the towns in his constituency and to the University of Liverpool. He is the great grandfather of the Duchess of Kent.
- Horace Fairbanks (March 21, 1820 – March 17, 1888) was an American politician and the 36th Governor of Vermont from 1876 to 1878.
James Anson Campbell
James Anson Campbell (September 11, 1854 – September 20, 1933) was an American business leader known for his role as chairman of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, one of the largest regional steel-production firms in the United States. Campbell served as director of the American Iron and Steel Institute during World War I.Lawrence Dale Bell
Lawrence Dale "Larry" Bell (April 5, 1894 – October 20, 1956) was an American industrialist and founder of Bell Aircraft Corporation. Bell was born in Mentone, Indiana and lived there until 1907, when his family moved to Santa Monica, California. He joined his older brother Grover and stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey as a mechanic in 1912. Grover Bell was killed in a plane crash the following year, and Lawrence vowed to quit aviation for good; however, he went to work for the Glenn L. Martin Company after friends convinced him to return to the industry. He became Martin's shop foreman at age 20, and later the company's general manager, wanting to become partner. On 17 July 1915 he married Lucille Mainwaring (1891-1970); their marriage, without children, lasted for thirty-three years. He left Martin in 1928 to join Consolidated Aircraft in Buffalo, New York, eventually becoming vice president and general manager. When Consolidated relocated to San Diego, Bell stayed in Buffalo and founded his own company with 56 employees, Bell Aircraft Corporation, on July 10, 1935. On a government-sponsored "spy tour" to Germany with 44 other industrialists in 1938, he saw the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter and used the layout of a German aircraft factory for his Niagara Falls plant. Bell Aircraft built the P-39 "Airacobra" and P-63 "Kingcobra" fighter aircraft during World War II. Their P-59 "Airacomet" fighter was America's first jet-powered aircraft. Postwar, the company produced the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight. The company began developing helicopters in 1941, with the Bell 30 taking its maiden flight in 1943. This early model evolved into the Bell 47, one of the most recognizable aircraft in history. For his role in the X-1's first supersonic flight, he shared the 1947 Collier Trophy with pilot Chuck Yeager and John Stack, a research scientist with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (now NASA). He was awarded the Society of Automotive Engineers' Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 1944, and was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1977), the Army Aviation Hall of Fame (1986), and the International Aerospace Hall of Fame (2004).Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy
Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 1st Baronet Jejeebhoy of Bombay, CMG (15 July 1783 – 14 April 1859), also spelt Jeejeebhoy or Jeejebhoy, was a Parsi-Indian merchant and philanthropist. He is more historically notable for making a huge fortune in cotton and opium trade to China. He was considered Bombay's most worthy son.Lang Hancock
Langley Frederick George "Lang" Hancock (10 June 1909 – 27 March 1992) was an Australian iron ore magnate from Western Australia who maintained a high profile in the spheres of business and politics. Famous initially for discovering the world's largest iron ore deposit in 1952 and becoming one of the richest men in Australia, he is now perhaps best remembered for his marriage to the much-younger Rose Porteous, a Filipino woman and his former maid. Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, was bitterly opposed to Hancock's relationship with Porteous. The conflicts between Rinehart and Porteous overshadowed his final years and continued until more than a decade after his death. Aside from his extensively publicised personal life, Hancock's extreme right-wing views on the government of Australia, Indigenous Australians, and sociopolitical topics caused widespread controversy during his life.- This article concerns John Whitfield Bunn, Jacob Bunn, and the entrepreneurs who were interconnected with the Bunn brothers through association or familial and genealogical connection.John Whitfield Bunn (June 21, 1831 – June 7, 1920) was an American corporate leader, financier, industrialist, and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, whose work and leadership involved a broad range of institutions ranging from Midwestern railroads, international finance, and Republican Party politics, to corporate consultation, globally significant manufacturing, and the various American stock exchanges. He was of great historical importance in the commercial, civic, political, and industrial development and growth of the state of Illinois and the American Midwest, during both the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. John Whitfield Bunn was born June 21, 1831, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Although every one of the business institutions co-founded or built by the Bunn Brothers has ceased to exist, and fallen purely into the realm of history, each of these businesses left an important legacy of honorable industrial, commercial, and civic vision for Illinois, the Midwest, and the United States. Jacob Bunn (March 18, 1814 – October 16, 1897), an older brother of John Whitfield Bunn, was also an important Illinois industrialist, financier, and close friend of Abraham Lincoln.
- Terry George (born 14 March 1965) is a British businessman known primarily for his appearances in television programmes. He was born and raised in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
- Marcel Dassault (born Marcel Bloch; 22 January 1892 – 17 April 1986) was a French industrialist who spent his career in aircraft manufacturing.
- Robert Gilmour LeTourneau (November 30, 1888 – June 1, 1969), was born in Richford, Vermont, and was a prolific inventor of earthmoving machinery. His factories supplied LeTourneau machines which represented nearly 70 percent of the earthmoving equipment and engineering vehicles used by the Allied forces during World War II, and more than half of the 1,500-mile (2,414 km) Alcan Highway in Canada was built with LeTourneau equipment. Over the course of his life he secured nearly 300 patents relating to earthmoving equipment, manufacturing processes and machine tools. The LeTourneau name became synonymous with earthmoving worldwide. LeTourneau was largely responsible for the invention and development of many types of earthmoving machines now widely used. He designed and built machines using technology that was years, sometimes decades, ahead of its time and became recognized worldwide as a leader in the development and manufacture of heavy equipment. The use of rubber tires in earthmoving; numerous improvements relating to scrapers; the development of low-pressure, heavy-duty rubber tires; the two-wheeled tractor unit ("Tournapull"); electric wheel drive, and mobile offshore drilling platforms, are all attributed to LeTourneau’s ingenuity. With the help of his wife, the late Evelyn Peterson (1900-1987), he founded LeTourneau University, a private, Christian institution, in Longview, Texas. LeTourneau was widely known as a devoted Christian and generous philanthropist to Christian causes, including the "LeTourneau Christian Center" camp and conference grounds in Rushville, New York and Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Georgia. LeTourneau was often referred to by his contemporaries as "God's businessman."
Albert Vögler
Albert Vögler (8 February 1877 – 14 April 1945) was a German politician, industrialist and entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of the German People's Party, and an important executive in the munitions industry during the Second World War. Vögler was born to Karl and Berta Vögler in Essen. He studied mechanics and engineering at high school before graduating from the university of Karlsruhe in 1901 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Between 1901 and 1910 he worked as a senior engineer at the Dortmunder Steel Works, and then became a member of the executive committee in the Deutsch-Luxemburgische Bergwerks- und Hütten-AG mining company. Upon the death in 1924 of the founder, Hugo Stinnes, Vögler became manager. In 1918, with Gustav Stresemann, he was involved in the founding of the German People's Party (DVP) in the Weimar Republic. He criticised the policies of Joseph Wirth who signed agreements with France in accordance with Germany's submission to the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. In 1924 he left the DVP. Between 1925 and 1927 he was a member of the Dortmunder Chamber of Commerce and president of the Rheinisch Westfäli coal syndicate. In 1926 he founded the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG and was its chairman until 1935. In 1927 he also became an honorary board member of his old university in Karlsruhe. As a business man, Vögler feared the rise of communism in Germany. Records of donations from Vögler to the Nazi Party from as early as 1931 exist. Vögler met Adolf Hitler on 11 September 1931. From 1932 Vögler openly funded the Nazi party. He was a member of the Freundeskreis Himmler.Hitler became German Chancellor on 30 January 1933. He held a meeting with Hermann Göring, and German industrialists on 20 February 1933. Vögler was present at this meeting. Hitler presented the Nazi Party's political plans, and received a total of three million marks in donations.From 1940 onwards, Vögler was heavily involved with the manufacture of munitions. He served in increasingly important positions under Albert Speer in the Ruhr industrial heartland from 1942 until 1944. He was president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (later Max Planck Society) from 1941 until his death in 1945. On 14 April 1945, in order to avoid capture by the US Army, Vögler committed suicide in Haus Ende, Herdecke.Orville Hungerford
Orville Hungerford (October 29, 1790 – April 6, 1851) was a two-term United States Representative for the 19th District in New York. He was also a prominent merchant, banker, industrialist, Mason and railroad president in Watertown, New York.R. E. B. Crompton
Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton, CB, FRS (31 May 1845 – 15 February 1940) was a British electrical engineer, industrialist and inventor. He was a pioneer of electric lighting and public electricity supply systems. The company he formed, Crompton & Co., was one of the world's first large-scale manufactures of electrical equipment. He was also an early campaigner for an international standard for electrical systems. He was involved with both the practical and academic sides of his discipline, being a founder member of the International Electrotechnical Commission and twice president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and a founder member of the Royal Automobile Club.Zeboim Cartter Patten
Zeboim Cartter Patten (1840 – 1925) was an American industrialist, capitalist, and American Civil War captain, born in Wilna, New York, who lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee and founded the Volunteer Life Insurance Company (now the Lincoln Financial Group), The Stone Fort Land Company (bought by Bob Corker in 1999), The T.H. Payne Company, and most notably the Chattanooga Medicine Company in 1879 which is now called Chattem.Allan Haines Loughead
Allan Haines Lockheed (January 20, 1889 – May 26, 1969), born Allan Haines Loughead, was an American aviation pioneer and engineer. He formed the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company along with his brother, Malcolm Loughead, that became Lockheed Corporation.Loughead legally changed his name to Allan Lockheed in 1934. He went on to form two other aircraft manufacturing companies in the 1930s. Both were unsuccessful. After World War II, he continued his career as a real estate salesman while occasionally serving as an aviation consultant. Allan Lockheed kept an informal relationship with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation until his death in 1969 in Tucson, Arizona.Vicente Martinez Ybor
Vicente Martinez-Ybor (7 September 1818 - 14 December 1896), was a Spanish entrepreneur who first became a noted industrialist and cigar manufacturer in Cuba, then Key West, and finally Tampa, Florida. Martinez-Ybor is best known for his founding the immigrant-populated cigar manufacturing town of Ybor City just outside Tampa, Florida in 1885. It was annexed by Tampa in 1887 and was a major factor in the community's rapid development from a small town into one of the largest cities in Florida and, for a time, the world's leader in cigar manufacturing. In addition to his Principe de Gales line of Cuban cigars, he founded many other businesses in Tampa including an insurance company, street paving, gas stations, a streetcar line, and Tampa's first brewery. For his workers, he built and sold hundreds of affordable homes, brought doctors to the area, and converted his original cigar factory into a social hall and theater for Tampa's first mutual aid society, El Centro Español de Tampa. His business interests were integral to the rapid expansion of the Port of Tampa and Tampa's overall economy.When Martinez-Ybor died in 1896, much of Tampa closed down to attend his funeral. He has been honored with a statue in Ybor City and a bust on the Tampa Riverwalk.Juan Serrallés Colón
Juan Eugenio Serrallés Colón (1836–1921) was the founder of Hacienda Mercedita in Ponce, Puerto Rico and what was to become Destileria Serralles, producers of "Don Q", a brand of Puerto Rican rum.William Milnes, Jr.
William Milnes Jr. (December 8, 1827 – August 14, 1889) was a nineteenth-century congressman and industrialist from Virginia and Pennsylvania.Herbert H. Franklin
Herbert Henry Franklin (September 1, 1866 – July 7, 1956) was an American automobile magnate, businessman and industrialist, Franklin was born in Lisle, New York, located in Broome County in Southern New York State.In 1886, at age 19, he moved to Coxsackie, New York, where he spent his early career as a newspaper editor for his uncle, who owned a newspaper and publishing company. Franklin remained in that capacity until 1892 when he became interested in "hydrostatic moulding process", or die casting. (Franklin has been credited with coining the term.) Not long after, he quit the newspaper business and relocated to Syracuse, New York.Franklin founded the H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company in 1893. The company specialized in machine die casting and made small parts such as gears and bearing caps. It was the first company in the world in that enterprise.In 1901, Franklin teamed up with engineer John Wilkinson to develop an air-cooled engine and in 1902, the Franklin automobile was born. Because he was the primary investor, Franklin assumed control of the company, and named the auto manufacturing division the Franklin Automobile Company. As president, he managed the company finances and business administration. Wilkinson was named as chief engineer and granted control of the engineering and manufacturing operation. Franklin died on July 7, 1956, in Syracuse, New York, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.Erskine Ramsay
Erskine Ramsay (September 24, 1864 – August 15, 1953) was an Alabama industrialist.Amadeo Barletta Barletta
Amadeo Barletta Barletta was born in Italy in 1894 and died in the Dominican Republic in 1975. He was a successful Italian entrepreneur who migrated to the Caribbean in the early years of the 20th century and made significant contributions to the modernization of transportation and the media in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. Barletta's unusual business acumen and character allowed him to overcome major adversities. A hurricane destroyed his properties in the Dominican Republic in 1930. Trujillo confiscated them in 1935. Batista seized his businesses in 1941. Fidel Castro expropriated them in 1960.Frank Kearton, Baron Kearton
Christopher Frank Kearton, Baron Kearton, OBE, FRS, FRSA (17 February 1911 – 2 July 1992), usually known as Frank Kearton, was a British life peer in the House of Lords. He was also a scientist and industrialist and former Chancellor of the University of Bath.Charles Bluhdorn
Charles George Bluhdorn (born Karl Georg Blühdorn; September 20, 1926 – February 20, 1983) was an Austrian-born American industrialist.- Aristotle Socrates Onassis (; Greek: Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotelis Onasis; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), commonly called Ari or Aristo Onassis, was a Greek shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men. He was known for his business success, his great wealth and also his personal life, including his marriage to Athina Mary Livanos (daughter of shipping tycoon Stavros G. Livanos). He was also known for his affair with famous opera singer Maria Callas and his 1968 marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of American President John F. Kennedy.Onassis was born in Smyrna (modern-day İzmir in Turkey) and fled the city with his family to Greece in 1922 in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War. He moved to Argentina in 1923 and established himself as a tobacco trader and later a shipping owner during the Second World War. Moving to Monaco, Onassis fought Prince Rainer III for economic control of the country through his ownership of SBM and its Monte Carlo Casino. In the mid-1950s, he sought to secure an oil shipping arrangement with Saudi Arabia and engaged in whaling expeditions. In the 1960s, Onassis attempted to establish a large investment contract—Project Omega—with the Greek military junta, and he sold Olympic Airways, which he had founded in 1957. Onassis was greatly affected by the death of his 24-year-old son, Alexander, in a plane crash in 1973, and he died two years later.
- Naveen Jindal (born 9 March 1970) is an Indian industrialist, and a former Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Kurukshetra, Haryana in the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha. He currently serves as the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited and Chancellor of O. P. Jindal Global University. He is an active campaigner for population stabilisation, women's empowerment, environmental conservation, health and education. As an acknowledgement of Jindal's support to his alma mater, the University of Texas at Dallas renamed its School of Management to Naveen Jindal School of Management in 2011. Along with his wife, a noted danseuse, Shallu Jindal – he founded the Flag Foundation of India, which is their effort to foster among Indian youth respect for the Tiranga and the values it embodies.
- Mana Al Otaiba (Arabic: مانع العتيبه) was born on 15 May 1946 to Saeed Al Otaiba in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Little else is known about Al Otaiba's personal life. Al Otaiba is the former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the United Arab Emirates under the presidency of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Al Otaiba then became his Personal Adviser until the president's death, after which he became the Private Advisor to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan , as well as a member of the Royal Moroccan Academy under King Hassan II. His son is Yousef Al Otaiba.
Aditya Vikram Birla
Aditya Vikram Birla (14 November 1943 – 1 October 1995), was an Indian industrialist. Born into one of the largest business families of India, he oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications. He was one of the first Indian industrialists to expand abroad, setting up plants in South east Asia, the Philippines and Egypt. His networth was estimated at £250 million by 1995. His death at the age of 52 left his young son Kumar Mangalam Birla in charge of his group of companies.- Morley Alvin Hudson (March 31, 1917 – June 15, 2001) was a Shreveport businessman, engineer, civic leader, and a pioneer of the modern Republican Party in Louisiana.
Keith Cochrane
Keith Robertson Cochrane is a Scottish businessman, currently Chief Executive of Weir Group plc, a British engineering company headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland.Thomas M. Carnegie
Thomas Morrison Carnegie (October 2, 1843 – October 19, 1886) was a Scottish-born American industrialist. He was the brother of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and co-founder of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works (a steel manufacturing company).Moola Narayana Swamy
Moola Narayana Swamy was an Indian film producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema, and Tamil cinema. He founded the Vauhini Studios which became one of the largest production companies in South Asia at that time. In later years, B. Nagi Reddy acquired Vauhini Studios, and later renamed it to Vijaya Vauhini Studios.- Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, GCFR (24 August 1937 – 7 July 1998) was a Nigerian Yoruba businessman, publisher, politician and aristocrat of the Yoruba Egba clan, he was the Aare Ona Kankafo of the Yoruba land. MKO Abiola ran for the presidency in 1993, for which the election results were annulled by the preceding military president Ibrahim Babangida because of allegations that they were corrupt and unfair. Abiola was awarded the GCFR posthumously on 6 June 2018 by President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria's democracy day was changed to June 12.Abiola was a personal friend of Babangida and he is believed to have supported Babangida's coming to power.Abiola's support in the June 1993 presidential election cut across geo-political zones and religious divisions, among a few politicians to accomplish such a spread during his time. By the time of his death, he had become an unexpected symbol of democracy.
James C. Donnell
James C. Donnell (April 20, 1854 – January 10, 1927) was an American industrialist. He was the president of The Ohio Oil Company from 1911 until his death in 1927.Leon Hess
Leon Hess (March 14, 1914 – May 7, 1999) was the founder of the Hess Corporation and the owner of the New York Jets.Charles Clow Tennant
Sir Charles Clow Tennant, 1st Baronet (4 November 1823 – 4 June 1906) was a Scottish businessman, industrialist and Liberal politician.Edward C. Stearns
Edward Carl Stearns (July 12, 1856 – April 21, 1929) was the founder of several companies in the late 19th century in Syracuse, New York, including E. C. Stearns & Company, Stearns Automobile Company, Stearns Steam Carriage Company, Stearns Typewriter Company and E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency.Kasturbhai Lalbhai
Kasturbhai Lalbhai (19 December 1894 – 20 January 1980) was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He co-founded the Arvind Mills along with his brothers and several other institutes. He was a cofounder of the Ahmadabad Education Society which initiated Ahmedabad University and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He served as the chairman of historic and influential Anandji Kalyanji Trust that manages Shatrunjaya and several other Jain pilgrimage centers, for 50 years.James Sloss
James Withers Sloss (7 April 1820 – 4 May 1890) was a planter, industrialist, and the founder of the Sloss Furnaces, and a leading figure in the early development of Birmingham, Alabama.Duane Leroy Bliss
Duane Leroy Bliss (June 10, 1833 – December 23, 1907) was a 19th-century American timber and mining magnate. He founded the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company from Gold Hill, Nevada. He eventually controlled every facet of the business from the land to the timber, ships and barges to move the timber, flumes and the railroad system he built.Stanley Dashew
Stanley Aaron Dashew (September 16, 1916 – April 25, 2013) was an American inventor who developed many devices in diverse industries, but remains best known as one of the founders of the plastic credit card industry during the 1950s. Working alongside Joseph P. Williams, then Vice President of Bank of America, Dashew introduced the Databosser, which embossed numbers read from an IBM punch card onto a credit card, originally aluminum alloy, then plastic. Dashew has been issued fourteen U.S. patents directly, and more than fifty assigned to his many companies. He has created mechanical systems in the business data, banking, shipping, mining, transportation, marine recreation, water purification, and medical-health industries. These included the Databosser and Datawriter under Dashew Business Machines, the single point mooring buoy in Imodco (SBM Offshore), the Dashaveyor mining cars and people transport, a ship bow thruster under the Omnithruster Company, liquid aeration and oxygenation treatments through Omniphaser, wastewater purification system for Biomixer, Inc., and personal spinal decompression mobility devices under the title Dashaway on YouTube—the latter developed and marketed under his oversight, while in his nineties, from 2005 to 2010.Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the UK, he was called "Slater the Traitor" because he brought British textile technology to America, modifying it for United States use. He memorized the designs of textile factory machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry before migrating to the United States at the age of 21. He designed the first textile mills in the US and later went into business for himself, developing a family business with his sons. A wealthy man, he eventually owned thirteen spinning mills and had developed tenant farms and company towns around his textile mills, such as Slatersville, Rhode Island.Thomas A. O'Donnell
Thomas Arthur O'Donnell, was an Irish American pioneer in the California oil industry along with Edward L. Doheny, Charles A. Canfield and Max H. Whittier who became known as the "big four."John Singleton
John Desmond Singleton (born 9 November 1941) is an Australian entrepreneur. He built his success and wealth in the advertising business in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. He now has diverse investment interests in radio broadcasting, publishing and thoroughbred breeding and racing.Muljibhai Madhvani
Mulji Prabhudas Madhvani (1894–1958), commonly referred to as Muljibhai Madhvani was an Indian-born Ugandan businessman, entrepreneur, industrialist and philanthropist. Born in India, he migrated to Uganda when he was only 14 years old. In 1912, he started his first business in Jinja. He expanded and added to that initial investment and out of those efforts, the conglomerate known as the Madhvani Group was born.R. P. Goenka
Rama Prasad Goenka (1 March 1930 – 14 April 2013) was the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the RPG Group, a multi-sector Indian industrial conglomerate. Born in 1930, he was the eldest son of Keshav Prasad Goenka and grandson of Sir Badri Prasad Goenka, the first Indian to be appointed Chairman of the Imperial Bank of India (now the State Bank of India). His two younger brothers were Jagdish Prasad and Gouri Prasad. On Keshav Prasad Goenka's death, his businesses were split between the three brothers. Rama Prasad Goenka (better known as RP Goenka), established RPG Enterprises in 1979.He attended Presidency College in his home town of Kolkata and Harvard University in the United States. He was an M.P. in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house, of the Indian Parliament. Goenka was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of International Management Institute and a trustee of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. He was a president of the FICCI and the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. He once served as trustee of Tirupati Temple. Goenka was twice awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor of Japan. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions including the likes of Dunlop India and CESC in 1980, CEAT Tyres in 1982, RPG Life Sciences (then Searle India) and KEC International in 1985, the Gramophone Co. of India (now Saregama) in 1986, Spencers and Harrisons Malayalam in 1988, Bayer India, Firstsource Solutions Limited in 2012 and many more, R. P. Goenka came to be known as the 'takeover king' in his heyday. Goenka died on 14 April 2013 in Kolkata. He had two sons, elder Harsh Vardhan and younger Sanjiv. The Goenka family belongs to the Marwadi community of money-lenders and tradesmen, and hails originally from Rajasthan in western India. As early as the 19th century, an enterprising member of the family, Ramdutt Goenka, set up base in Kolkata, which was then the capital of India, and a major commercial hub of the British Empire. The family prospered in its traditional vocations of money-lending and trade. It was in the 1970s that Rama Prasad Goenka (b.1930) leveraged the family's wealth to take over a variety of industries and corporates and thus create a ready-made business conglomerate. Many of these corporates were stressed due to the socialistic policies and the "License Raj" then prevalent in India, and others were marked by the disagreements within the families of their owners. In a series of takeovers, RPG acquired such companies relatively cheap and used his financial resources and business acumen to make them viable. In this way, by the end of the 20th century, RPG had cobbled together a significant business empire. The Goenka business empire is remarkable for two things: firstly, the fact that none of their major ventures were founded by them, all being take-overs; and secondly, the resultant diversity and incoherence of these companies.Henry De Mel
Sir Henry Lawson De Mel, CBE, Chevalier (21 January 1877 – 8 May 1936) was a Ceylonese industrialist, lawyer, philanthropist and politician. He was a member of the Legislative Council and founder of the H.L. De Mel & Co.Henry De Mel was born 21 January 1877, the son of Jacob De Mel (1839-1919) and Dona Helena née Ferdinando (1850-1906), a cousin of Sir Charles Henry de Soysa. He was one of fourteen children and was educated at S. Thomas' College and Royal College, Colombo. In 1898, he started his legal career with the law firm Peiris & De Mel and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1904. He married Elsie Jayawickrame, the daughter of Mudaliyar S. H. Jayawickrame of Kurunegala. He later gave up his legal career to concentrate on his plantation and mining interests and was also an avid motorist. De Mel was the producer and exporter of the world's highest quality graphite and supplied Dixon Ticonderoga Company.In 1919, de Mel became the first Ceylonese CBE. In 1921 he was elected unopposed to the Legislative Council of Ceylon on behalf of the Low Country Products Association and at the same election his brother-in-law, Sir James Peiris, was also elected. In 1931 he was knighted for his services to the government of Ceylon.His sons were the Right Reverend Lakdasa De Mel (1902-1976), the first Bishop of Kurunegala and R. S. F. de Mel, a former Mayor of Colombo. His daughter, Irene, married Dr. Percival Cholmondeley Chalmers de Silva (1904-1987), a renowned pediatrician.On 8 May 1936 De Mel died of injuries sustained after being shot while trying to resolve a dispute between two workers on one of his vast coconut plantations.Wilhelm Schauman
Berndt Wilhelm Schauman (8 November 1857 – 14 November 1911) was a Finnish industrialist, the most important in Jakobstad at the beginning of the 20th century. He was the older brother of Ossian Schauman, and a member of the Schauman noble family. Wilhelm Schauman's first industrial installation was a small chicory (coffee additive/substitute) factory, which he founded in 1883. He was also involved in the local tobacco factory as part of the management. Apart from this, he continuously founded new enterprises such as a sugar refinery, a steam-powered saw mill and a plywood factory, which was the first of its kind in Finland. His enterprises soon expanded beyond the borders of Jakobstad. A paper and pulp mill was later built in Jakobstad, and remains today as the largest factory in Jakobstad. It is owned by UPM-Kymmene, as a result of a merger in 1988.Rajan Raheja
Rajan Raheja (born 1953) is an Indian billionaire businessman who lives in Mumbai.Salvador Vassallo
Salvador Vassallo may refer to: Salvador Vassallo (businessman) (1942–2007), president and CEO of Vassallo Industries Salvador Vassallo (swimmer) (born 1968), Puerto Rican former swimmerRagib Ali
Ragib Ali (Bengali: রাগীব আলী; born 10 October 1938) is a Bangladeshi-born British industrialist, pioneer tea-planter and educationalist. He is also associated with bank, insurance companies, and many other business houses. He is the founder of leading university, Sylhet In 2017, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.Eugen Wüster
Eugen Wüster was an industrialist and terminologist.Zulfiqar Mirza
Zulfiqar Mirza is a Pakistani politician who is affiliated with the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). He is from Badin District, Sindh, Pakistan. He acquired his secondary education at Cadet College Petaro in the late 1960s, and graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences at Jamshoro. Zulfiqar is married to Fahmida Mirza who was elected as the first female Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan on March 19, 2008. She is also the first female parliamentary speaker in the Muslim world. Zulfiqar Mirza was the Home Minister of Sindh till June 2011. Zulfiqar was assigned the portfolio of Jails and prisons, as well as the portfolio of Senior Minister for Works, Services and Forest in the Sindh cabinet. He remained a member of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, and a member of the PPP Central Executive Committee, and Vice President of PPP (Sindh) till 28, August 2011. He is suspended from the committee in 2015.He is also a member of the board of directors of Mirza Sugar Mills located in Badin District, Sindh. He is also the father of Member of National Assembly, Hasnain Mirza.- Lagadapati Rajagopal (born 1964) is an industrialist and former politician. He was the 15th Lok Sabha MP from the Vijaywada constituency for Indian National Congress. He resigned from Parliament and quit politics after the Telangana Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha. Rajagopal is the principal shareholder of Lanco Infratech.
