Dan Gilbert delivered pizzas to pay for college, co-founded Rocket Mortgage, founded Rock Ventures and owns the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kenneth Chenault spent 37 years at American Express, leading it as chairman and CEO from 2001 to 2018, and now chairs the venture firm General Catalyst.
Larry Fink co-founded BlackRock, now the world's largest money manager with more than $10 trillion in assets under management, after starting as a mortgage-backed securities trader at First Boston.
Sallie Krawcheck rose from Sanford C. Bernstein analyst to head of Bank of America's wealth division, then founded Ellevest, an investing platform for women, in 2016.
Ben Horowitz co-founded Loudcloud, turned it into Opsware and sold it to HP for $1.6 billion in 2007, then co-founded Andreessen Horowitz with Marc Andreessen.
Lloyd Blankfein led Goldman Sachs as chairman and CEO from 2006 to 2018, guiding it through the 2008 financial crisis, and has been senior chairman since 2019.
Charlie Munger was Warren Buffett's closest partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway from 1978 until 2023, credited as the architect of its business philosophy.
Alice Walton, the world's richest woman as of July 2025 at $116 billion, founded the investment bank Llama Company in 1988 and helped develop the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
Marcus Goldman, a Bavarian schoolteacher who emigrated in 1848, founded what became Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest investment banks.
Andrew Mellon built Mellon National Bank and Union Trust into Pittsburgh's leading financial institutions before serving as US Treasury Secretary from 1921 to 1932.
Michael Milken built the junk bond market at Drexel Burnham Lambert, pleaded guilty to securities violations in 1990 and was pardoned in 2020, and now funds medical research through the Milken Institute.
Jack Bogle founded Vanguard and popularized the low-cost index fund, preaching long-term investing and minimal fees.
