Bernard Marcus, a pharmacist's son from a Newark tenement who couldn't afford Harvard Medical School, co-founded Home Depot in 1978 and led it as CEO and chairman until 2002.
Fired from Handy Dan in 1978, Arthur Blank co-founded Home Depot with Bernard Marcus, opened the first stores in Atlanta in 1979, and later bought the Atlanta Falcons.
Ted Turner took over his father's billboard company in 1963 and built the Turner Broadcasting System, launching CNN in 1980 as the first 24-hour cable news channel. He gave $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation.
Sara Blakely turned $5,000 in savings and a pair of cut-off pantyhose into Spanx, then launched the footwear brand Sneex in 2024. She was named to the Time 100 in 2012.
