Founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs.
Ev Williams grew up on a Nebraska farm, founded Blogger, co-founded Twitter and later created Medium and the venture firm Obvious Ventures.
Sheryl Sandberg was Facebook's COO from 2008 to 2022, credited with making its advertising business profitable, and is the founder of LeanIn.Org.
Jan Koum arrived in California from Ukraine at 16, worked as a grocery-store cleaner and co-founded WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $19.3 billion.
Aaron Levie turned a 2004 USC class project on cloud storage into Box, dropping out in 2005 to launch it as box.net.
Ben Silbermann left Google to build iPhone apps, and after his first app failed teamed up with Evan Sharp to create Pinterest, launched in March 2010.
Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian pitched Y Combinator's Paul Graham after a spring-break drive to Boston and ended up creating Reddit, the 'front page of the Internet'.
Bob Iger led Disney for 15 years, buying Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, and returned as CEO in 2022 before handing over to Josh D'Amaro in 2026.
Jeffrey Katzenberg ran Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, co-founded DreamWorks SKG and its Shrek franchise, then founded WndrCo and the short-lived Quibi.
Jerry Jones, a 1964 national champion at Arkansas, bought the Dallas Cowboys from Bum Bright in 1989 and hired college teammate Jimmy Johnson as his first coach.
Robert Kraft took control of a packaging company through a 1968 leveraged buyout, founded International Forest Products and has owned the New England Patriots since 1994.
Jerry Buss grew up poor with a waitress mother, earned a chemistry degree in two and a half years and bought the Lakers in 1979, winning 10 championships and building the Showtime era.
Robert Kiyosaki, a Merchant Marine Academy graduate from Hilo, Hawaii, wrote the Rich Dad Poor Dad series and founded The Rich Dad Company. His seminar business has also drawn lawsuits and critical documentaries.
