1OO INNOVATORS, DISRUPTORS AND CHANGE-MAKERS IN BUSINESS

Compiled by the editors of Crain Communications Inc. publications across the United States

CONGRATULATIONS to Crain Communications and company president and Medill alumnus Rance Crain on 100 years of serving the information needs of business professionals.

G.D. Crain’s publishing philosophy was simple in 1916 and has

endured for 100 years.

Find an area where there is a real information need, then “put the

reader first from the first day.”

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Dear Crain Reader

C rain Communications is celebrating 100 years in business, and to mark this milestone, we wanted to do what we do

best; tell the stories of business leaders like you. We have created this special supplement as a token of thanks to you, the loyal readers of our many Crain publications, and to celebrate our success and yours.

In this Crain 100 supplement, our award-winning publications have come together to compile a list of 100 global leaders who are making an impact in the industries and markets we serve. Men and women who have made a difference in their fields through a combination of hard work, integrity and maybe just a bit of good fortune, much the same way Crain has thrived for 100 years.

Crain founder, GD Crain Jr., once wrote, “Personalities pass. Principles persist.” While Crain has grown over the years through the efforts

and talents of great people, remaining true to our founding principles – like putting readers first and treating your employees like part of the family – is what will keep us growing for many years to come.

We are as excited about our future as we are proud of our past.

In an era of sound bites and clickbait, we know that success in media will only occur through continued investment in quality journalism and the latest technology, delivering business news and information to our audience when, where and on whichever device they choose.

Over the past 100 years, there have been many ups and downs for our company and our industry. No one can predict what the future holds for media but, rest assured, Crain’s award-winning publications will continue to thrive by putting you first. For 100 years and beyond, your success has been the key to ours. We hope you enjoy this special tribute to leaders like you.

Thank you.

Crain Communications Inc, corporate headquarters as well as headquarters for Automotive News, Autoweek, Crain’s Detroit Business and Plastics News.

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1OO YEARS OF TELLING GREATSTORIES

A ll over the world, the publications of Crain Communications Inc. cover the ways that business is changing, adapting and pushing boundaries.

This publication, the Crain 100, is a compilation of the people behind the changes we write about.

The people who are profiled represent new ideas and old ideas – but often the mix of new and old.

Theo Epstein took the age-old sport of baseball, but applied data and analytics to re-form the Chicago Cubs. John Bogle took the idea of investing, but became the creator of the index fund as we know it. Matt Maloney took the simple idea of ordering food and created GrubHub as a way to make it more efficient.

The 100 people, such as Epstein, Bogle and Maloney, were chosen to be featured in this section by the editors of 13 media brands owned by Crain Communications. It was an effort that spanned newsrooms across the United States and beyond.

The key is the expertise from the news brands within Crain.

Automotive News, for example, offered glimpses of the people changing the auto industry. Advertising Age profiled those influencing media and advertising. A diverse range of businesses were profiled in regional publications such as Crain’s Detroit Business, Crain’s Chicago Business and the new email-based publications covering cities like Atlanta, Indianapolis and Los Angeles.

In heated newsroom debates, each publication chose the change-makers whom they cover on a regular basis. The Crain 100 tells those stories definitively, much like the stories written daily by its media brands.

THESE EDITORS HELPED CRAFT THIS LIST: Ken Wheaton, Advertising AgeJason Stein and Krishnan Anantharaman, Automotive NewsMichael Arndt, Crain’s Chicago BusinessElizabeth McIntyre, Crain’s Cleveland Business Jennette Smith, Crain’s Detroit BusinessJeremy Smerd, Crain’s New York BusinessFred Gabriel, Investment NewsMerrill Goozner, Modern HealthcareAmy Resnick, Pensions & InvestmentsDonald Loepp, Plastics NewsBruce Meyer, Rubber & Plastics NewsDavid Zielasko, Tire BusinessRob Elder and Jennifer Fisher, Crain’s National

CR AIN 100 TEAM:Editor: Daniel Duggan, Crain’s Detroit BusinessSales Director: Patrick Cannon, Plastics NewsDesign: Ken Ross, Autoweek

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Angela Ahrendts 8 Senior vice president-retail, online stores | Apple Inc. | Cupertino, Calif.

Shonda Rhimes 10Founder, chairman, CEO | ShondaLand | Los Angeles

Brian Lesser 11North American CEO | GroupM | New York

Indra Nooyi 12Chairman, CEO | PepsiCo | Purchase, N.Y.

Jeff Bezos 13CEO, chairman, founder | Amazon | Seattle

Mark Zuckerberg 13Founder, CEO | Facebook | Menlo Park, Calif.

Evan Spiegel 14Co-founder, CEO | Snapchat | Venice, Calif.

Elon Musk 16CEO | Tesla Motors | Palo Alto, Calif.

Mark Rosekind 17Administrator | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | Washington, D.C.

Jen-Hsun Huang 18CEO | Nvidia Corp | Santa Clara, Calif.

Mary Barra 19Chairman, CEO | General Motors Co. | Detroit

Akio Toyoda 19CEO | Toyota Motor Corp. | Toyota City, Japan

Sergey Brin 20President | Alphabet Inc. | Mountain View, Calif.

Travis Kalanick 21CEO | Uber | San Francisco

Theo Epstein 22President of Baseball Operations | Chicago Cubs | Chicago

Matt Maloney 23CEO | GrubHub | Chicago

Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky 24Co-founders | Uptake | Chicago

Jeanne Gang 25Founding principal | Studio Gang Architects | Chicago

Mary Dillon 26CEO | Ulta Beauty | Bolingbrook, Ill.

Tavi Gevinson 27Founder | Style Rookie | New York

Michael Ferro 27Chairman | Tronc | Chicago

Dr. Toby Cosgrove 28President, CEO | Cleveland Clinic | Cleveland

LeBron James 29NBA superstar, entrepreneur | Cleveland Cavaliers | Cleveland

Beth Mooney 30Chairman, CEO | KeyCorp | Cleveland

Michael Symon 31Celebrity chef | Cleveland

Joe Kanfer 32CEO, chairman | GOJO Industries | Akron, Ohio

CONTENT

C H I CAG O B U S I N E SS�

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Jodi Berg 32President, CEO | Vitamix | Cleveland

Larry Bell 34Founder | Bell’s Brewery Inc. | Galesburg, Mich.

Dan Gilbert 35Founder, chairman | Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC | Detroit

Aaron Dworkin 36Dean | School of Music, Theatre & Dance, University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, Mich.

Mary Campbell 37Co-founder | EDF Ventures | Ann Arbor, Mich.

Chris Ilitch 38CEO | Ilitch Holdings Inc. | Detroit

Ann Marie Sastry 38Founder | Sakti3 Inc. | Ann Arbor, Mich.

Bernard J. Tyson 40CEO | Kaiser Permanente | Oakland, Calif.

Kenneth Frazier 41Chairman, CEO | Merck & Co. | Kenilworth, N.J.

Dr. Ramanathan Raju 42President, CEO | New York City Health + Hospitals | New York

Joseph Swedish 43President, CEO | Anthem Inc. | Indianapolis

Milton Johnson 44CEO | HCA Holdings Inc. | Nashville, Tenn.

Dr. John Noseworthy 44CEO | Mayo Clinic | Rochester, Minn.

Judith Faulkner 45CEO | Epic Systems Inc. | Verona, Wis.

John Bogle 46Founder | Vanguard Group | Valley Forge, Pa.

Warren Buffett 46Chairman, CEO | Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | Omaha, Neb.

Sheryl Garrett 48Founder, President | Garrett Planning Network Inc. | Eureka Springs, Ark.

John Rogers 49CEO | Ariel Investments | Chicago

Sallie Krawcheck 50Co-founder and CEO | Ellevest Chairwoman | Pax Ellevate Management and Ellevate Network | New York

Joe Mansueto 50Chairman, CEO | Morningstar Inc. | Chicago

Adam Neumann 52Co-founder, CEO | WeWork | New York

Danny Meyer 53Founder | Shake Shack, Union Square Hospitality | New York

Beth Comstock 54Vice chair | General Electric Co. | New York

Evan Greenberg 55CEO | Chubb Ltd. | Zurich, Switzerland and New York

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CONTENTArianna Huffington 55Founder | Huffington Post | New York

Ken Chenault 56CEO | American Express | New York

Tory Burch 57Chairman, co-CEO | Tory Burch | New York

Olivia Mitchell 58Professor | Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia

Robin Diamonte 60Chief Investment Officer | United Technologies | Farmington, Conn.

Neel Kashkari 61President, CEO | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis | Minneapolis

Gina Raimondo 61Governor | State of Rhode Island | Providence, R.I.

Phyllis Borzi 62Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security | U.S. Department of Labor | Washington, D.C.

Laurence D. Fink 63Chairman, CEO | BlackRock | New York

Maureen Steinwall 64Owner, president Steinwall Inc. | Coon Rapids, Minn

Marc Verbruggen 65CEO | Natureworks LLC | Minnetonka, Minn.

John Manuck 65Chairman, CEO | Techmer PM | Clinton, Tenn.

Anne Forristall Luke 66President, CEO | Rubber Manufacturers Association | Washington, D.C.

Leo Gerard 66President | United Steelworkers | Pittsburgh

Greg Nelson 67Chairman, CEO | East West Copolymer & Rubber LLC | Baton Rouge, La.

Bruce Halle 68Founder | Discount Tire/America’s Tire | Scottsdale, Ariz

Jody DeVere 68CEO | AskPatty.com Inc. | Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Robert Gross 68Executive chairman | Monro Muffler Brake Inc. | Rochester, N.Y.

Kevin Plank 70CEO | Under Armour | Baltimore

John Haugen 71General manager | 301 Inc. | Minneapolis

Stephen J. Hemsley 72CEO | UnitedHealth Group Inc. | Minnetonka, Minn.

Palmer Luckey 72Founder | Oculus VR LLC | Irvine, Calif.

Dawn Hudson 73CEO | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | Beverly Hills

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Jessica Livingston 74Co-founder, partner | Y Combinator | Mountain View, Calif.

Bernie Marcus 75Philanthropist, founder | The Marcus Foundation | Atlanta

Lucie Austin 75Marketing director for Western Europe | Coca-Cola Co. | Atlanta

Brooks Buffington & Tyler Droll 76Founders | Yik Yak | Atlanta

Daryl Holt 76Vice president, group chief operating officer | Electronic Arts | Orlando, Fla.

Niraj Shah 77CEO, co-chairman | co-founder | Wayfair | Boston

Rupal Patel 78Founder, CEO | VocaliD | Boston

Roland Swenson 78Co-founder | SXSW | Austin, Texas

Gene Stefanyshyn 79Senior vice president of innovation and racing development | NASCAR | Concord, N.C.

Gary Kelly 79CEO | Southwest Airlines | Dallas

Mark Bertolini 80Chairman, CEO | Aetna | Hartford, Conn.

Nicole Glaros 80Chief product officer | Techstars | Boulder, Colo.

Angie Hicks 81Co-founder, CMO | Angie’s List | Indianapolis

Manny Medina 82Founder | eMerge Americas, Managing partner, Medina Capital | Miami

John Lord 82Owner | LivWell Enlightened Health | Denver

Tony Hsieh 84CEO | Zappos | Las Vegas

Steve Wynn 84Chairman, CEO | Wynn Resorts | Las Vegas

Jon Platt 85Chairman, CEO | Warner/Chappell Music | Los Angeles

Ann Patchett 86Co-owner | Parnassus Books | Nashville, Tenn.

Patrick Soon-Shiong 87Investor, entrepreneur | Los Angeles

Brian Chesky 87Co-founder, CEO | Airbnb | San Francisco

George A. Kalogridis 88President | Walt Disney World Resort | Orlando, Fla.

Randy Malinoff 89COO | Wizard World | Los Angeles

J. Craig Venter 90Founder, chairman, CEO | J. Craig Venter Institute | La Jolla, Calif.

Jeanne P. Jackson 91Strategic adviser | Nike Inc. | Beaverton, Ore.

Chris Granger 91President | Sacramento Kings | Sacramento, Calif.

Amy Banse 92Managing director and head of funds | Comcast Ventures | Philadelphia/San Francisco

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Angela AhrendtsSenior vice president-retail, online stores | Apple Inc. | Cupertino, Calif.

BY ADRIANNA PASQUARELLI

T he retail world gave a curious gasp two years ago when Apple Inc.

stretched its long arm to London to pluck Angela Ahrendts from her position as CEO of luxury brand Burberry to become the tech giant’s senior vice president of retail and online stores.

A fashion executive and savvy businessperson with a long and storied career at apparel brands including Donna Karan and Liz Claiborne, Ahrendts was credited with using technology and digital enhancements to revitalize the tired British brand into a modern luxury must-have during her eight-year reign. That Apple noticed Ahrendts’ accomplishments was no surprise given the tech brand’s focus on revolutionizing its fleet of more than 400 stores, 265 of which are in the U.S., to encourage more in-store visits by consumers.

The problem of merging online with brick-and-mortar, making it a seamless experience for all shoppers, regardless of geography, was one that Ahrendts, the daughter of a former model who was raised in Indiana, explored successfully at Burberry. She famously used dozens of iPhones to live stream the fashion brand’s runway show in London in 2013, and upgraded Burberry’s London store with magic mirrors that

become screens and added video-streaming microchips to clothing.“She understands very well how technology can impact different areas of the business,” said Carolina Milanesi, a principal analyst at San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm Creative Strategies. “She fits in very well [at Apple].”

Indeed, Ahrendts, who, with a compensation surpassing $25 million, was one of the highest paid female executives in the U.S. last year, recently unveiled the fruits of her labors at Apple. In May, 15 years after the debut of the first two Apple retail stores, the company revealed a new store design at its Union Square flagship in

San Francisco. The site is 100 percent powered by renewable energy and includes interactive themed windows, a customer support section lined with living trees, and a backyard gathering place — a forum-type area that’s open to the public around the clock and is meant to be a destination for both locals and visitors.

“This is more than just a store,” Ahrendts recently said, noting that her mission is to fully integrate the brand’s retail outposts into the fabric of their communities. “We are not just evolving our store design, but its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.”

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Shonda RhimesFounder, chairman, CEO | ShondaLand | Los Angeles

BY JEANINE POGGI

S honda Rhimes has redefined gender, sex and race on television.

As creator and showrunner for ABC’s “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” and executive producer of “How to Get Away With Murder,” “The Catch” and the upcoming “Still Star-Crossed,” Rhimes has truly altered the face of TV.

“Scandal” was the first network drama in 40 years to star an African-American woman, her female protagonists are multi-layered characters often in a position of power, and she isn’t afraid to depict sexy romances between genders.

Rhimes and her ShondaLand production company have managed to continue to create compelling event TV even as viewers are increasingly watching content on their iPads and phones on their own schedules.

Q: How has your strategy for creating TV hits evolved amid all of the changes in the TV ecosystem?A: I honestly feel like I’ve kept doing things pretty much the same way. The only way I knew how to make a show was to make a show that I thought was good and to write something I was excited by. … The secret sauce of the business that I can offer is my creativity and in order to keep my creativity

alive and fresh … I have to pretend that no one is watching the show, that there are no audiences, there are no ratings, I’m just telling a story.

Q: Do you have plans to create content outside of TV?A: Absolutely. Network television has obviously been very good to me and I love it,

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but there are a million other ways to tell stories now that are out there that are fascinating and I think monetizable and audiences can get really excited about. They provide an interesting challenge, but also just creatively new ways to be within your fences that you can’t necessarily do on network TV ... the size of a screen, the ability to put out 15 episodes at once, virtual reality, there’s a lot of different things those things offer that just are not offered by watching regular television. But there are a lot of things regular television offers that those things don’t offer. The idea that you can keep a crowd of people together and breathless and then make them all wait another week while they spend the week going, “What do you think is going to happen?” which we all did while watching “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” is still possible.

Q: What’s in store for ShondaLand?A: I feel that I am at a crucial point right now; ShondaLand is at a crucial point right now. We now have four shows on the air … two of them are not created by me. ... It has been really important to find shows that feel like our brand, that sound like our brand, because I want audiences to continue to depend on the fact that if it is a ShondaLand show they know what they are getting. You are not going to wonder what this is going to be and be really disappointed because we have jumped outside the box. … Right now, I am busy exploring what that brand can be. It is definitely beyond television.

Brian Lesser North American CEO | GroupM | New York

B rian Lesser was only 26 when, as a senior strategist at digital agency iXL, he was assigned to

help brokerage TD Waterhouse build its first online-trading system. Now, the young digital vet, in his early 40s, is North American CEO of WPP’s GroupM, one of the largest media buying operations in the world.

It wasn’t such a sudden leap. After working at a few digital startups, he joined digital exchange 24/7 Media. He eventually became CEO of WPP’s digital trading desk and programmatic buying hub Xaxis, which absorbed 24/7

after WPP acquired it. With an influx of traditional media dollars moving over to the complex digital buying space, he built and led Xaxis toward massive growth. And he did all that while launching a separate entity called Media Innovation Group, which WPP describes as a technology development organization dedicated to media buying and optimization.

Lesser is now tasked with bringing the larger, established GroupM buying network, which houses media agencies Mindshare, MediaCom, MEC, Maxus and Essence, as well as Xaxis, into the future. No small feat, but no big deal for this overachiever. Did we mention he has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia? — ALEXANDRA BRUELL

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Indra NooyiChairman, CEO | PepsiCo | Purchase, N.Y.

BY E.J. SCHULTZ

I ndra Nooyi has led PepsiCo for 10 years, steering the snacks and beverage giant

through a period in which changing consumer tastes have rocked big food companies. She has fiercely advocated for keeping the company’s food and beverage business under one roof, fending off pressure from an activist investor to split in two. Her resolve paid off as the company proved it can successfully manage beverages and snacks together. “There’s nothing broke to fix with PepsiCo today,” Evercore ISI stated in a recent note to investors in May after the activist investor, Trian Fund, sold its stake in PepsiCo.

Under Nooyi’s leadership, PepsiCo has funded healthier products such as Naked juice, Sabra hummus and Aquafina water. She has also green-lighted ambitious marketing efforts, such as the recent launch of a state-of-the-art content studio in New York City. The studio is pushing the boundaries of advertising, pumping out branded content while also pursuing distribution deals with film studios.

Nooyi has broad influence over PepsiCo’s internal culture. She is the architect of “Performance With Purpose,” which the company describes as its “promise to do what’s right for the business by doing what’s right for people and the planet.”

Goals include conserving global water supplies, creating a diverse workplace and reducing added sugar, sodium and fat across the company’s product line.

Nooyi, who was born in India, has described her upbringing as strict and rigid. She joined PepsiCo in 1994 as a strategic planner, balancing work and motherhood. She was promoted to chief financial officer in 2001 and CEO in 2006. Nooyi routinely appears on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, ranking 14th this year.

“When you actually ascend to the top, it’s a whole different ballgame, because you are it,” she said, reflecting on her career path in a video posted on Makers.com, which collects women’s stories. “Amplify that with the fact that you are foreign-born from an emerging market—diversity has taken on a richer meaning.”

She added: “Gender diversity has to be embraced as the only way for a company to be successful. I don’t think we have a choice.”

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Mark ZuckerbergFounder, CEO | Facebook | Menlo Park, Calif.

O n Oct. 28, 2003, then-19-year-old Harvard University sophomore

Mark Zuckerberg copied dormitory photo IDs from his school’s network so he could create a website that asked users to pick between two photos and select the one they thought was “hotter.”

The stunt was reported by his school’s newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and later depicted in the acclaimed 2010 movie “The Social Network.”

Today, Zuckerberg is known not as a college prankster but as the founder and CEO of Facebook, the world’s largest social networking platform, which has also made him one of the richest people alive, commanding a net worth of more than $51 billion.

The tech entrepreneur has reshaped a number of different landscapes, including the vistas

on which advertisers reach consumers, publishers distribute content and, more importantly, people connect with family, friends and much larger networks.

His efforts, though, don’t stop with Facebook. Zuckerberg’s company also owns other popular digital properties including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, each of which have a user base close to or more than 1 billion.

Zuckerberg has pushed for further innovation, in virtual reality with Oculus Rift, automated intelligence software, live video and 360-degree photos and videos.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made an unprecedented announcement last year when they said they would devote 99 percent of their Facebook shares to the cause of human advancement through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, devoted to areas such as health, education and energy. It kicked off with a $24 million investment in Andela, a company that looks to train software developers in Africa. — GEORGE SLEFO

Jeff BezosCEO, chairman, founder | Amazon | Seattle

J eff Bezos dominates the top of most lists — top tech entrepreneur, top innovator in retail, top choice in dining companion to

have one meal with, and more.The 52-year-old Bezos, who built Amazon from

a garage startup in 1994 into a retail behemoth now generating over $100 billion in revenue, has been fascinating the world for decades. In addition to Amazon, which posted record profits during the most recent holiday season and continues to gobble up market share from the competition, Bezos innovates through Blue Origin, which tests flights into space, and Bezos Expeditions, where he invests in groundbreaking new ventures like a cancer research firm.

Worth an estimated $57 billion, he’s experimenting with drone delivery and digital entertainment, while also modernizing news media through his ownership of the Washington Post, which the Albuquerque, N.M., native bought for $250 million three years ago.

Amazon has been called the “Everything Store”; Bezos is on his way to becoming the “Everything Man.” — ADRIANNA PASQUARELLI

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Evan SpiegelCo-founder, CEO | Snapchat | Venice, Calif.

BY MAUREEN MORRISON

S napchat CEO Evan Spiegel may be a college dropout, but he’s become

one of the world’s youngest billionaires and reshaped the media business in the process.

Having studied product design at Stanford University, Spiegel — with co-founders Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown — originally developed Snapchat as a way for people to send photos and videos that disappeared after viewing. But over the last year and a half, Snapchat has expanded itself into a must-have for millions of consumers, not to mention the

advertisers and media properties frantic to reach them.

The platform is so attractive that Facebook tried to buy it for $3 billion. Spiegel turned the offer down.

That now looks like it was a good move: The company’s valuation today exceeds $20 billion. Why? For one thing, Snapchat is expected this year to surpass both Twitter and Pinterest for daily users.

It’s also cemented itself as a new type of media platform via Snapchat Discover, which has forced media companies to rethink how to make their work most compelling. Publishers including BuzzFeed, Vice, CNN, ESPN and others are using it to publish news tailor-made for mobile audiences of millennials and their younger siblings. Sports leagues like the

NFL and MLB are using it to offer fans a crowdsourced way to watch a game. And Snapchat has persuaded big brands like Procter & Gamble, Ford and Coca-Cola to buy ads against the more than nearly 150 million people who use the app daily.

And Snapchat recently revamped to better show off its media partners’ headlines, give more opportunities to marketers and expand its services for consumers into, for example, text chats — making it a direct competitor to Facebook Messenger, among others.

Controversies over Spiegel’s college emails, for example, tag along behind him. But he’s rewriting the rules of connecting with consumers, one Snap at a time.

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ANNIVERSARYA centennial celebration is a time to reflect on the innovations, events,

and companies that have shaped your business throughout the years.

As we at Kelly® celebrate our 70th anniversary, we are doing the same.

Let us both take this time to recognize our history, our Detroit heritage,

and our gratitude and commitment to the many people that make up

our family of companies.

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An Equal Opportunity Employer © 2016 Kelly Services, Inc. 16-0599

Crain Communications, on your

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Elon MuskCEO | Tesla Motors | Palo Alto, Calif.

BY KRISHNAN M. ANANTHARAMAN

E lon Musk didn’t invent the electric car. He didn’t pioneer any next-gen

battery technology. He didn’t even create Tesla Motors.

What he did do was forge the first functioning marketplace for an electric vehicle, in that sweet spot where insatiable demand meets a six-figure price. And he did so by making the cars not just sophisticated and efficient, but irresistible to the status-conscious buyer.

“People thought electric cars were like a golf cart: they were slow, didn’t maneuver well, had low range, were ugly,

didn’t have much functionality,” Musk told an audience of both skeptics and believers at last year’s Automotive News World Congress. “We had to show people that electric cars could be fast, sexy, handle well, long range and be a great car.”

Tesla’s vehicles have mostly delivered on that premise, impressing critics, regulators and customers, who are lining up to pay $100,000 or more for “ludicrous” acceleration, gull-wing doors, autopilot features and one of the auto world’s most fashionable badges.

Yet the vehicles are just part of a broader Musk vision that calls for reorienting the entire automotive market away from fossil fuels. That’s why he wants the industry to embrace electrification, and sees every new report about a competitor’s “Tesla fighter” not as a threat but

as validation of that vision. “Electric cars are just

fundamentally better,” said Musk, ever soft-spoken yet self-assured. “I think that’s where the future is going to go, but it’s only going to go there if the big car companies make risky decisions to do electric vehicles.”

If Musk speaks of the inherent superiority of electrification as if his company’s survival depends on it, that’s because it does. Tesla doesn’t have a lineup of gasoline-powered pickup trucks to subsidize its battery experiments or even hybrids to hedge its bets. It depends heavily on the perseverance of investors who will put up with its lack of profitability, manufacturing hiccups and disregard for timelines.

And it depends on Musk himself, the one-man PR operation who melts hearts and moves markets with his blogs and tweets, not to mention his sidelines in space travel and solar energy.

The question now is whether the notorious taskmaster can make factory machinery move to his whims. Tesla builds some 50,000 vehicles a year. By 2018, Musk wants to build 10 times as many, an unprecedented ramp-up that will cost his company billions of dollars.

It’s not just ambition talking. It’s economics. Musk and Tesla need that scale to be able to offer EVs, like the coming Model 3, at prices ordinary people can afford.

In the process, some of the sophistication and sex appeal that got Tesla this far may be lost. But if Musk can’t meet that industrial challenge, his entire vision will be at risk.

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Mark RosekindAdministrator | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | Washington, D.C.

BY RYAN BEENE

M ark Rosekind is an expert on human fatigue. And he’s tired.

Tired of watching the auto industry lurch from recall to recall, and crisis to crisis, while the creaking gears of government regulation try to keep up.

His appointment in December 2014 to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filled a vacancy that had been open for a year — the very year that a faulty ignition switch convulsed General Motors Co. and led to record recall numbers — leaving Rosekind just two years in his term to try to effect meaningful change.

So he has pursued that mission tirelessly, doling out tough penalties for safety violations

but also using his enforcement powers to compel automakers to change their internal systems and attitudes toward safety. And he has embraced demands for reforms within the agency itself.

Q: Is the recall system broken?A: It’s been broken for a long time. You can put Band-Aids on or you can step back and say, “How do you fix this system?” A lot of times the reactive part gets it fixed for the short term, but when you haven’t fixed the whole system, or you haven’t fixed the major underlying foundational pieces, then what happens? It just erupts again. What keeps me up at night is knowing there’s stuff in the system that’s been around for years that could erupt.

Q: So how do you fix it?A: What we have done is try to focus on the structure, the people and the processes. We’ve tried to make some fundamental differences and changes in how [NHTSA’s] Office of Defect Investigations does its job. Will

it go far enough? That will not be answered for some years probably.

Q: Will the changes you’ve put in place stick after you leave?A: That’s the critical question right now. We’ve already acknowledged that these are cultural mindset changes. We can’t get it all done in two years, but let’s get stakes in the ground and set the path. I think the critical part now is getting those stakes really deep.

Q: Defects are a small part of our safety problem — 94 percent of traffic deaths are caused by human error. Are autonomous vehicles the answer?A: I think they’re a big part of getting to zero. We have to make sure the conversation is reality-based. I don’t care how great the technology is. If it were available tomorrow, it could take 20 or 30 years to have it penetrate the fleet. And so humans and that 94 percent human-factors element of crashes could all be on the road for decades.

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Jen-Hsun HuangCEO | Nvidia Corp. | Santa Clara, Calif.

BY DAVID SEDGWICK

J en-Hsun Huang has figured out how to harness computer

games — or more precisely, the computer chips that power them — to pilot driverless cars.

Huang’s company has developed a shoebox-sized supercomputer, dubbed Drive PX 2, which provides the processing power for test vehicles at Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Toyota.

With the calculating power of 150 MacBook Pro laptops, the PX 2 learns to identify previously unseen obstacles by uploading them to a central computer, which compares

them to millions of images in its memory, which is continually updated through countless such encounters. The idea is for the robotic mind of an automobile to improve its driving capabilities over time, the same way humans do.

Huang may someday become a household name in the auto industry, but he’s already a celebrity in gaming circles.

Following a stint as a microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Huang co-founded Nvidia on his 30th birthday in 1993. And that’s when he had his great insight.

Huang recognized that gamers would pay handsome prices for graphical processing units, or GPUs, that produced cutting-edge images. Microsoft’s Xbox controllers, for example, use Nvidia chips.

As automakers developed more features that required high-speed processing and

rendering of images — such as 3-D navigation maps and cameras — Huang spotted a new market. Tesla, Audi and others now use Nvidia chips to generate high-quality graphics for their instrument panels. And 50 automakers, suppliers, software developers and research institutions are testing Nvidia’s Drive PX computer in their self-driving vehicles.

Huang’s appearances at the annual CES show in Las Vegas, and at Nvidia’s own developer conferences, have become mandatory events for automotive journalists. And his customers are treating him as an equal.

When Audi CEO Rupert Stadler showcased a self-driving A7 sedan at the 2014 CES show in Las Vegas, he invited Huang onstage to share the applause.

In an industry where suppliers rarely share the limelight, that’s high praise.

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Akio ToyodaCEO | Toyota Motor Corp. | Toyota City, Japan

A kio Toyoda, a car-guy CEO equally at home in a racing suit

or a business suit, revived the world’s largest automaker during one of its darkest hours. Now he is reinventing it for a bold, disruptive future.

The makeover he is undertaking will sharpen Toyota’s game in everything from manufacturing and engineering to design and human resources. But the biggest transformation centers around his ambitions to build a leader in artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, autonomous driving, safety and zero-emissions cars.

Indeed, Toyoda invested $1 billion in a Silicon Valley startup to make Toyota as big a player in the software of tomorrow’s cars as it is in the hardware of today’s.

He also committed the company his grandfather

founded to slashing new-vehicle CO2 emissions 90 percent by 2050, all but eliminating the traditional combustion engine. Instead, Toyota is pioneering next-generation fuels such as hydrogen.

“We need to show the strength of will to forge new roads so that we can continue taking on challenges for the future, to build ever-better cars and develop an ever-stronger global team,” Toyoda told the media at a fiscal year-end news conference in Tokyo.

When Toyoda took the wheel in 2009, his family’s company was reeling from its first operating loss in 70 years. It was then slammed by a safety recall crisis related to unintended acceleration, and after that by Japan’s 2011 killer earthquake-tsunami.

But Toyoda powered Toyota back to record profits. And with the company’s R&D budget now brimming, Toyoda and Toyota are well positioned to deliver on the boss’ lofty targets. — HANS GREIMEL

Mary BarraChairman, CEO | General Motors | Detroit

M ary Barra became an overnight media sensation when she was named the first woman CEO of an automaker, shattering

the glass ceiling in the ultimate old boys’ network. But the spotlight switched to searing a few months later, as Barra was chastised in congressional hearings and parodied on “Saturday Night Live” over GM’s response to a major safety defect that would be linked to at least 124 deaths.

Barra’s baptism by fire fast became the stuff of auto industry lore. The career engineer and GM lifer got high marks for her transparency and swift response to the safety crisis. And she used it as a spark to jumpstart a much-needed cultural transformation.

“This is not just another business crisis for GM,” she said in June 2014 to nearly 1,000 employees who had gathered to hear the results of an unflinching outside report that laid bare GM’s dysfunction in painful detail. “I never want to put this behind us.”

Barra and her team bounced back from that lost year in 2015 to post GM’s biggest corporate profits ever. The company has been churning out a growing list of hit vehicles, and its quality and reliability ratings routinely rival those of Honda and Toyota.

Now, having exorcised some of the demons from GM’s past, Barra has moved on to securing its future. The company has moved more quickly than most automakers to position itself for the fast-changing ways in which people get around, striking deals with autonomous-driving startups and mobility companies such as Lyft.

“We’re not sitting there saying, ‘Oh, what are we going to do?’” Barra told Automotive News in 2015. “We’re saying, ‘Yeah, it’s changing, and we’re going to be a part of it.’” — MIKE COLIAS

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Sergey BrinPresident | Alphabet Inc. | Mountain View, Calif.

BY KRISHNAN M. ANANTHARAMAN

W ill Sergey Brin, co-founder of what’s now called Alphabet

Inc., ever deserve a place in the annals of automotive history alongside, say, Karl Benz or Henry Ford?

That depends on what sort of vehicles will be on the road decades from now — and whether humans will be driving them.

The fact that we don’t know yet is evidence of Brin’s improbable effect on the auto industry.

The Google self-driving car

project, just 7 years old, is busily swinging its shovel in a sandbox built by century-old auto giants like Daimler AG and Ford Motor Co. But already, Brin and his quest to create a highly mobile society free of the threat of deadly accidents have begun to redefine expectations of the modern automobile.

The parent company formerly known as Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 under a division called Google X that would serve as a laboratory and launching pad for what it calls “moonshot” ideas — huge problems requiring a mix of breakthrough technology, big money and radical thinking. Under the direction of experts in artificial intelligence, the division has since developed sophisticated software and several generations of vehicle prototypes that it’s

testing on public roads in places like Mountain View, Calif., and Austin, Texas.

The work is a departure from Google’s history of internet-based innovations, but it is a business direction that is “close to my heart,” the Russian-born Brin said in a report to investors. “Over a million auto fatalities per year worldwide make this a risk worth taking.”

Last year Google recruited auto industry veteran John Krafcik to lead the project, and it’s increasingly seeking partnerships with traditional auto manufacturers and suppliers to advance its vision. Meanwhile, automakers such as Daimler, Volvo and Toyota also are aggressively pursuing autonomous vehicle technology, inspired or at least catalyzed by Google’s groundbreaking work.

But there’s one key disconnect. The automakers aren’t immediately concerned with eliminating the role of the driver. Google is. It says it isn’t confident enough about the back-and-forth handoff of controls between drivers and computer. So rather than attempting to debug the human, Google decided to go for a fully independent driver-free car.

A moonshot for sure, but perhaps no more ambitious than building a one-line portal into every single thing on the internet.

“This project and others like it are very challenging, and the outcomes are far from certain,” Brin told his investors. “But just like when we started nearly two decades ago, it is possible to create the technology that allows people to lead healthier, happier lives.”

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Travis KalanickCEO | Uber | San Francisco

S ome people in the auto industry cause a stir. Travis Kalanick has

caused a riot.And it’s hard to explain

exactly why.On paper, the co-founder/

CEO of ride-share sensation Uber looks almost tangential to the car business. He doesn’t retail cars. He doesn’t wholesale, finance or design them. And he certainly doesn’t manufacture them or have any interest in doing so.

In fact, in June, the 38-year-old California entrepreneur admitted to an audience at a tech conference in Berlin that he had recently toured a German auto

factory and found the fuss and detail of it overwhelming.

But what Kalanick has done is shake the fundamental premise of the auto industry: that everybody needs to own a car.

And he has done it through a smartphone app.

It works like this: You take out your smartphone. You open the Uber app. You tell the app that you’re at your house and you’d like to go to Rick’s Cafe. The app tells you that it will cost you $9 – no tax, no tip – and that an Uber driver will be there to pick you up in 12 minutes.

Why is that a riot?Because if getting around

town can be that easy and that affordable, with no gas purchases, no parking fees and no car maintenance issues, who

needs to own a car?Certainly, Uber’s not for

everyone. And the wait for a ride on New Year’s Eve can be dreadful. Kalanick, now personally worth an estimated $6 billion, also has his hands full with legal challenges — from drivers who don’t understand why they shouldn’t accept a tip, to critics who feel Uber isn’t paying enough attention to personal safety issues, to cab drivers around the world who claim Uber is out to destroy their way of life.

But the idea has opened the door to revolutionary thinking in ways that mass transit never did, especially in urban environments, where a growing portion of the planet’s population now lives. — LINDSAY CHAPPELL

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Theo EpsteinPresident of Baseball Operations | Chicago Cubs | Chicago

BY DANNY ECKER

I n 2004, Theo Epstein did what previous general managers of the Boston

Red Sox had failed — often miserably and spectacularly — to do for 86 years: He led the team to a World Series championship. He did it by using a simple yet highly disruptive strategy. He stripped away subjectivity in analyzing players and let the numbers be his primary guide.

While Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane is famously credited in “Moneyball” with revolutionizing how teams evaluate talent, it was Epstein — then a 30-year-old with a degree in American studies from Yale University and a law degree from the University of San Diego — who first used the new brand of advanced statistical analytics to win a title.

Now he’s on the verge of doing it again in Chicago. The president of baseball operations for the Cubs has turned the team from a top-heavy collection of ugly contracts and amateurish on-field play into one of the game’s model franchises and a World Series favorite in just four years. His eye for market inefficiencies and talent both on and off the field has made him the most valuable baseball executive of this generation and likely a

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future member of baseball’s Hall of Fame.

But for all of the attention paid to his disruptive roster-building tactics—stockpiling talent through the draft, getting bloated contracts off the books and “paying for future performance, not past performance,” as he likes to say — his calling card has been culture change.

The Brookline, Mass., native literally rewrote the script for the Cubs by codifying “The Cubs Way,” a 300-page manual on baseball philosophy for every player, from the lowest-level prospects to all-stars. No detail was too trivial. His instruction book, for instance, includes specifics of how to round first base.

Getting everyone in the organization on the same page was a lasting lesson from Epstein’s Red Sox days, which ended with a late-season collapse in 2011. “Some of the worst decisions we made were in the face of these poor organizational beliefs,” Epstein said of his final seasons in Boston while speaking at a Crain’s Chicago Business event in 2012. “I didn’t learn quickly enough that winning and some success raises the expectations across the board. If you don’t manage it, it tends to grow out of control.”

If Epstein thinks expectations got too high in Fenway Park, just wait to see what will happen in Wrigley Field if he manages to end the Cubs’ unprecedented drought by bringing home their first World Series title in 108 years.

Matt MaloneyCEO | GrubHub | Chicago

BY JOHN PLETZ

M att Maloney was writing software at a Chicago dot-com in the early 2000s when he

got tired of ordering from the same pizza place every night. So he and fellow coder Mike Evans started GrubHub, a website to search for restaurants and order food.

“I remember going through a phone book trying to find the pizza shop that would deliver to me,” he says. “It was so annoying.”

Maloney, 40, a Michigan native with an MBA and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Chicago, was certain his creation filled an unmet need not only for him and his business

partner, but for hungry masses everywhere. Others were skeptical. GrubHub, which takes a percentage of each order made via its site, initially was rejected from the annual startup competition at Chicago’s Booth School of Businessin 2006. It went on to win, however.

He’s prevailed again and again. Locked in a land-grab battle with New York-based Seamless, Maloney took over his older and bigger rival in 2013 and then took the combined company public a year later.

He’s not done yet. Already in more than 1,000 U.S. cities, GrubHub has branched out into online delivery, too, taking on the likes of Amazon and Uber, though they dwarf his company. He vows to prove skeptics wrong once again. “In two or three years,” he says, “I wouldn’t be shocked if GrubHub was doing delivery for most of the restaurants who do delivery now.”

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Brad Keywell and Eric Lef kofskyCo-founders | Uptake | Chicago

BY JOHN PLETZ

B rad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky didn’t invent the internet, but they’ve

used it to reinvent a lot of old-school businesses: retailing, advertising, printing and trucking.

The two University of Michigan Law School grads, who grew up near Detroit, moved to Chicago in the early 1990s to become nationally known tech entrepreneurs. They were the behind-the-scenes guys who helped found what was then billed as America’s fastest-growing tech company ever, Groupon, which hit $1 billion in revenue in just over three years. ICYMI, the online-deal company fronted by CEO Andrew Mason, created a brand-new tool for small businesses to drum up customers with emailed discounts and went on to become an early leader in mobile commerce.

That’s not all. In addition to taking Groupon public in 2011—after brashly turning down a $6 billion offer from Google, a move they probably regretted after its stock market stumbles—Keywell and Lefkofsky IPOd two other companies, printing middleman InnerWorkings and Echo Global Logistics. Combined, the three Chicago-based businesses now are worth more than $3

billion and employed more than 13,500 at the end of 2015. Another venture, Mediaocean, an advertising-tech services firm based in New York, sold a majority stake to Vista Equity Partners that valued it at $720 million.

Their $200 million Lightbank venture capital fund, meantime, has helped launch more than 70 companies.

Keywell, 46, a protégé of

real estate billionaire Sam Zell (who graduated from the U-M a generation earlier), is a master sales closer and idea machine. Lefkofsky, also 46, is a bulldog who once described his approach this way: “I can only learn by doing something and failing. You can’t tell me to avoid a pothole; I have to drive it.”

They’ve already moved on to their next big things. Keywell is CEO of Uptake Technologies, a big-data startup in Chicago that’s helping Caterpillar and other big companies reinvent their businesses using Internet of Things sensors and predictive analytics. The Chicago-based company has been valued at more than $1 billion by investors. Along with co-founding Uptake, Lefkofsky, who was Groupon CEO from 2013 to 2015 and now is chairman, is working on a startup that’s still in stealth mode.

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Brad Keywell

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Jeanne Gang Founding principal | Studio Gang Architects | Chicago

BY ALBY GALLUN

A rchitect Jeanne Gang became the talk of the design world

when her first skyscraper, the daring 82-story Aqua Tower in downtown Chicago, was completed in 2010. They’re still talking about the 52-year-old MacArthur “genius grant” recipient as she’s taken on a string of high-profile projects, including the U.S. Embassy in Brazil and Vista Tower, a 95-story follow-up to Aqua, just a couple of blocks away.

Q: The Aqua was a breakthrough project for you. Can you talk a little bit about what you’ve learned from that job that has helped you in the

high-rise commissions you’ve won since then? A: What it really did, because of the scale of that project, was it helped eliminate doubts in anyone’s mind that we can handle a large project. Because at 1.5 million square feet, it’s really a very large size, and it was a great success and is extremely popular.

Q: You’ve designed skyscrapers, museums, theaters and even a police station. Is there any type of project that you haven’t designed that you have a burning ambition to tackle by the end of your career? A: I am interested in projects where we can help the organization (the client) kind of get into new territory, where an organization has a goal and the architecture can help get them there. It could be anything, honestly. I really don’t see

myself as someone who’s fixed on a certain type.

Q: You’ve used this term lately: “actionable idealism.” Can you talk a little bit about what you mean by that? A: That describes how our studio is trying to tackle some of the most difficult problems on the globe, whether it’s climate change or inequity between communities or urban decay. We like to zoom out and try to see how design can be part of that dialogue. But then we like to focus in on something that can be achieved and try to help get that first step going. So in a way, it’s kind of a global attitude, but also an idea about how important it is to make incremental success and action.

Q: What kinds of advances in architecture do you think we’ll see over the next 100 years? A: I think you are going to see buildings where every material used inside will be known and labeled, just like you do for food right now. We’ll see much more organic products and things that are less harmful to the environment than the current materials. We’ll build buildings that are more f lexible and usable for multiple different things. And I think you’ll also see big advances with technology — in other words, designing and building buildings using virtual reality and robotics. Think about a bone in the human body, how it grows and strengthens as you age. There’s probably a way to make buildings self-repair and even strengthen and grow in the future.

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Mary DillonCEO | Ulta Beauty | Bolingbrook, Ill.

BY BRIGID SWEENEY

M ary Dillon admits she wasn’t a regular Ulta Beauty shopper

before she took over as its CEO in 2013. These days, she tries on mascaras and lip glosses like a fashionista. But Dillon could go with a different product every day and still not come close to running through Ulta’s ever-growing inventory of more than 500 cosmetics, fragrance and hair care brands.

A marketing veteran, Dillon runs one of America’s hottest retailers of the 21st century. Since going public in 2007, the suburban Chicago company has

more than quadrupled revenue to $3.92 billion in fiscal 2015. It’s also tripled its store count to nearly 900, with plans to open another 100 locations before year’s end.

To some degree, Ulta benefits from simply being in the right place. Even as clothing sales have slowed, sending retailers from Gap to Macy’s into a tailspin and Aeropostale and American Apparel into bankruptcy, women still shell out for personal care items, whether an $18 concealer or a $100 anti-aging serum. But Ulta owes its outsize growth to Dillon’s careful strategy. She’s continued to add trendy new product lines to Ulta’s shelves and has positioned the stores as big, wide-open cosmetic Disneylands, full of unexpected discoveries and treats at every price point, from mass-market

standbys like Maybelline to high-end names like Chanel. Archrival Sephora’s stores, by comparison, can seem a bit cramped.

Dillon, 54, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and was the first in her family to attend college, gained expertise at PepsiCo’s Quaker Foods and then McDonald’s, where she oversaw a $2 billion advertising budget as global CMO. From there, she joined U.S. Cellular as CEO in 2010.

When she arrived at Ulta, Dillon temporarily pumped the brakes on store expansion to firm up e-commerce, supply chain and brand positioning. Thanks to her investments, Ulta’s online revenue has increased by almost 50 percent year-over-year, to $221 million in 2015. The company also began national television advertising for the first time because, as Dillon jokes, she was sick of hearing customers call the company “Ultra.”

Other retailers want a bigger piece of the beauty market. Macy’s purchased Bluemercury, a high-end beauty boutique, two years ago to lift cosmetics sales, while J.C. Penney has added mini-Sephoras to its department stores. Kohl’s and even Walgreens, meantime, are dolling up their personal care offerings.

For now, though, Dillon’s front-of-the-pack position looks secure. Already the country’s biggest specialty beauty retailer by sales, Ulta expects its e-commerce revenue to rise by another 40 percent this year. The company is again pushing full-steam ahead with bricks-and-mortar locations, aiming to have 1,200 stores by 2018.

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Tavi GevinsonFounder | Style Rookie | New York

BY CASSIE WALKER BURKE

A t age 11, she began blogging in her suburban Chicago bedroom; by 13, she was a darling of the

New York fashion scene. Like any teenager, Tavi Gevinson’s interests have zigged and zagged with each passing season, but she’s the rare wunderkind to spin her dalliances into publishing gold, bucking some generally depressing media trends along the way.

Rookie, her online magazine for teens, hit the million-visitor mark six days after its launch in 2012. A daily whirl of teenage essays, collage art and celebrity advice columns (the “Ask a Grown Man” series has featured comedian Bill Hader, actor Paul Rudd and the band Vampire Weekend), Rookie still nails authenticity four years later. Where else would you also

find such silliness as “Life Skill: How to Help Someone Who is Suddenly Barfing in Public” and super-serious think pieces on how it feels to be a black teenager in post-Trayvon Martin America. That virtue has carried the brand (and the Rookie editor-in-chief) beyond the internet and into book publishing and reader events sponsored by the likes of Urban Outfitters.

It seems wherever Gevinson goes, her teenage fan club and the advertisers that covet them follow. The now-20-year-old has appeared in Vanity Fair and fashion magazines the world over, was plucked to be the face of makeup brand Clinique and is styled by Chanel for high-wattage events she recaps for her 462,000 Instagram followers. After wrapping up a 20-week run starring in “The Crucible” on Broadway, Gevinson announced roles in another Broadway play (Chekhov, naturally) an indie movieand a weekly Rookie e-newsletter. What’s next? It could be anything. But one thing’s for sure: Her adventures are content.

Michael FerroChairman | Tronc | Chicago

M ichael Ferro, by his own estimation at least, is the

entrepreneur who will save print journalism. The chairman and biggest shareholder of Tronc F/K/A Tribune Publishing has proven he can make money in tech, but his efforts in media, however, are a work in progress at best. Before spending $44 million early this year for a 16.5 percent stake in Chicago-based Tronc, which publishes the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune among other daily newspapers, he led a group of elite wealthy Chicago investors in acquiring the Chicago Sun-Times. Under his direction, the paper tried new features and websites. But one by one these experiments were abandoned, and print circulation and ad revenue continue to slide. He sees salvation in expanding the Chicago-based company’s reach by publishing 2,000 videos a day, using artificial intelligence to pump them out cheaply. He’s rejected buyouts, including an offer from Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper company, saying investors will be better off under his management.

— LYNNE MAREK

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Dr. Toby CosgrovePresident, CEO | Cleveland Clinic | Cleveland

BY LYDIA COUTRE

A s Cleveland Clinic president and CEO, one of Dr. Delos

“Toby” Cosgrove’s first priorities was to unite everyone around one theme: patients first.

“That was the only reason we had a job,” Cosgrove said.

From that mantra, which remains today, came everything else: a reorganization built around patients, initiatives to keep them well, a focus on patient experience — not just clinical

outcomes, but their emotional and physical experience. Cosgrove has led the clinic through 12 years and counting of impressive growth. The emphasis on patients, Cosgrove said, has significantly changed the organization.

Q: What do you consider the biggest differences between the Cleveland Clinic of 2016 and what it was and what it looked like 10 years ago?A: Well, it’s about 2.5 times bigger (in terms of) revenues. It has twice as many doctors. It has gone from essentially a holding company of community hospitals to an integrated health care delivery system. It has gone global in terms of having facilities in Canada, Abu Dhabi and soon to be London.Q: How do you maintain – and

advance – the Cleveland Clinic’s international reputation and status?A: When we put an organization in say, Abu Dhabi, we have to have Cleveland Clinic DNA there, so a third of the doctors and the leadership of all of the departments come from Cleveland. We do not think that we can have a facility that’s distanced from us that doesn’t have our DNA.

Q: What should health care leaders keep in mind as the industry continues to evolve going forward?A: Health care right now is undergoing the biggest change it has in a century. And it affects 100 percent of the people. And we know that we have got to make health care delivery more efficient. And there’s only two ways to do that. One is to make the delivery of care for the sick more efficient, and secondly, keeping people well so they don’t have to be sick.

Q: How would you describe the state of the health care industry as it stands today?A: I would say that it is in huge turmoil. … We’re being paid for delivering value for health care as opposed to looking at volume, and that shift is a huge, huge change. And that is driving all kinds of resulting activity and consolidation, and doctors being employed and different players entering into health care delivery. ... So we’re seeing enormous changes going on, and that’s not going to end quickly. That’s going to be a 15-year — at least — journey. We’re at six already.

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LeBron JamesNBA superstar/entrepreneur | Cleveland Cavaliers | Cleveland

BY KEVIN KLEPS

W hen it was over, after he had led the Cleveland Cavaliers

to their first championship and ended Cleveland’s 51½-year major professional sports title drought, LeBron James fell to the court and covered his face as he wept.

It was a rare vulnerable moment for an athlete who is now 13 seasons into what might be the most superhuman stretch in NBA history.

James is a 12-time All-Star and four-time league MVP who has yet to suffer a significant injury, despite playing almost as many combined regular-season and playoff minutes as Michael Jordan. His off-court empire — with $54 million in estimated annual endorsements, according to Forbes, and a lifetime deal with Nike that could top $1 billion — is every bit as strong.

Still, what James accomplished in the 2016 NBA Finals was probably his best act yet.

James’ Cavaliers became the first team to rally from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals, and they did so against a Golden State Warriors team that set an all-time wins record in the regular season. In the Cavs’ 93-89 win over the Warriors on June 19, he recorded just the third triple-double in Game 7 of the Finals. The achievement marked the conclusion of one of the best three-game stretches of

his career, and it was an emphatic response to the verbal shots several Warriors players had taken at him on social media and in interviews prior to Game 5.

“I’m coming home with what I said I was going to do,” he told the media after Game 7.

Getting there was an often-rocky process following James’ infamous decision to leave the Cavs for the Miami Heat in the summer of 2010.

Six years later, James is back on top of the basketball world, the unquestioned best player in the game and the hometown hero who ended Cleveland’s streak

of 146 major professional sports seasons without a championship.

His SpringHill Entertainment has a deal with Warner Bros. Klutch Sports, the agency owned by James’ friend and business partner Rich Paul, is representing Ben Simmons, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft.

In the summer of 2017, when the NBA salary cap could reach $110 million or more, James would be eligible to sign the most lucrative contract in league history — a five-year deal worth more than $200 million.

At that point, he’ll be all of 32 years old.

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Beth MooneyChairman, CEO | KeyCorp | Cleveland

BY JEREMY NOBILE

U nder Beth Mooney’s watch, KeyCorp is soaring to

unprecedented heights. As chairman and CEO of

KeyCorp, the parent company of Cleveland’s KeyBank, Mooney has cemented a spot among banking’s most powerful and influential executives. She’s in some elite company there, blazing a trail for women — in an industry still largely dominated by white men in the C-suite — by becoming the first female leader of a major

American bank in May 2011.A Michigan native, Mooney

took her first job in banking nearly 40 years ago in Texas as a secretary with First City National Bank of Houston. Her resume includes time at a variety of U.S. banks, working positions in retail banking, commercial lending and real estate financing. Some of her first professional work in Ohio came with a stint at Bank One as the company’s regional president for Akron and Dayton, a role she held in 1999-2000.

A few more jobs followed before she landed at KeyCorp in 2006 as head of Key Com-munity Banking, charged with overseeing a variety of business lines. Four years later, she joined the board of directors. The very next year, Mooney was appointed

CEO of a bank just shy, at the time, of $86 billion in total assets.

It wasn’t just a personal mile-stone for her, but a landmark mo-ment for all women in business.

“I certainly was proud of the accomplishment,” Mooney told Crain’s in 2012, “I was proud to be the first. (But) a year ago, if you’d said, ‘You’re going to be on the Top 100 (World’s Most Powerful Women) Forbes list’ ... it wouldn’t have crossed my mind.”

“I care about doing it well for women,” she added. “I’m keenly aware of my place in history. By the time I retire, I’d like to see (my being the first woman) be a footnote, not the headline.”

KeyBank was performing well when Mooney came on board, but she took the company to the next level, securing it a reputation among the country’s best-per-forming regional banks with a brand well-known across the Midwest.

Organic and strong balance sheets have made investors happy, steadily pushing the company’s stock value to some of its highest levels under Mooney since share prices plummeted in 2008.

Those achievements alone have garnered Mooney a slew of accolades, including being named the most powerful woman in banking for three years running by American Banker.

And that was all before last October, when the company unveiled plans to acquire New York-based First Niagara Finan-cial Group. The merger, slated to close in the third quarter of this year, will establish a bank with more than $135 billion in total assets operating in 15 states.

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Michael Symon Celebrity chef | Cleveland

M ichael Symon first dazzled diners about 20 years ago when he unveiled his original Lola restaurant in

Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood. Since then, the Iron Chef and now co-host of the popular television show “The Chew” has become one of the most powerful individuals in the food industry, recently landing on Restaurant Business magazine’s Power 20 list.

Earlier this year, Symon launched his latest venture, Mabel’s BBQ , in Cleveland’s popular

entertainment district on East 4th Street. The secret? Incorporating Bertman’s ballpark mustard — the lifeblood of many Clevelanders — into the barbecue sauce. If you’re doubtful of Symon’s legend in Cleveland, take note: The first lunch service at Mabel’s saw a line that stretched out the door and down East 4th.

All the while, the chef hasn’t ignored his roots.“I really enjoy splitting my time between the

restaurants and TV and mentoring young chefs,” Symon told Crain’s Cleveland Business in 2015. “I love watching our employees grow within our company. You’re really only as good as the people who come from your family tree.”

— TIMOTHY MAGAW

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Joe KanferCEO, chairman | GOJO Industries | Akron, Ohio

J oe Kanfer took a nice little company built on the ideas and

hard work of his aunt and uncle and turned it into a worldwide brand and industry powerhouse.

That company is Akron, Ohio-based GOJO Industries, which Kanfer began running 45 years ago at age 24. It was born from his aunt and uncle Goldie and Jerry Lippman’s idea to make tough hand soap that people with dirty jobs could use at work. It was a success —

and a favorite of garages and factories across the country.

But Kanfer made it so much more. Today, GOJO has largely created a whole new category, hand sanitizers, and is a leader in the field with products such as Purrell, which is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Kanfer’s also made a difference personally — supporting a plethora of community efforts both at home and in Israel. Today, GOJO is also a leader in sustainability and has pledged to reduce its own chemical footprint by half over the next few years. — DAN SHINGLER

Jodi BergPresident, CEO | Vitamix | Cleveland

V itamix has grown rapidly in recent years under the leadership

of Jodi Berg. The family-owned company

makes high-performance blenders for commercial and home use that can make more than just smoothies — a fact the company is quick to proffer. Its products can also be used to make everything from dough to baby food to soup.

One factor driving the growth of the blender maker is a trend toward healthy eating and whole foods. Health and wellness have long been part of nearly 100-year-old company’s mission, and the company often

highlights its founder’s passion in that area. The company’s current vision, as Berg describes it — to “improve the vitality of people’s lives and liberate the world from conventional food and beverage preparation boundaries” — makes it clear she too carries that value close to heart.

Berg, the great-granddaughter of Vitamix’s founder, William Grover Barnard, worked in a variety of roles for the company before heading off to college. When she rejoined the company in 1997, she was in charge of its international expansion, another important component in Vitamix’s sales growth in recent years.

Berg took on the role of president in 2009 and added the title of CEO in 2011. — RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

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Larry BellFounder | Bell’s Brewery Inc. | Galesburg, Mich.

BY DUSTIN WALSH

M ichigan’s craft brewing industry owes its existence,

and prominence, to one man — Larry Bell.

The founder and proprietor of Bell’s Brewery Inc. is known as the godfather of Michigan brewing, and for good reason.

When Bell opened a home brewing supply store, Kalamazoo Brewing Co., in 1983, the plan was always to bring craft beer to the masses.

“The (store) was just a front to get the brewery up and coming and so I could buy the supplies wholesale,” Bell said.

By 1985, Bell brewed his first commercial beer — in a 15-gallon soup pot. Bell produced 31 gallons in 1986 and self-distributed his brew through the 1980s. But larger issues than distribution and equipment were afoot. Michigan regulations crippled Bell’s ability to expand.

Because Michigan law prohibited small brewers from selling beer by the glass, Bell sold beer in plastic 4-liter containers called “cubitainers” and gave away samples in hopes patrons would buy a cubitainer to go.

Cubitainers “were an awful vehicle for the beer,” Bell said. “But it was all we could get approved and let us get out there and sell our beer.”

Bell, along with Tom Burns, founder of the Detroit &

Mackinac Brewing Co., pushed for state legislation to allow brewpubs to sell beer by the glass and for a tax break for small brewers.

Despite pushback from wholesalers, Bell was successful, and a series of bills passed in late 1992 that gave way for Michigan’s plunge into the craft brewing market.

Bell opened his Eccentric Cafe brewpub in 1993.

“You really see the explosion in Michigan for brewpubs and small brewers after they allowed us to sell beer by the glass,” Bell said. “It was really a revolution. I don’t think drinkers today remember it was a revolution, but we worked hard for it, and I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

Bell’s has since grown to sell more than 318,000 barrels in 2014, according to the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association, and is now the seventh-largest craft brewer and 12th-largest overall brewer in the U.S.

The majority of Bell’s production occurs at its brewhouse in Michigan’s Comstock Township, which opened in 2002. Kalamazoo Brewing Co. changed its name to Bell’s Brewery Inc. in 2005.

Bell’s has stated plans to invest more than $100 million since 2010 to expand its Comstock brewhouse with the anticipation of brewing more than 1 million barrels.

Largely because of Bell, Michigan’s craft brewing industry is one of the best in the nation. Michigan is home to 205 craft brewers, ranking sixth in the U.S., with an economic impact of nearly $2 billion.

But Bell warns that the craft beer industry isn’t what it used to be and is faced with increasing competition from mega-brewers and others.

“The alcohol business continues to evolve,” Bell said. “We’re still challenged by the big brewers that would like to erode some laws to make it harder on us. The industry is pretty crowded, so it’s imperative that we invest in quality. Those that think you can just put beer out there and get bought out ... those days are coming to a close.”

Bell, however, never plans to close the doors of his brewery or its legacy. His daughter, Laura, is vice president of the company, and Bell hopes it remains in the family for generations.

“I hope Bell’s as a family will be around for a very, very long time,” Bell said.

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Dan GilbertFounder, chairman | Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC | Detroit

BY KIRK PINHO

D an Gilbert has been a key force in stabilizing a Detroit city core that

had been on life support. Along the way in the last

five years, the Quicken Loans Inc. founder and chairman has amassed a real estate portfolio of more than 95 properties in and around downtown Detroit totaling more than 15 million square feet. All told, his investment has topped $2.2 billion, the company says.

That’s noteworthy enough, particularly in a city that had been effectively written off the map in real estate circles.

But Gilbert’s appetite for the Big Wins, in real estate and in other business ventures, is seemingly insatiable.

He started a hyper-fast Internet company called Rocket Fiber to provide such services in downtown, eventually spreading into other parts of the 143-square-mile city.

He became an investor, along with a few others, in a $125 million funding round in the manufacturing company that is parent of one of the city’s most recognizable firms, Shinola, the luxury watchmaker du jour.

He recently unveiled a $1 billion-plus plan to bring a Major League Soccer team to Detroit.

He and one of his top lieutenants are leading forces behind a new light-rail system line being built along a small part

of Woodward Avenue, the city’s north-south spine that runs from downtown north through the suburbs.

His NBA team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, this year brought that Rust Belt city its first major league sports championship in more than a half-century.

The deal the private equity firm he co-founded, Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC, purchasing Robb Report, which reports on luxury lifestyles through magazines, websites, smartphone apps, events and a private club. (And, yes, the California-based company opened a Detroit office.)

He bought a downtown Detroit casino, part of the

gaming arm of his business empire.

And attempted, along with Warren Buffett, to buy Internet pioneer Yahoo.

All in the last five years. It hasn’t been without

controversy, though. Quicken Loans is targeted in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit. Some have voiced concerns over security cameras Gilbert’s team installed in downtown. Others bemoan gentrification and rising rents, in part linked to Gilbert’s real estate spending spree.

But without question, Gilbert has become Detroit’s top cheerleader and booster, and generally backs up his enthusiasm with his wallet.

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Aaron DworkinDean | School of Music, Theatre & Dance | University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, Mich.

BY SHERRI WELCH

A aron Dworkin wanted to see more musicians of color like

himself involved in major music programs and orchestras, so 20 years ago, he created a Detroit-based nonprofit to do just that.

Today, The Sphinx Organization is reaching nearly

20,000 youths each year through its music education programs with urban youth around the U.S. and a national competition, and it’s reaching an audience of more than 2 million people through live and broadcast performances.

Where it once would have been rare to hear a soloist of color performing with a major U.S. orchestra, that’s happening at least 20 times each year, now, according to Sphinx.

Still, there’s work to be done. According to the most recent data available from the League of American Orchestras, the number of black musicians seated in major orchestras rose only

slightly to 1.3 percent from 1.2 percent in 1996, the year Sphinx was founded. And the number of Latino musicians holding seats had reached 1.6 percent by 2008 from 1.2 percent.

Last year, Dworkin left Sphinx in the hands of his wife, Afa Sadykhly Dworkin, president and artistic director.

He’s now bringing that same focus on minority representation and an entrepreneurial approach to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance as its dean.

Born to a white Irish-Catholic mother and a black Jehovah’s Witness father and adopted by

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white Jewish parents, Dworkin, 45, will tell you he was destined to make diversity a big part of his life’s work. He began playing the violin at an early age at the 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in New York City and honed his craft at top music schools in Baltimore; Traverse City, Mich.; Cleveland and Pennsylvania on his way to the U-M.

In December 2004, The Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, comprised of alumni from the national competition, performed the first-ever ensemble performance by minority musicians at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra went on to perform across the country and internationally, and Sphinx alumni graduated to every top 10 music school nationwide.

Sphinx and Dworkin — who received a $500,000 “genius grant” from the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2005 and is a past member of the Obama National Arts Policy Committee and past presidential nominee to the National Council on the Arts — five years ago convened the first of what has become an annual international conference in metro Detroit to bring global attention to diversity in the performing arts.

Last year, Dworkin returned to his alma mater, UM, to bring the same diversity and entrepreneurial focus to its performing arts school. He’s leading development of a plan set to launch this fall to increase minority representation across faculty, staff, the curriculum and students.

Mary CampbellCo-founder | EDF Ventures | Ann Arbor, Mich.

I n 1987, venture capital wasn’t the household name it is now. But that’s when Mary Campbell became a

pioneer in the sector, both nationally and in Michigan. That year, she co-founded EDF Ventures, a firm based in Ann Arbor. At the time, there were only a handful of VC firms in the state, and it is now the oldest.

Nationally, the world of venture capital is still predominantly male. It was almost exclusively male in 1987, and Campbell, a former teacher with a master’s degree in special education who decided she wanted a career in business instead, was the first

woman in the field in Michigan.EDF has invested in some 70

companies over the years, and its house on North Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor has served as home to various early-stage companies, most notably HandyLab Inc., a medical-device company that eventually was sold for $275 million.

Six of her companies have had initial public offerings, and another, Greenplum Inc., sold for more than $300 million.

In 2011, Campbell was honored with a lifetime achievement award by Crain’s Detroit Business and the Detroit chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.

She is still going strong at age 71. In April, Campbell ran her 30th marathon in Boston. Next up is the New York Marathon in November. — TOM HENDERSON

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Ann Marie SastryFounder | Sakti3 Inc. | Ann Arbor, Mich.

W hen James Dyson, the British inventor known for his

vacuum cleaner, told The Wall Street Journal in March 2015 that his company planned to launch 100 new household devices over the next few years, he had a new battery in mind to power them.

That same month, he invested $15 million in Sakti3 Inc., an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based lithium-ion battery company that was founded by Ann Marie Sastry and spun out from the University of Michigan in 2008. That was part of a $20 million round joined by such national

and international investors as Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures and Tokyo-based Itochu Technology Ventures.

Dyson got interested in Sakti3 in 2014 after an article in Fortune headlined: “Will this battery change everything?” In October 2015, Dyson decided to

buy Sakti3 for $90 million. From 1995-2012, Sastry, who

has more than 70 awarded and filed patents, was a professor of mechanical, biomedical and materials science at UM. In 2003, she founded the Keck Nanoscale Intracellular Signaling and Transport Center at UM, and in 2008, founded the school’s Advanced Battery Coalition for Drivetrains.

While at UM, she got the idea for lithium-ion batteries that are solid state, unlike other lithium-ion batteries, which are filled with a liquid electrolyte. Eliminating the liquid lets Sakti3 achieve more energy and eliminates the cause of overheating that has led to so many fires and lawsuits involving traditional lithium-ion batteries. — TOM HENDERSON

Chris IlitchCEO | Ilitch Holdings Inc. | Detroit

C hris Ilitch oversees what could be one of the most

transformative projects in Detroit’s history.

His billionaire parents founded the Little Caesars pizza chain, own the city’s iconic Red Wings and Tigers, and in 2014 unveiled a sprawling, 50-block, mixed-use redevelopment (dubbed The District Detroit) that will be anchored by a $627.5 million, 20,000-seat hockey and entertainment arena. It opens in fall 2017.

Total investment is forecast at more than $1 billion, and will include new housing, retail, office and green space.

Chris Ilitch, 50, has handled the day-to-day oversight of the

Ilitch businesses for his parents since 2004. He’s been the public face of the family’s public events for years. He is president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings Inc., the umbrella company for the family companies, and in the future will take over for his parents in their chairmanship of the company.

He made the announcement that the new hockey arena will be called Little Caesars Arena under a 20-year, $120 million branding deal for the pizza chain his parents founded in the suburbs in 1959 and moved downtown in 1989. Ilitch also unveiled plans for a massive nine-story Little Caesars headquarters that will be built downtown. — BILL SHEA

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Bernard J. TysonCEO | Kaiser Permanente | Oakland, Calif.

BY BETH KUTSCHER

B ernard J. Tyson serves as CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated health care delivery system — a $60 billion

enterprise with nearly 11 million plan members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Its 18,000 physicians and 180,000 employees consistently win plaudits for delivering high-quality care at moderate prices — and maintain consumer loyalty despite its in-network approach to care.

Tyson, 59, is a 32-year Kaiser veteran who’s touched almost every aspect of its operations. Born in Vallejo, Calif., he earned a B.A. and an MBA from Golden Gate University.

Modern Healthcare ranked Tyson the third most-influential person in health care in 2015 after Chief Justice John Roberts and President Barack Obama. His climb to Kaiser’s top included honchoing the creation of its “Thrive” branding campaign – a ubiquitous presence in the California media market.

Q: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in your 32 years at Kaiser?A: The purpose and meaning and why we exist hasn’t changed at all. The mission of (founders) Henry J. Kaiser and Sidney Garfield is as relevant today as when they created the organization. It is about high-quality and affordable care, and affordable is the operative word these days. What has changed dramatically in the last decade is how and what tools we have to achieve that. The entire health care system is designed where everyone has to come in for health care. What technology has allowed us to do is provide care anywhere, especially if someone doesn’t need to be with their physician or care team. They can get their care remotely or digitally.

Q: Is it bringing down costs?A: It is bringing down the cost dramatically. The infrastructure needed for telehealth and e-visits is very different from parking lots and buildings. It’s also changing the fundamental experience from

a reactive to proactive approach. I don’t just wait until I don’t feel well and then seek care, I partner with my health care system to help me maintain health. If I can keep you healthy, economically, that’s much better than the cost of what it would take to bring you back to health after you’ve suffered some kind of episode.

Q: Many people don’t like narrow networks. Is your model for everyone?A: Unfortunately, the narrative written for narrow networks is that you will only see one or two doctors and have limited choice. The fact is every member at Kaiser has 18,000 physicians at their disposal. All our health records, our clinical guidelines and all of the things that we have are now electronically and technology based. It allows our physicians to have the latest and most up-to-date thinking at their fingertips.

Q: What attracted you to health care?A: I wanted to be a doctor. My mom was sick with diabetes and had a lot of complications when I was growing up. We spent a lot of time with physicians. They were predominantly men — white men in white coats. But they were wonderful people who showed tender, loving care to my mother and also to my family. As I grew older, I decided I wanted to go into the administrative side.

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Kenneth FrazierChairman, CEO | Merck & Co. | Kenilworth, N.J.

BY ADAM RUBENFIRE

T he first African-American to lead a major U.S. drugmaker also chairs one

of Washington’s most influential lobbying organizations – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. Neither are easy jobs this year

given the public, the press and both candidates for president putting Big Pharma’s pricing policies in their crosshairs.

If anyone can negotiate that maelstrom, it’s Harvard-trained lawyer Kenneth C. Frazier, who took the top job at 125-year-old Merck & Co. in 2011. His preparation for running the $40 billion company, which operates in 140 countries, included serving as Merck’s general counsel in the mid-2000s, when the drugmaker faced tens of thousands of lawsuits by aggrieved patients or their loved

ones, claiming they’d suffered heart attacks and strokes from taking Merck’s painkiller Vioxx. The company, after withdrawing the drug from the market in 2004, eventually paid nearly $5 billion to settle claims.

The experience didn’t make Frazier gun-shy once he entered the C-suite. Merck recently jumped into the controversial yet lucrative hepatitis C market with Zepatier, which has a wholesale price of $54,600 for a 12-week treatment. That put the company in competition with AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead. Merck is embroiled with Gilead in a bitter lawsuit over patents on the pricey medicines.

Frazier’s yearlong tenure as chair of PhRMA will force him to grapple with some of the sternest challenges the industry has faced in years. He’ll be at odds with consumer groups as the 21st Century Cures Act – a controversial bill that will reduce regulatory hurdles for device and drug manufacturers – winds its way through Congress. Whoever wins the White House will undoubtedly put high drug prices on the new Congress’ agenda.

Frazier has a proud tradition to draw on as he negotiates these troubled waters. It was George W. Merck, the grandson of the company’s founder, who famously said after World War II: “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been.”

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Dr. Ramanathan RajuPresident, CEO | New York City Health + Hospitals | New York

BY MERRILL GOOZNER

D r. Ramanathan Raju in January 2014 took on the herculean task

of rejuvenating New York City Health + Hospitals, the largest municipally owned health care system in the nation with 11 hospitals and 59 other locations. Looming budget shortfalls stand in the way of meeting his biggest challenge: improving the system’s image so it can attract more privately insured patients.

The gregarious India native spent 25 years as a vascular and trauma surgeon in Brooklyn before moving into hospital system administration. Raju apprenticed for his current job by spending three years running Cook County Health & Hospital System in Chicago, where he won praise for sharply cutting its budget deficit, rolling out a system-wide electronic health record system and creating an innovative Medicaid insurance plan.

Q: What is your biggest challenge at NYCH+H?A: We have to remain financially stable while delivering health care to the most vulnerable and competing with other health care systems in New York City. So the question becomes how to lead a large in-patient focused system with a large medical education and unionized environment into the future of population health.

Q: What’s the strategy?A: There are multiple strategies. We completely changed the structure of the organization from an in-patient focus to a network model. We also branded the organization. We call ourselves NYCH+H, but visually we looked very different. So we unified all the hospitals under one unified logo.

Q: Isn’t accessing the system an issue for many people?A: We started working on our access improvement. Today, if you need a new mental health appointment, you get one within seven days, [and] a pediatric appointment within five days. If you want a primary care appointment, it is down to 19 days. Before, it was 65 days.

How did we do that? We had physicians who worked 9 to 5. We said no. We extended our outpatient hours into the evenings. We’re open on Saturdays and Sundays. We’re also expanding our clinics to where they need to be.

Q. How are you going to address your financial problems?A: Our problem will be in 2020, then we expect a $1.8 billion deficit. We’re taking action now. We started with attrition: 1,200 in the first half of this year. We are also putting in efficiencies like centralized procurement. But we still have to do a lot of work to close the gap.

Q: As more people get insurance, how are you going to

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convince those privately insured to use a public system seen as a place for the poor?A: I have a great advantage that other health care leaders don’t have. My health care delivery system reflects the community it serves. If you go to Lincoln Hospital (south Bronx), most of the employees are Hispanic and the patients are Hispanic. If you go to Coney Island (Brooklyn), you will see that a lot of people working there are Russian immigrants and the patients are Russian immigrants. We’re trying to use culturally competent care as an essential part of our system. Speaking the language, understanding the background. I have every intention of using it to my advantage.

Q: The local tabloid press seems to have a bull’s-eye on your back.A: New York has a couple of newspapers not very well disposed to city government, and I’m an extension of city government. So all my achievements will be underplayed and my deficiencies will be magnified 10 to 20 times. We always respond. Not all our responses make it into their news stories.

Q: New York has a lot of famous academic medical centers. How do you get along?A: We will compete at one level, but collaborate at one level. That has been very, very fruitful for them. We are a major teaching facility for the medical schools. All their medical residents go through our system for training.

Joseph SwedishPresident, CEO | Anthem Inc. | Indianapolis

BY BOB HERMAN

J oe Swedish is a methodical man. He speaks deliberately, and, until recently, grew his organization the

same way. He cultivated the trait through years of fly-fishing and running one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the country.

But now, as chief executive of Anthem, a leading health insurance company, Swedish appears to have cast caution to the wind. He’s neck-deep in the waters of an intensive regulatory review of what would be the largest-ever health insurer merger, between Anthem and Cigna. And he’s battling a rapidly changing payment environment instituted by the Affordable Care Act.

When the 65-year-old health care leader took the corner office in 2013, the company, then known as WellPoint, wasn’t stable. The stock price was depressed, and paranoia around what the ACA meant for insurers was rampant.

It helped trigger the ouster of his predecessor, Angela Braly.

Hiring Swedish came as a shock to Anthem insiders, considering he had sat on the opposite side of the table as CEO of Trinity Health, a $14 billion Catholic hospital system based in Livonia, Mich. Rejecting offers from other hospital systems, Swedish opted to lead the insurance conglomerate into a future where collaboration replaced confrontation between payers and providers.

Today, Anthem has 53,000 employees, $79 billion of revenue and a stock price that has doubled since he joined. He’s also the 2017 board chair of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s primary lobbying group.

Swedish’s hospital know-how allowed him to construct a unique provider-payer alliance in 2014. Vivity, a joint venture between Anthem and seven Southern California health systems, will share risk as an integrated network with a no-deductible, low-cost plan. Anthem has duplicated that model with a dominant health system in Wisconsin.

But now on to the main show. Swedish and his team are looking to complete the marriage between Anthem and Cigna before year’s end — a proposition that has not won a lot of fans among stakeholders. Hospitals, doctors and consumer groups have railed against the merger, calling it an anti-competitive boondoggle that will inevitably lead to higher prices for consumers, lower payments to providers and higher profits for Anthem.

The country’s largest employers, whose self-insured plans are administered by companies like Anthem and Cigna, have reservations of their own. Members of Congress are having a field day with the proposed merger, which gave both sides of the aisle fodder for their respective pet political causes.

So how will Swedish win everyone over? Patience, most likely.

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Milton JohnsonCEO | HCA Holdings Inc. | Nashville, Tenn.

BY DAVE BARKHOLZ

C EO Milton Johnson is the embodiment of a mature HCA

Holdings, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain. His firm and its leader have sworn off their wild, younger days of rapid growth, blockbuster deals and periodic scandal. Trained as a CPA who rose through HCA’s tax department to become first HCA’s CFO and then CEO in 2014, Johnson has managed the company conservatively and profitably.

Over his 34 years with the firm, Johnson has worked for a number of colorful CEOs. They include co-founder Dr.

Thomas Frist Jr., who helped build HCA into a nearly 450-hospital behemoth at one point. Then there was Rick Scott, the current governor of Florida, who resigned from HCA in 1997 in the face of a federal fraud investigation of alleged kickbacks and Medicare over-billing that would eventually cost HCA $2 billion to settle.

Johnson, on the other hand, now runs a $40 billion firm less interested these days in buying new hospitals than in expanding the ancillary services surrounding the 168 hospitals it already owns. His goal: Increase HCA’s share of health care spending in each of its markets.

A native of Nashville, Tenn., Johnson knows the responsibility of piloting a company that has given rise to more than 150 spinoff companies since its founding in 1968 and whose executives have gone on to create hundreds more health care companies. He’s also a bridge builder. These days, he’s just as likely to get his top executives involved in the nonprofit-oriented American Hospital Association as the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents for-profit systems.

In July 2015, Johnson and his wife, Denice, donated $10 million to his alma mater, Belmont University in Nashville, for scholarships to the needy. He had to help his single mom by working through high school and his early college years until he earned a scholarship at Belmont.

Dr. John NoseworthyCEO | Mayo Clinic | Rochester, Minn.

BY ADAM RUBENFIRE

A neurologist by training, Dr. John Noseworthy has had a quarter-

century tenure with the Mayo Clinic that has taken him from staff physician to his current role as top leader of the world-renowned institution. But after seven years at the helm, he faces a unique situation: The Mayo Clinic, like the rest of the health care industry, has to adjust to a cost-controlled reimbursement environment.

Mayo will always be known for its cutting-edge medical expertise. High on Noseworthy’s agenda will be parlaying Mayo’s global reputation into even more high-end patients flying in from overseas to pay full freight for treatment.

He’s betting big he can make it happen. Mayo three years ago launched a $6.5 billion expansion

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program that will transform its home base of Rochester, Minn. – population 100,000 – into Destination Medical Center. He’ll need the parsimonious state legislature to pony up a half billion dollars in tax subsidies to make it happen, though.

But thinking big apparently comes naturally in the high prairie. Mayo operates campuses in Arizona and Florida and now serves over a million patients a year from across the globe. Trained at Canadian medical schools and Harvard, Noseworthy is an expert on multiple sclerosis. He has spent more than two decades designing and conduct-ing clinical trials in the U.S. and Canada and is the author of over 150 research papers.

During his tenure, Noseworthy expanded the organization’s reach through the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a knowledge-sharing initiative launched in 2011. Mayo has inked affiliations with health systems across the nation and the world, partnering with over 35 providers in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico and Singapore and providing them with expertise from Mayo doctors.

Noseworthy also eschews the consolidation trend that is sweeping through health care, saying it’s not good for patients. Instead, he has chosen to affiliate with other systems through a subscriber model that offers them digital access to Mayo Clinic physicians, treatment protocols and data insights. There’s a catch, though. Before accepting new partners, they make sure the corresponding system meets Mayo’s exacting standards in delivering care.

Judith FaulknerCEO | Epic Systems Inc. | Verona, Wis.

BY JOE CONN

J udith Faulkner is usually the first to arrive and last to leave any

convention or trade show. The leader of the nation’s largest health information technology company will often spend hours huddled with customers of Epic Systems, the Wisconsin-based company she founded in 1979.

Her devotion to customers’ needs helped make Epic the dominant brand among electronic health records systems, and Faulkner one of the wealthiest women in America. Users include most of the largest and most notable health systems in the U.S., including Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. Epic software now runs in 1,600 hospitals, 33,500 clinics and 1,700 retail clinics and is used by 330,000 physicians nationwide.

The privately held firm reported global revenues of $2.02 billion in 2015, earning Faulkner the No. 3 spot on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women with an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion. The self-effacing and publicity-shy Faulkner told Modern Healthcare in a rare 2014 interview, “I don’t even know, (so) how do they know?”

Her staff says she’s a terrible billionaire – definitely in the Warren Buffett mold. “My car is about 5 years old — an Audi station wagon,” she said. “The

previous car, also an Audi, was about 11 years old.”

In 2014, Faulkner announced a plan to create a charitable foundation funded with her Epic stock. Her double aim is to make contributions to the communities of Epic’s customers and ensure Epic remains a privately held company.

Faulkner, a computer programmer, launched her firm in Madison, Wis., in the basement of a building used as a business incubator. Her first gig was designing a computer system to track physician on-call schedules at the University of Wisconsin hospital.

Faulkner has a master’s degree in computer science from Wisconsin and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. “Math, in my mind, is truth,” Faulkner said.

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John BogleFounder | Vanguard Group | Valley Forge, Pa.

BY JOHN WAGGONER

J ohn C. “Jack” Bogle is marking his 65th year annoying the mutual

fund industry and delighting shareholders.

Bogle dedicated his college senior thesis to a then-obscure topic: “The Economic Role of the Investment Company.” The paper suggested, among other things, that sales charges were too high. He didn’t know at the time that cheap index funds would become a multitrillion-dollar industry.

“But I did know that reducing costs and sales commissions would be important for the industry’s future growth,” said Bogle, 87.

All of this was far in the future when Bogle landed his first job, at Wellington Management in 1951. He clawed his way to the top, only to get fired over an ill-advised merger. He then founded the Vanguard Group in 1974.

To most investors, however,

Bogle is known as the man who launched the Vanguard 500 Index fund, the first index fund open to the general public. Someone who plunks down $3,000 for shares in the fund will pay just 0.16 percent a year, or $4.80, in fees, versus 0.70 percent, or $21, for the average stock mutual fund, according to the Investment Company Institute.

“Indexing has gone from 5 percent of the industry in 1990, and now it’s 35 percent,” Bogle said. “That trend just gets bigger and bigger. Since 2007, indexing has taken in $1.5 trillion, while actively managed [funds have] lost half a trillion. That’s without precedent. It’s becoming an index industry.”

But cutting costs hasn’t been Bogle’s only focus. He has the radical notion that a mutual fund should be, well, mutual — not simply a profit center for a financial services company. What does that mean?

Among other things, not trotting out highly specialized funds whose only purpose is to attract short-term assets. Reducing taxable distributions. Encouraging sober, long-term investment.

“I have a lover’s quarrel with the industry,” Bogle said, paraphrasing Robert Frost.

But investors have no quarrel with him. His legions of fans, known as Bogleheads, adore him. The Vanguard Group now has $3 trillion in assets under management worldwide. And the Vanguard Institutional Index fund, a staple of 401(k) plans, is the nation’s largest fund at $204.5 billion in assets. It charges 0.04 percent in expenses.

Warren BuffettChairman, CEO | Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | Omaha, Neb.

W arren Buffett is the most successful investor of the past 100 years. More than that, as the stock market has

soared and crashed over the past three decades, he has become one of the most widely admired Americans alive.

His folksy good humor and nostrums about investing have transformed him into an archetype, a modern-day Mark Twain or Will Rogers, as The Atlantic noted in 2004. Buffett, 85, is a Midwestern, down-home truth teller who reminds the average investor of the dangers and temptations of easy money and Wall Street excess.

As the chairman and CEO of the giant holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Buffett’s investment performance is unparalleled. From 1965 to 2015, the compounded annual gain of Berkshire Hathaway shares was 19.2 percent, or close to double the return of the S&P 500, including dividends, over the same time.

Buffett’s cool eye in the face of financial panic, along with his turn of a phrase, has won the public’s devotion. “Fear is the foe of the faddist, but the friend of the fundamentalist,” he wrote in Berkshire’s 1994 annual letter to shareholders. Investment advice for the ages, courtesy of the Oracle of Omaha. — BRUCE KELLY

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Sheryl GarrettFounder, President | Garrett Planning Network Inc. | Eureka Springs, Ark.

BY CHRISTINE IDZELIS

P resident Barack Obama singled out Sheryl Garrett for her fine work

as a financial adviser during a 2015 speech in which he called on the Labor Department to move ahead with a proposal to raise investment advice standards for retirement accounts. The fiduciary rule, which was finalized in April 2016, requires advisers to act in the best interests of their clients.

Garrett, 54, is the founder of Eureka Springs, Ark.-based Garrett Planning Network, a national group of financial planners who don’t turn away people with little to invest, as many in the industry do. She’s also a member of the steering group at the Committee for the

Fiduciary Standard, formed in 2009 as policymakers were reviewing the repercussions of the financial crisis.

Q: What’s different about Garrett Planning Network compared to other financial advice firms?A: The primary difference is accessibility — providing access for all people to fiduciary advice. We impose no minimums of any sort. If someone needs advice or assistance, we will provide that. They do need to pay the bill, but we try to tailor that to the specific needs of the individual. … We charge based on time versus the amount of assets. We are commonly known as the financial advisers for Middle America.

Q: Do you think the Securities and Exchange Commission should issue a uniform fiduciary rule that applies beyond retirement accounts to all forms of personal investment advice?

A: The SEC has to act. Whether it’s in the next year, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Whether it’s in the next five years? There I feel more confident because of the Labor Department rule. We need to reinstate trust with people. We have to rebuild faith.

Q: You founded Garrett Planning Network in 2000. What made you want to work with advisers instead of individual investors?A: I was really torn. I really loved working with clients. But when some very wise person brought it to my attention that I would exponentially affect more lives by working through advisers, I thought I could really make a difference. Our organization is serving about 25,000 households in a given year. We now have about 275 advisers and growing. Each is able to serve hundreds of clients, helping to try to make financial advice accessible to all people.

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John RogersChairman, CEO | Ariel Investments | Chicago

BY JEFF BENJAMIN

J ohn Rogers is widely recognized as one of the brilliant financial minds,

and not just of his generation.Rogers, 58, has been focused

on investing since before he was a child and his father started giving him stock as Christmas and birthday gifts. Today, Rogers is chairman, CEO and chief investment officer of Ariel Investments, the $10 billion asset management firm he founded in 1983. The firm was one of the first black-owned money management companies.

He is also lead portfolio manager of the Ariel Fund, a $2 billion mutual fund, the success of which contributed to Rogers’ inclusion in the book “The World’s 99 Greatest Investors: The Secret of Success” (Roos & Tegnér AB, 2014).

A Chicago native, Rogers is an example of those dedicated to giving back to communities.

He sits on the corporate boards of Exelon and McDonald’s and serves as a trustee at the University of Chicago. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Rogers graduated from Princeton University, where he was captain of the basketball team. In 2008, the school awarded him its highest honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award, which is presented annually to the alumnus whose career

embodies a commitment to national service.

After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Rogers was co-chairman for the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, and he currently serves on the Barack Obama Foundation’s board of directors.

But his philanthropic bent started much earlier. In 1989, Rogers created the Ariel Foundation, which is dedicated to making financial literacy a part of basic education. It has grown into the Ariel Education Initiative, which includes Ariel’s sponsorship of the Ariel Community Academy, a Chicago public school.

The school, located on

Chicago’s South Side, currently serves more than 500 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The student body is 98 percent African-American. The school has been recognized as one of the top-performing schools on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, consistently outperforming other schools in the district.

“We want to help Ariel Community Academy be the best grade school in the city of Chicago,” Rogers said. “We want to serve as a role model for how other financial services companies can partner with Chicago Public Schools. It’s important to invest in our children’s futures.”

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Joe MansuetoChairman, CEO | Morningstar Inc. | Chicago

J oe Mansueto singlehandedly democratized investment information when he founded Morningstar Inc., which made data on

stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investments easily accessible — and comprehensible — for any average investor with an internet connection.

As chairman and CEO of the Chicago-based independent investment research and management company, Mansueto has built Morningstar into a $3.5 billion multinational powerhouse that’s relied upon by investors, financial advisers and asset managers alike for its data and analysis, revolutionizing the financial industry in the process.

Mansueto started the company from his apartment in 1984, positioning it at the nexus of the ascension of 401(k) plans and do-it-yourself retirement investors looking for the wherewithal to make financial decisions on their own. Since then, he’s not only grown a database of approximately 525,000 investment offerings, he’s also expanded the company to include an investment management and advisory business with $180 billion under its purview.

The billionaire, a former stock analyst, is also a bit of a news junkie, having purchased the financial magazines Inc. and Fast Company in 2005. — GREG IACURCI

Sallie KrawcheckCo-founder, CEO | Ellevest Chairwoman | Pax Ellevate Management and Ellevate Network | New York

S allie Krawcheck remembers falling asleep on her sofa in the

middle of the afternoon one day several years ago, three months after being fired. She had been thinking about the fact that there was no place to be and nobody was counting on her.

She had been CEO of Citi Wealth Management, which oversaw Smith Barney, and had been pushing her boss to reimburse clients for alternative investment losses. She knew there would be one of two outcomes: She’d win the battle and lose her job or lose the battle

and lose her job.Krawcheck won the battle.

Then lost her job.But she came back strong. After a couple years heading

up Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and U.S. Trust, she jumped into her latest ventures as chairwoman of financial services firms Pax Ellevate Management and Ellevate Network. She is also co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, a new woman-focused automated investment platform whose goal is to break the investing gender gap and help more women become financially literate.

“Hard work and success are positively correlated,” Krawcheck said. “Not every time, not every week and sometimes not every year, but if you put the work in and keep at it and are persistent and gritty, you will be successful.” — ALESSANDRA MALITO

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52

Adam NeumannCo-founder, CEO | WeWork | New York

BY DANIEL GEIGER

B efore he founded the most highly valued co-working company on the

planet, Adam Neumann’s dream was to invent a pair of padded pants in which toddlers could crawl around without scraping their knees.

It wasn’t even his idea to break into the business of shared

workspaces. His landlord came up with that plan and recruited Neumann to help.

“The idea for our partnership was a matter of friendship,” said Jack Guttman, who owns the office building in Brooklyn where Neumann’s children’s clothing brand had been a tenant and who started the co-working company GreenDesk in 2006 with Neumann’s help. “He was a hardworking, honest individual, and it was simple: We wanted him to keep an eye on the space and gave him power to make some decisions.”

What Neumann did have was a voracious appetite for growth

based on a vision that communal working could have widespread appeal among entrepreneurs and small businesses — ambitions that far outstripped those of his partners. Today he leads a juggernaut valued at $16 billion that is reinventing the way businesses use office space.

“He was very aggressive, and he wanted to expand way faster than I was comfortable with,” Guttman said.

Neumann founded WeWork in 2010 with Miguel McKelvey, its chief creative officer, and with $1.3 billion in venture capital, the company has rapidly expanded to 13 countries and 105 locations. In

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New York City alone, they lease enough space to fill the Empire State Building.

While co-working itself is nothing new — the concept has been around since at least the 1990s — Neumann has pushed the business into the mainstream by creating hip, open offices with beer on tap, creative energy and a culture of collaboration.

Having spent part of his childhood on a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip in Israel, Neumann uses his origin story to sell the power of working together to 50,000 members and major financial backers including Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase.

“A big part of Adam’s genius has been his ability to raise huge amounts of money,” said Cheni Yerushalmi, a friend of Neumann’s whose own co-working company was knocked out of business when a WeWork opened nearby.

Neumann’s challenge will be sustaining WeWork’s growth — and maintaining its large scale — in a real estate market that notoriously ebbs and flows with the health of the economy. The company is reportedly planning to lay off 7 percent of its 1,000-person workforce, though officially WeWork has said it will hire 500 more employees by the end of the year and is planning an aggressive expansion in Asia. Meanwhile, it’s expanding its co-working concept to residential real estate. It’s co-living concept, WeLive, is up and running on Wall Street (and another outside Washington, D.C.) with expectations that it will roll out dozens more.

Danny MeyerFounder | Shake Shack, Union Square Hospitality | New York

D anny Meyer started out as a restaurateur and ended up a business mogul.

He energized New York City cuisine with an early focus on sourcing locally and, beginning with his first restaurant — Union Square Café — helped draw customers, residents, entrepreneurs and investors into neighborhoods that had suffered from years of neglect. He eventually rolled out 13 restaurants but managed to unify his disparate culinary approaches through an obsession with friendly service.

Today, he employs 2,000 people at three companies: Union Square Hospitality, home to his 12 restaurants (he sold Eleven Madison Park); Union Square Events, a catering company that serves food at CitiField and the 9/11 Memorial; and Hospitality Quotient, a

consulting business whose clients include big banks, hospital systems and airlines.

Shake Shack Inc., Meyer’s 12-year-old burger company, went public in early 2015 and has outposts in 16 states and six countries, and its shares trade for nearly double its opening price of $21.

Meyer says he spends 80 percent of his time hiring, training and refining company culture. Now he’s endeavoring to change the industry by replacing tipping with a revenue-sharing structure that affords a better quality of life to waitstaff and back-of-house workers.

“We operate in an intensive industry,” said Richard Coraine, the chief development officer at the group. “What Danny does is make it a joyful expression of how business should be.”

In September, Meyer will reopen the 31-year-old Union Square Café, four blocks from its original location, which he closed after a rent hike. “It has truly felt like a hole,” Meyer, 58, said. “I never spent a day being a restaurateur without Union Square Café.” — CARA EISENPRESS

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Beth ComstockVice chair | General Electric Co. | New York

BY MATTHEW FLAMM

B eth Comstock, the first female vice chairman of General Electric

in the company’s 124-year history, majored in biology, doesn’t have an MBA and, by her own admission, is shy and introverted. Clearly, she is not the sort of figure usually associated with the corner office in a Fortune 100 company.

But the onetime NBC

executive, who had a hand in launching Hulu and who regards her role at GE as figuring out “what comes next,” is charged with helping the company compete in unconventional ways.

“As we venture into new territory, we need radically different ways to solve problems,” Comstock, 56, said. “There’s no operator’s manual for most of what we’ll ask people to work on.”

Her journey to her role as in-house futurist at the $280 billion company began with running corporate public relations departments, first at NBC and then at GE. As the industrial giant’s chief marketing and commercial officer, starting in 2008, she grew her portfolio to include oversight of Silicon Valley-based investment arm GE Ventures, as well as GE Lighting, the $3 billion division that dates to the company’s founding by Thomas Edison.

Those divisions and others now fall under Comstock’s Business Innovations unit, which has become a key part of GE’s transition to a company focused on the industrial internet, clean energy and health-related technology.

Comstock herself led the development of the recent “What’s the Matter With Owen” ad campaign, which showcases GE as a place where young engineers work on real-world megaprojects, not silly apps. The campaign brought “an eightfold increase in recruiting,” she said.

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Evan GreenbergCEO | Chubb Ltd. | Zurich, Switzerland and New York

W hen Evan Greenberg joined American International Group Inc. more than 40 years ago, odds are he wasn’t planning

on creating a rival for the company that his father led to global prominence.

Yet that’s just what he did leading the merger of Ace Ltd., a commercial insurer formed in Bermuda in the 1980s, with Chubb Corp., one of the most well-known brands in the business. The 2016 deal, valued at more than $29 billion, creates an insurance giant that covers everything from the homes of the wealthy to oil rigs and satellites.

The deal sets the bar for insurance mergers in an era of consolidation. Trading as Chubb Ltd., the merged company has leading positions in the lucrative insurance for high-net-worth sector, several specialty commercial lines and has a global footprint that will enable it to take advantage of a fragmented market.

As the son of legendary AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, Evan Greenberg was tapped to lead AIG after he rose to president and chief operating officer. But he left AIG in 2000 when it was clear his father had no intention of retiring. He joined Ace the following year and became CEO in 2004. — MARK A. HOFMANN

Arianna HuffingtonFounder | Huffington Post | New York

A rianna Huffington, the Greek-born, Cambridge-educated

Co-founder of the global web property that bears her name, has had an unlikely life. A conservative pundit through the 1980s and ’90s and an outspoken liberal since 2004, the prolific author and commentator was in her 50s before she began the best-known part of her career: Co-founding the Huffington Post in 2005.

The web property pioneered news aggregation and user-generated content and forever changed the way newspapers approached online publishing. And though the publication struggled to turn a profit, AOL paid $315 million for it in 2011 and made it central to the company’s content strategy. Initially derided for building

an audience off the content of unpaid bloggers and other publications’ work, the Huff Post would go on to hire reporters and be the first of the digital-only news sites to win a Pulitzer Prize.

It now publishes editions in 14 markets internationally and had 75 million unique visitors in the U.S. in May — ranking seventh among news sites despite an 18 percent drop in traffic compared to the same month a year ago, according to comScore.

Lately, the onetime workaholic has reinvented herself as an evangelist for getting more sleep with her 15th book, “The Sleep Revolution.” After Verizon bought AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, there were questions about whether the left-leaning Huffington, now 66, would stick around with her publication’s new right-leaning parent. In August those questions were answered when Huffington announced she was leaving the site to focus on her health and wellness ventures.

— MATTHEW FLAMM

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Ken ChenaultCEO | American Express | New York

K en Chenault got a job at American Express in 1981 and in 2001 became CEO. Fifteen years later, he’s still there — a remarkably

long tenure for a major financial services company.

Chenault, 65, has steered AmEx through some serious storms, starting with the World Trade Center attacks that took place across the street from corporate headquarters nine months after he took the helm. Even as earnings took a serious hit when corporate travel collapsed, AmEx waived late fees and raised customer credit limits.

Seven years later, AmEx went on to weather the financial crisis. Chenault converted the company into a bank, making it eligible for bailout money, and by the summer of 2009 had repaid $3.4 billion in rescue funding.

Today, Chenault faces a different set of challenges. Rivals like J.P. Morgan Chase have fattened up their cards’ rewards programs to lure AmEx’s high-end clients, while the high fees it charges merchants are falling under pressure from Visa, MasterCard and federal antitrust authorities.

Still, Chenault runs one of the best brands around and retains a key backer in Warren Buffett, AmEx’s largest investor, who describes the CEO as “talented and shareholder-oriented.”

— AARON ELSTEIN

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Tory BurchChairman, co-CEO | Tory Burch | New York

BY PETER D’AMATO

T ory Burch, whose eponymous fashion label reached $1 billion

in revenue just 10 years after its 2004 launch, credits her father’s fashion sense for her design tastes and her longtime collaborators for helping her maintain the quality of her products. “The creative process is extremely personal—trust is essential,” Burch, 50, said.

Burch’s self-confidence and belief in the people around her served her particularly well when, after hiring the former president of Ralph Lauren as co-CEO, rumors swirled of a public offering. She spent the next year fighting off Wall Street.

“I think being a private company is a luxury,” she said at a Women’s Wear Daily summit last year. “And that is something I have always thought.”

It was a wise decision that has given her company staying power during a period of turbulence for luxury fashion brands. Those that have gone public have been forced to expand aggressively in service of their stock price. Publicly held Michael Kors was scrutinized in May after many Nordstrom stores pulled its handbags from shelves over complaints of shoddy quality; sales of Coach are just recovering after overexpansion tarnished the brand’s luster.

“[Public companies’]

constituencies are the stockholders,” said retail consultant Pam Danziger. “That kills creative companies.”

Burch’s expansion has been steady. Architect Daniel Romualdez has designed each retail location. Burch spent nearly three years researching performance fabrics for her first stand-alone brand, Tory Sport. The label’s “Studio” clothing serves the same yoga enthusiasts as Lululemon with a prep angle. The skirts and sweaters in its “Coming & Going” line are for trips to the gym or lunch with friends, while keeping the look office-appropriate, a feat that Under Armour, Gap-owned Athleta or

even slouchy newcomer Sweaty Betty can’t pull off.

Burch also tries to foster the next line of female leaders through the Tory Burch Foundation, which launched in 2009. Though the percentage of startups founded by women increased to 18 percent in 2014, female-founded startups captured only 10 percent of the total venture funding between 2010 and 2015, according to a study by CrunchBase. To address funding gaps, Burch’s foundation provides loans and mentoring. The winner of this year’s inaugural pitch competition received a $100,000 grant to fund her organic candy bar company.

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Olivia MitchellProfessor | Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia

BY ROB KOZLOWSKI

W ith a focus on financial literacy and retirement

planning, Olivia Mitchell has been shaping public thought through her research on financial crises and longevity risk through the years.

Mitchell is the International

Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans professor, and a professor of insurance/risk management and business economics/policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She also is executive director of the Pension Research Council, and director of the Boettner Center on Pensions and Retirement Research at the Wharton School.

Q: What is longevity risk?A: Longevity risk, the way I look at it, has to do with the possibility that someone will

outlive his or her assets.Q: Is longevity risk greater today than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago? Why?A: I am not sure but I imagine so, particularly with the advent of new medical advances to cure cancer and prevent Alzheimer’s, reconfigure our muscles and bones, and hold heart disease in abeyance. Also in the old days, the elderly lived with their children, who took on the risk of their parents’ living a long time. Nowadays, with fractured families and fewer offspring, we have a higher chance of living alone at older ages — making elderly life possibly riskier. While Medicare, Social Security and (government-provided) long-term care are helping many, these programs are themselves facing insolvency. This is why I believe that private provision of longevity income via insured products is essential for many.

Q: Is longevity risk being addressed sufficiently by corporations and public institutions?A: We know that few corporations offer lifetime retirement income streams, and fewer still continue to provide retiree health insurance. Medicare, Social Security and government-provided LTC are facing insolvency. So public provision is inadequate, and it is likely to be challenged further as the population ages.

Q: How could it be addressed more comprehensively? A: People will need to work longer, save more, invest in their health with more vigor and – possibly – expect less.

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Robin DiamonteChief Investment Officer | United Technologies | Farmington, Conn.

BY ROBERT STEYER

F our years after United Technologies Corp. launched its Lifetime

Income Strategy program, it remains the largest and most ambitious corporate effort to help employees prepare for spending their retirement dollars — not just accumulating them.

The driving force for the program is Robin Diamonte, corporate vice president and chief investment officer, who has acted while most of her corporate peers have talked or debated or waited.

“Robin is one of the heroes of retirement security,” said Joshua Gotbaum, the former director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., who worked with Diamonte in her role as a member of the PBGC advisory committee. “She has gone way beyond what most corporate pension managers would do. She cares about — and deals with — people’s real issues.”

And the biggest retirement issue is to help employees guard against outliving their savings.

Diamonte, 52, has approached her work with tenacity and creativity. It took her and her staff about three years to convince corporate executives—as well as executives in the company’s benefits, legal, finance and

insurance departments—about their goals and how to achieve them.

“We’ve made great progress in four years,” said Diamonte, who is responsible for the company’s $20.1 billion in defined contribution plan assets, $24 billion in domestic pensions and $7 billion in foreign pension plans. “It takes a while to gain traction.”

So far, participants in the United Technologies defined contribution plans have invested $825 million in the lifetime income strategy program, or about 4 percent of total defined contribution assets. Diamonte said 25,000 of the company’s 112,000 defined contribution

plan participants have invested in the program.

Making sure the program succeeds will take a sustained communication effort, she said, and the personal touch is most effective.

“Face to face is the best way” to educate, she said. Given the company’s size and sprawl, videos and a website are the most effective ways to reach the broadest audience. Company officials also continue conducting lunch-and-learn sessions.

“Employees know a lot about health-care benefits — but less about savings benefits,” she said. “It will take some time to get them to understand what this is all about.”

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Gina Raimondo Governor | State of Rhode Island | Providence, R.I.

B efore she was elected Rhode Island’s first female governor in

2014, Gina Raimondo led groundbreaking reforms of the Ocean State’s pension fund, dramatically improving the health of the retirement system.

As general treasurer, Raimondo served as chair of the State Investment Commission, which establishes Rhode Island’s investment policies. In 2010, just before she was elected treasurer, Rhode Island’s pension fund was precariously underfunded.

As the chair, Raimondo, 45, pushed for legislation that would make sweeping changes to save the plan. This legislation included creating a hybrid defined benefit/defined contribution retirement system, raising retirement ages and suspending cost-of-living increases for participants in the then-$7 billion (now $8.3 billion) Rhode Island Employees’ Retirement System, Providence.

A report issued by Fitch

Ratings called the legislation “the most comprehensive measure undertaken by any of the states in recent years.” The pension system changes were approved by lawmakers and signed into law by then-Gov. Lincoln Chafee in 2011.

But that’s when the trouble started. The hybrid plan became the subject of lawsuits by public employee unions and retiree coalitions, which wanted to block the 2011 overhaul. The suits became the subject of closed-door mediation from 2012 until 2015.

Still, Raimondo stuck to her guns as she negotiated settlements with the plaintiffs that would ultimately keep the bulk of her pension reforms intact.

Finally, in June 2015, Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter approved a settlement to end litigation against Rhode Island’s state pension overhaul. At the time, Raimondo said in a statement that the settlement was “in the best long-term interests of all Rhode Islanders” and would keep Rhode Island “on a path toward financial stability, economic growth and job creation.”

— JAMES COMTOIS

Neel Kashkari President, CEO | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis | Minneapolis

BY RICK BAERT

N eel Kashkari will always be the man who helped bail out the world economy.

He also led an early effort by bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC to build its equity business, made a run to become governor of California, and now is president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

But Kashkari, a Goldman Sachs alum, is best known as an architect and the first leader of the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008, amid the global financial crisis. Through TARP, the government bought failing illiquid assets from financial services firms.

Kashkari, interim assistant secretary for financial stability at the U.S. Treasury, became known during his seven-month tenure as “the $700 billion man” — the amount originally placed in the TARP program — because he chaired the committee that determined which firms would receive TARP money.

In 2009, Kashkari was named to lead PIMCO’s nascent equity business, but he left the firm in 2013 to run for California governor in 2014, losing to Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr.

Since January, Kashkari, 43, has led the Minneapolis Fed and remains in the headlines. Speaking to the Brookings Institution in February, he said the largest U.S. banks — some of which benefited from TARP — should be broken up.

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Phyllis BorziAssistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security | U.S. Department of Labor | Washington, D.C.

T he odds that the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule would

see the light of day were mixed right up until the end, but anyone who really knew Phyllis Borzi would be willing to take that bet.

Borzi, who was confirmed in July 2009 as assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, has long

been an ardent defender of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. She also is not someone who flinches in the face of controversy or criticism.

Her passion for protecting benefit plan participants is almost as old as ERISA itself. From 1979 to 1995, she served the House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations as pension and employee benefit counsel. From there, she straddled the worlds of university research and ERISA law as a professor at George Washington University and of counsel with Washington law firm O’Donoghue &

O’Donoghue LLP. At the Department of Labor,

Borzi has continued to fight for plan participants and against employers not seen as putting their fiduciary duties first.

“It is Phyllis’ passion, vision, tenacity and sophisticated grasp of the law that drove the movement to stop conflicted advice,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center.

Of course, Borzi hasn’t won every battle. The first attempt to tighten the fiduciary standard for retirement investment advice ended in defeat, but Borzi and her team prevailed on the second try. — HAZEL BRADFORD

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Laurence D. FinkChairman, CEO | BlackRock | New York

BY JAMES COMTOIS

W hen BlackRock Inc.’s chairman and CEO, Laurence D. Fink,

tells the investment world what he thinks, investors take note.

Since 1988, Fink has built — and now runs — the world’s largest money manager, so it’s not surprising that investors are keen to listen.

A straightforward man who regularly speaks to the masters of the financial universe, he’s been offering thoughts recently on topics ranging from too big to fail financial institutions to saving for retirement and long-term investing.

The soft-spoken yet intense Fink, 63, was one of the eight original founders of BlackRock, which was originally formed in 1988 under the umbrella of another money manager, The Blackstone Group, as a risk management and fixed-income institutional asset manager.

In 1992, the firm adopted the name BlackRock. By the end of that year, BlackRock had $17 billion in assets. Two years later, that figure rose to $53 billion. Today BlackRock manages $4.737 trillion in assets.

Fink has been talking about how to get the world’s finances in better shape. He says, for example, that investing in infrastructure — airports, roads, water and energy systems — can help solve a toxic brew of economic and political challenges coming to a head globally.

He also would like CEOs of major companies to resist short-term thinking and has suggested that global regulators looking to minimize systemic financial system risk are focused on the wrong things.

But he’s got more on his mind than investing. At Pensions & Investments’ Global Future of Retirement conference in June 2015, Fink didn’t just talk about retirement and investing topics. He also discussed his love of music and his previous investment work with record labels.

Fink told conference attendees that he invested in a record company several years ago called Octone Records. And the first band it signed? Maroon 5.

The business leader also talked about some of his favorite indie bands, including The National, Of Monsters and Men and The War on Drugs.

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Maureen Steinwall Owner, president | Steinwall Inc. | Coon Rapids, Minn.

BY GAYLE S. PUTRICH

M aureen Steinwall knows a thing or two about keeping

a family business in the family. She bought Steinwall Inc. from her father in 1987, and has kept the injection molding business growing ever since.

On the way, she’s pioneered ways to use technology to help workers on the plant floor, and she’s made a name for herself in the traditional boys’ network of plastics processing.

Steinwall’s professional career began at Honeywell Inc.’s Micro Switch Division in Freeport, Ill. When Honeywell offered her a promotion to run the third shift at a factory in New Mexico, she called her dad for advice. He said she should take the job, and then asked his daughter, who had an accounting degree and plenty of business savvy, for some advice of his own: “How do you sell a business?”

“You sell it to your daughter!” was her response. After a three-minute conversation, her dad agreed. She took a leave of absence from Honeywell to help his transition to retirement, and she became president of Coon Rapids, Minn.-based Steinwall Inc. in 1985.

“When I did buy the business from my dad, I lost a father, which is kind of a strange thing to say, but I gained a business partner,” said Steinwall, now one of only

two women in the Plastics Hall of Fame. The “working for and with family” relationship is a unique one that has to remain separate, she said, and that has carried into the third generation of Steinwall, Inc.

“My son and daughter, when they started working here, they stopped calling me mom and started calling me Maureen,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t care for it much. But that separation, that’s the price that the family business pays for keeping it going for 100 years or multiple generations.”

Keeping the family business going and growing has also meant keeping it moving

forward.In what can sometimes be

a very traditional industry, Steinwall has pulled her company into the modern age, pioneering the use of iPads at each of the 50 presses, with videos that show workers the details of molding, inspecting and packaging every single part the company makes. The tablets replaced three-ring binders with static photos.

Four of Steinwall’s 140 employees work full time making the videos and measuring the results. The company also produces self-directed orientation videos for new hires.

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Marc VerbruggenCEO | NatureWorks LLC | Minnetonka, Minn.

N atureWorks LLC is like the Tesla Motors of plastics.

Led by Marc Verbruggen, the company is one of the largest in the U.S. making plastics from plants, rather than oil and natural gas.

NatureWorks has improved manufacturing and can now compete with traditional, petrochemical plastics and with $30-a-barrel oil, Verbruggen said.

“Through good times and bad times, through high oil and low oil, over the last two years, on that (decrease)

from $100 a barrel oil to $30 a barrel, NatureWorks has been EBITDA positive for that whole period, month after month after month,” he said. “Believe me, I would not have been able to say that in 2006.”

It’s been a tough road, he told a conference in April: The decision to build a commercial plant in 2002, without much of a market, “got three CEOs fired.”

The long view is key, Verbruggen said, because PLA is a young material. Petrochemical plastics have been around for 50-plus years, and some took decades to get significant commercial positions.

“We’re like a 15-year-old who hopefully will get to 70, 80, 90, 100 years old,” he said. “For us, that’s a cause of great optimism.”

— STEVE TOLOKEN

John ManuckChairman, CEO | Techmer PM | Clinton, Tenn.

J ohn Manuck’s journey went from Brooklyn to L.A. to Japan before landing him in Tennessee.

Clinton, Tenn., where Techmer PM — the specialty plastics firm Manuck founded in 1981 — is headquartered. It’s also where President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden paid a visit in early 2015.

Techmer had worked with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on 3-D printing and carbon fiber-filled plastics. So when the White House was looking for a place to highlight advanced materials research, Oak Ridge nominated Techmer.

Obama and Biden took a look at a Shelby Cobra sports car that was 3-D printed using Techmer’s materials.

“I don’t know how you can get more publicity than having the president and vice president tour your place at the same time,” Manuck, 67, said.

The Brooklyn native had been working in plastics for more than 10 years when he started Techmer in Los Angeles. Manuck took a big step in 1987 when Techmer partnered with a Japanese firm.

“Going to Japan at that time for me was like going to Mars,” Manuck said. “But we had to find a way to take the company to the next level.”

Today, Techmer is one of North America’s 30 largest plastics compounders.

— FRANK ESPOSITO

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Anne Forristall LukePresident, CEO | Rubber Manufacturers Association | Washington, D.C.

I n some ways, Anne Forristall Luke is a traditional choice to be the president and CEO of the Rubber Manufacturers Association. In

other ways: not. Her decades of experience in several Washington

sectors — including the government, PR and professional associations — is a typically broad, varied background for the leader of a major manufacturing organization.

But in other ways Luke represents something new and innovative for the RMA, and not just because she is the first woman president of an association representing a still predominantly male manufacturing sector. She speaks of her desire to raise the public profile of the U.S. tire manufacturing industry.

“I want to create a greater appreciation of the value this industry brings to the customers and the communities we serve,” Luke said.

Luke also has emphasized her desire to work with government agencies — especially the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This philosophy marks a change from most of the past 25 years, when the RMA kept a low public profile. — MILES MOORE

Leo GerardPresident | United Steelworkers | Pittsburgh

S ince becoming president of the United Steelworkers union in

2001, Leo Gerard has fought for middle-class jobs across many industries, including rubber.

Gerard and his lieutenants at the USW have helped negotiate master bargaining agreements with many of the major U.S. tire manufacturers, including Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone, Cooper and Yokohama.

More recently, the union has petitioned the U.S. Commerce Department and the International

Trade Commission to levy antidumping and countervailing duties against tire imports from Asia. The USW scored a major victory in 2015 when Commerce decided to set duties against passenger and light truck tires imported from China.

Despite the victory, the USW has since said it wants reform in the process of bringing trade cases to the Commerce Department, arguing that it should be able to act before it decimates domestic production and employment levels.

The USW has filed two more similar petitions to Commerce for reviews on off-the-road tires imported from India and truck and bus tires imported from China. — CHRIS SWEENEY

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Greg NelsonChairman and CEO | East West Copolymer & Rubber LLC | Baton Rouge, La.

M any people talk about the importance of manufacturing jobs

for the U.S. economy, but Greg Nelson has done something about it.

He was CEO of Lion Copolymer when the owner

of the firm decided to pull the plug on the synthetic rubber producing plant in Baton Rouge. The facility was historic, as it was one of the original SR plants opened during World War II as part of the war effort.

But Nelson didn’t want the factory’s history to end there. He teamed with seven former managers at the facility and some investors to buy the operation. In a matter of

months, they started back as East West Copolymer & Rubber LLC.

More than two years later, the company has moved beyond startup phase and is looking toward the future, employing about 150, or half the number at time of closure.

“For 2016, we have contracts with pretty much all the customers we had before we shut down,” Nelson said.

— BRUCE MEYER

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Bruce HalleFounder | Discount Tire/America’s Tire | Scottsdale, Ariz.

T hough his tire industry career began in a failed bid as a minority owner in a wholesale tire and accessories business, Bruce Halle

persevered through defeat to become one of the tire industry’s greatest success stories.

The founder and chairman of Discount Tire/America’s Tire — recognized today as the world’s largest independent tire and wheel retailer — opened his first outlet under the Discount Tire name in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1960, with the initial expectation of selling just five tires per day. He started out as the company’s purchasing agent, accountant, salesperson, service technician, cleaning crew and sign painter.

Now the Arizona-based dealership operates more than 900 stores across 31 states and exceeds $4.2 billion in annual sales.

Throughout his career, Halle has supported organizations such as the Halle Heart Center, Special Olympics, Arizona State University Cancer Center and Childhelp USA, among others. In 2014, he was named a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award, bestowed annually on leaders who succeed in the face of adversity and who are committed to philanthropy and higher education.

— WILLIAM SCHERTZ

Jody DeVere CEO | AskPatty.com Inc. | Thousand Oaks, Calif.

W omen control a majority of the decisions when

it comes to vehicle-related purchases, according to a number of surveys, yet they often can feel powerless and intimidated when walking into a car dealership or auto repair shop.

AskPatty.com Inc. and its founder, Jody DeVere, have provided an answer to this glaring disconnect — empowering women with knowledge about vehicles and training retailers on how to better serve their female customers.

The website — created by DeVere and an advisory panel of female automotive experts

— features forums, articles, educational podcasts and a database of certified female-friendly car dealerships and auto service centers that have undergone training on how to attract, sell, retain and increase loyalty with women customers.

Over the past decade, DeVere, who has won several awards and spoken at numerous automotive industry events, believes AskPatty has had a great impact on getting women’s voices heard in the marketplace.

— KATHY MCCARRON

Robert GrossExecutive chairman | Monro Muffler Brake Inc. | Rochester, N.Y.

D uring his 17-plus years with Monro Muffler Brake Inc., Robert Gross

has helped orchestrate three dozen acquisitions comprising more than 500 retail tire and auto service locations throughout the eastern U.S.

This strategy not only has transformed the one-time Midas mufflers-only franchise operation into one of the nation’s top three aftermarket tire and auto service/repair businesses, it also has brought succession planning and “exit strategy” into the limelight as a number of

independent tire dealerships have sold their businesses to Monro.

Gross, current chairman and the company’s former president and CEO, has concentrated on investor relations, strategy and acquisitions — including the latest addition to Monro’s quiver, the Car-X Tire & Auto franchise business. — BRUCE DAVIS

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Kevin Plank CEO | Under Armour | Baltimore

BY GARY GATELY

A t Under Armour’s Baltimore headquarters,

huge whiteboards adorn the walls, reminding employees of Kevin Plank’s principles: “OVERPROMISE AND DELIVER!” “DICTATE THE TEMPO!” “DONE, DONE, DONE!” While other messages appear in black, one stands out in bold red letters: “DON’T FORGET TO SELL SHIRTS AND SHOES!”

The sports apparel company Plank started out of his grandmother’s basement in 1996 — by giving football players synthetic fiber workout shirts that wicked away sweat better than cotton — has grown into a $4 billion powerhouse. It has posted double-digit sales growth for 27 straight quarters; NBA superstar Stephen Curry’s kicks are on pace to eclipse sales of rival Nike’s LeBron James line this year; and UA recently signed the biggest shoe and apparel sponsorship partnership in NCAA history, a 15-year, $280 million deal with UCLA.

But those statistics and accolades aren’t good enough for Plank, who is now looking several steps beyond athletic apparel. Leaping off his latest saying – “Data is the new oil” – the 44-year-old Plank predicts fitness apps will nearly double the company’s revenue, to $7.5 billion, within the next two years. To get there, UA has

invested heavily in fitness app companies and vastly expanded its engineering staff.

Still unwilling to stop pressing forward, Plank is now reimagining Baltimore through his real estate company’s proposed $5.5 billion Port Covington project. The redevelopment would turn roughly 260 acres of largely desolate industrial peninsula in South Baltimore into millions of square feet of office space, including a new UA headquarters. Then there’s a retail component, 7,500 homes, a hotel, 40 acres of parklands and a small stadium.

A request for $535 million in city bond financing for infrastructure has drawn some

criticism as corporate welfare for the billionaire Plank, but the overall plan has garnered widespread support among residents and high praise from Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Democratic Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Plank, a salesman to the core who got his start in business hawking Valentine’s Day roses at the University of Maryland, has taken his pitch directly to citizens with a high-profile, unprecedented print, TV, radio and internet campaign touting Port Covington and the more than 26,000 jobs he says it would bring.

The campaign’s tagline: “We will build it. Together.”

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John Haugen General manager | 301 Inc. | Minneapolis

BY ALYSSA FORD

A year ago, General Mills veteran executive John Haugen was leading

a specialized R&D wing of the Minnesota-based food giant. His team had introduced squeeze bottles of refrigerated pancake batter, K-cups that brew soup instead of coffee, and a snack subscription service called nibblr.

But something wasn’t clicking. With the blessing of General

Mills’ higher-ups, Haugen pivoted his entire department from product development to venture capital. Less than one year later, the new fund, 301 Inc., has five companies in its portfolio: Beyond Meat (vegan protein), RhythmSuperfoods (vegetable chips), GoodCulture (high-end cottage cheese), Tio Gazpacho (bottled soup) and Kite Hill (vegan cheese).

Q: General Mills funded four startups in five months. Is that the kind of pace we can expect?A: No, that’s a torrid pace. If this were more of a hands-off investment model — “we’re just going to put a bunch of chips down and see what happens”— we probably would have the capacity to do more. But we want to be really engaged with every startup, and put the expertise of a 150-year-old food company at their disposal. When one of our partners lost their head of operations unexpectedly, we had a General

Mills person at their plant the next morning. If we hadn’t done that, they wouldn’t have been able to ship product — that’s how small their operation is.

Q: Do the funded startups have offices at General Mills?A: No, I think the biggest mistake we could make is to bring them here. We want them to run their businesses. And you would not believe what we can get done in a half-hour conference call, when I can pull in the right person to help solve a problem in real time. If you think about the high drama of being an early-stage food entrepreneur, and you’re scaling your operations, there are a lot of what-ifs. What if Costco calls? How do I navigate Kroger? Just so happens, we

know the people at Costco, we’ve been working with Kroger for decades.

Q: What’s the most exciting product so far?A: If you had asked me six months ago, or even three months ago, I would never have believed we would put money on vegan cheese. Have you ever tasted vegan cheese? Not so good. But these guys at Kite Hill, somehow they’ve figured out how to do great taste in 100 percent plant-based dairy. It’s incredible. I’m also excited about what GoodCulture is going to do to the very sleepy cottage cheese category. We’re going to completely alter that mental image of 70-year-old ladies eating cling peaches with their cottage cheese.

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Stephen J. HemsleyCEO | UnitedHealth Group Inc. | Minnetonka, Minn.

A s CEO of the nation’s largest health insurer, Stephen J. Hemsley is one of the most powerful and vocal agents of change

in the U.S. health insurance industry.An outspoken critic of the public health

insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, Hemsley, who has served as UnitedHealth Group’s CEO since 2006, has wielded his influence to encourage changes to the health exchanges that would help ensure sustainability in the long term.

“We can’t subsidize a market that doesn’t appear at this point to be sustaining itself,” Hemsley said during a conference call in November.

His comments on the insurer’s grave exchange losses, due in part to low enrollment and a shorter-term, unhealthy population, and UnitedHealth’s subsequent withdrawal from most states’ 2017 insurance exchanges, has led the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to strengthen the risk pool of the exchange enrollees, crack down on special enrollment periods, and propose changes to improve the risk adjustment program — all of which could help turn the exchanges into a profitable business for health insurers.

— SHELBY LIVINGSTON

Palmer LuckeyFounder | Oculus VR LLC | Irvine, Calif.

E veryone’s talking virtual reality (VR) these days; Palmer Luckey is actually

living it. Though he’s only a few years into his 20s, Luckey already has a resume that could rival that of the technology industry’s legends.

He’s best known for founding the pioneering virtual reality company Oculus VR in 2012. Less than two years later, Facebook plunked down $2 billion for the outfit.

Luckey is also the inventor of Oculus’s Rift, a high-definition head-mounted display that has emerged as the benchmark for the VR market. He created his first VR headset prototype as a

teenager in his parents’ garage.However, Luckey has

shown himself to be far more than a technological tinkerer, articulating an ambitious vision for VR. In an interview with NPR, Luckey said VR represents a bigger technological turning point than the Apple II, Netscape or Google.

While many think of VR as a new medium for entertainment, Luckey said it also improves communication and “reduces a lot of environmental waste that we’re currently doing in the real world.”

As the VR market continues to blossom, look for Luckey to potentially play a central role in devising new applications and purposes that will unleash the technology’s revolutionary potential.

— JONATHAN CASSELL

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Dawn HudsonCEO | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | Beverly Hills

BY PATRICK LEE

W hen the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

hired Dawn Hudson as its first chief executive in 2011, she was recruited in part to increase diversity among its members. Five years later, that issue is still at the fore — particularly given the public backlash over the lack of diversity at the 2015 Oscars, and in the 2016 nominees.

Hudson recently discussed her job and its goals:

Q: What is your main mission?

A: The mandate for me when I came was to update the business practices of the academy and to help set the course with the governors for the future of this organization … what are the things that are the most impactful, and what are the priorities for this board?

Q: How successful have you been in achieving those priorities?A: We’ve been incredibly successful in setting those goals. So the first order of business was actually to get 17 different branches in all aspects of the film industry to come together and see their work as prioritizing the academy as a whole.

But what immediately became a priority for me and for many board members — because they

had been waiting for this for a long time — was establishing the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures ... getting the space and an architect and putting the framework, the foundation, together.

Technology also became a very important priority. ... Online voting suddenly allowed our members around the world — or who are working around the world — ... to engage in the Oscars and to fulfill our promise that the best of the best are voting on these awards.

Q: Let’s talk about diversity and the efforts that the academy has made to be in the forefront of that conversation. What is your role in that?A: That was part of the strategy from the very beginning as well when I was brought on the academy. The board at that time, and the officers who hired me, were ... painfully aware that our membership was not as inclusive or as diverse as they would have liked it to be. ...

So from the very beginning, we’ve been talking about, how do we communicate our message about our membership and about our programs? For the last five years, ... the new members classes have been increasingly more diverse.

As the [Oscar] nominations came out, ... it felt like, “Wow, is this as diverse a slate as the film industry is now?” Well, the truth [is] the film industry in the U.S. isn’t quite ... diverse enough. But we wanted to make sure the academy [was] … putting in place all of the measures that we could possibly do to be a leader for this industry.

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Jessica LivingstonCo-founder, partner | Y Combinator | Mountain View, Calif.

BY MADISON PARK

K nown as the “Social Radar,” Jessica Livingston has honed a

reputation for being able to spot the fakers.

She’s a key reason why Y Combinator has become the pre-eminent startup incubator that invested in companies like

Airbnb, Dropbox and Instacart, long before anyone had ever heard of them.

In 2005, Livingston quit her job in investment banking and started building Y Combinator as one of four founders, including her husband, Paul Graham. Early on, the group was like a family, with Livingston setting a tone of authenticity.

“The culture she defined was one of YC’s most important innovations,” Graham wrote on his blog in 2015. “Culture is important in any organization, but at YC, culture wasn’t just how we behaved when we built the product. At YC, the culture

was the product.”As a co-founder herself,

Livingston is hoping to encourage more women to follow her lead. To that end, she started the annual Female Founders Conference in 2014.

“Since I am in the business of funding first-time founders, I need to encourage more women to actually start companies and help them make the jump,” she told Fortune.

At this year’s conference, held in April, Livingston also announced another bold move: She plans to take a year-long sabbatical to reflect and spend time with her family.

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Lucie AustinMarketing director for Western Europe | Coca-Cola Co. | Atlanta

C oca-Cola Co. is known for its memorable marketing campaigns,

but perhaps nothing is more memorable than seeing your own name on the bottle. That’s the magic of the “Share a Coke” campaign, which first launched in Australia in 2011, spearheaded by Lucie Austin, then Coke’s marketing director for the South Pacific.

That summer, Coke reported that it sold more than 250 million personalized bottles and cans in a country with a population of 23 million. And when it came to the U.S. in 2014, “Share a Coke” boosted sales by more than 2 percent after an 11-year decline, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Austin, now marketing

director for Western Europe, said she knew the campaign would be a hit because of the way it allowed the iconic brand to make a personal connection.

“It wasn’t just about finding your own name but finding the names of those you know and love to share it with,” Austin said. “It may have just been a common name like David or John, but when you associate that name with your husband, son or friend, it’s so much more valuable.”

The “Share a Coke” campaign was particularly successful with teens and millennials, who shared images of their bottles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, proving expensive TV ads aren’t necessary to successful marketing.

Since it first made a splash in Australia, the “Share a Coke” campaign has gone on to feature thousands of different names in more than 70 countries.

— BAYAN RAJI

Bernie MarcusPhilanthropist, founder | The Marcus Foundation | Atlanta

H ome Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus’ impact can be seen in homes around the country and in Atlanta, the city he calls

home. While the company he led for years is flourishing

— Home Depot reported $88.5 billion in sales and the highest net earnings in company history last year — the Atlanta area is also benefiting from his largesse. Marcus contributed $250 million toward the 2005 building of the Georgia Aquarium, and made news in March for his $75 million gift to Piedmont Healthcare. The latter donation — the second-largest ever awarded to a community hospital in the U.S, according to Piedmont — will go toward building a world-class cardiac center at Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital.

Marcus said his altruism stems from a desire to give back to the city that welcomed him with open arms in the 1970s. “Southern charm is a real thing,” he said. “We learned from the South how to treat people.”

Other major gifts from the Marcus Foundation include a $20 million award to Piedmont Healthcare to found the Marcus Heart Valve Center in 2012, a $30 million donation to Grady Health System in 2014 and a $25 million gift to Florida’s Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

— CHANEL LEE

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Brooks Buffington & Tyler DrollFounders | Yik Yak | Atlanta

T yler Droll and Brooks Buffington haven’t cracked their 30s yet, but

they’ve already created a $400 million company. The fraternity brothers and Atlanta natives co-founded the hyper-local social media app Yik Yak shortly after graduating from Furman University. Now, the company reports that more than 2,000 college campuses are using the app, which allows users to

communicate anonymously within a short radius.

Yik Yak has gone through some changes recently, experiencing some management turnover and rumors of slowing user growth. But they’re continuing to tweak the platform in hopes of reaching more users, adding handles and a chat feature — the No. 1 request from users — this spring.

Speaking to the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier in May, Buffington said the focus was on increasing engagement with the college market: “If we can just kind of nail that in a really, really special way, then we can do whatever we want to.”

— CHANEL LEE

Daryl HoltVice president and group chief operating officer | Electronic Arts | Orlando, Fla.

D aryl Holt’s potent mix of creative and analytic skills has propelled him

from what might have been a traditional consulting career to heading one of the largest and most innovative sports gaming studios in the industry.

An accounting major who also studied digital animation, Holt folded his own company to join Electronic Arts in 2004, and his agile right- and left-brained thinking has paid off ever since. He centralized creative functions and streamlined production processes. He oversaw the development of such world-famous EA titles as “Madden

NFL,” “Superman Returns,” “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” and “NASCAR.” In 2004, EA announced its partnership with University of Central Florida to found the now top-ranking graduate school

for game design, Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.

Holt foresaw the value of using big data to engage players and drove its gaming applications. In 2013, EA partnered with Synergy Sports Technology to use the same real-time data the NBA uses to scout teams and players to create “NBA Live 14,” which updates with virtual data from the NBA almost immediately.

This year EA announced its first electronic sports initiative, beginning with “FIFA,” “Battlefield” and “Madden NFL.” Under Holt, EA’s goal is to make stars of all players — and even compete with broadcast TV — by fostering growth in amateur, mid-level and professional tournaments.

— HOPE WINSBOROUGH

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Niraj ShahCEO, co-chairman, co-founder | Wayfair | Boston

BY CHRIS BENTLEY

W hen Niraj Shah and Steve Conine co-founded the

company that would become Wayfair, they were simply focused on meeting a specific market need. In 2002, when e-commerce was relatively new, their online shop offered racks and furniture for home entertainment systems. They’ve since expanded to all kinds of furnishings, reporting $2 billion in sales last year across Wayfair’s

five brands. However, the company remains focused on fulfilling a simple promise: be the best home goods retailer on the internet, and don’t farm out your software.

“By building our own software solutions, we can completely customize products to our very specific business needs in a way that is not possible with off-the-shelf solutions,” Shah said. “We can’t afford to wait for solutions to be available on the market.” That strategy is paying off. Boston-based Wayfair is on track to hire almost 1,000 new employees at two new facilities in Maine this year, and the company continues to innovate in the

growing world of web-based furniture shopping. They’re even pioneering a virtual reality showroom.

The key to success, Shah said, is finding a niche that isn’t already dominated by that other online shopping giant, Amazon.

“We operate in a unique space where purchases are driven by customer experience, inspiration and specialized knowledge,” he said. “People … want great selection alongside beautiful, inspiring imagery and the support and expertise of specialized service teams who really understand furniture and other home products such as lighting and flooring.”

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Rupal Patel Founder, CEO | VocaliD | Boston

T wo years after Rupal Patel received her doctorate in speech language

pathology, she happened upon two speech-impaired people having a conversation through robotic-sounding assistive devices. One was a young girl and the other a grown man, but both had the same voice.

“It was very jarring,” Patel said, “seeing the same generic sounding, synthetic voice coming out of two very, very different people.”

From her research at Northeastern University, Patel knew that people with severe speech disorders can feel like they’ve lost part of their identity. Patel wanted to help them recover it. With a team of graduate students, she launched her first company, VocaliD,

crafting the world’s first personalized digital voices.

To build a database of sounds, the Massachusetts-based company solicited vocal “donations” from the internet. Patel was heartened when thousands of people uploaded speech samples, which the company can draw on to craft voices for their clients. Today, VocaliD has more than 14,000 voice donors from 110 countries and more than $1.25 million in funding, according to Patel. They’ve only crafted seven new voices so far, but have orders for 87 more this year, she said.

And although the technology that blends those myriad recordings into a more human-sounding artificial voice could be used for consumer purposes, like making interactions with artificial intelligence more palatable, Patel says she’s most interested in the program’s original intent: giving voice to the voiceless. — CHRIS BENTLEY

Roland SwensonCo-founder | SXSW | Austin, Texas

C ollege dropout Roland Swenson convinced The Austin Chronicle to launch a music festival championing

local talent in 1986. Thirty years later, he stands at the helm of the largest music event in the world, orchestrating not only a performance schedule, but also film, interactive and educational satellites that have risen from the creative dust kicked up by more than 72,000 attendees.

Swenson has overseen the addition of event segments that cater to diverse professional communities, including medical technology, space exploration and transportation. He has helped create a space for innovators leading the conversation around global environmental, social and economic challenges. And he has welcomed both Johnny Cash and a sitting president — Barack Obama — to the South by Southwest stage.

In 2015, the ever-expanding festival and the unofficial event co-locations that it has spawned contributed $317.2 million to the native Texan’s hometown economy. The key to managing that growth has been the development of a 200-person team he can trust, Swenson says.

“I’ve had to learn to not micro-manage people,” he said. “It’s not always easy to turn over a task you think you do pretty well to someone else, and be open-minded enough to recognize they may have found a better way to do it.”

— CHARLOTTE WOOLARD

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Gene StefanyshynSenior vice president of innovation and racing development | NASCAR | Concord, N.C.

T he glory is all on the track, where NASCAR drivers whip around

turns like never before, thanks to better aerodynamics and tire composition.

The genesis is in the numbers and tests run by the governing body’s extensive R&D department, led by Gene Stefanyshyn. The Canadian engineer and 30-year veteran of General Motors was recruited to help breathe new life into stock car racing — and so far, he can share in a little of the glory fans are celebrating each weekend.

NASCAR is also beaming

about the results, which make for photo finishes. Through the first 12 races this year, the average margin of victory was less than a second. That’s the third-closest margin since electronic scoring began in 1993, according to a NASCAR spokesperson.

How did this come to pass? Stefanyshyn (rhymes with “definition”) has been tinkering with computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel tests to lower the downforce. The cars are much more maneuverable in the right hands, especially in high-speed turns.

Speaking to the media in May, top driver Carl Edwards was ecstatic about the new technology. “These cars, I’m telling you, when you drive them sideways at 200 mph and you’re closing on people and you’re able to pressure them and race like that, that’s as good as it gets,” he said. — STEVE CRANFORD

Gary KellyCEO | Southwest Airlines | Dallas

S outhwest Airlines made a name for itself as the fun, scrappy, rebellious airline that turned its industry on its ear. In a 1993

report, the U.S. Department of Transportation coined the term “Southwest Effect” for the sudden drop in airfares that occurred when the low-cost carrier entered a market. Now, 45 years after its first flight, the Dallas-based airline flies coast to coast and, with its 2011 acquisition of AirTran Airways, flies internationally to destinations in the Caribbean.

“Their contribution to making travel affordable cannot be underestimated,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst at Atmosphere Research Group.

Leading the way is CEO Gary Kelly, a lifelong Texan who started out as an accountant but climbed the ladder at Southwest over the last 30 years. Fortune named Kelly among the top five most underrated CEOs in 2015. He spearheads a team of nearly 49,000 employees handling 3,900 daily flights on more than 700 Boeing 737 aircraft with net income topping $2.2 billion in 2015. The company just celebrated its 43rd year of profitability, an impressive feat in a difficult industry.

Trading under the stock symbol LUV, Southwest is also known for its upbeat, quirky culture, from the top executives on down. Kelly even joins in on the fun every Halloween, dressing up in costume for the company party.

“They want to be a company known as a fun place to work,” Harteveldt said, noting that flight attendants often sing or rap the safety announcement. “Front-line employees are encouraged to show their personalities.”

— NICHOLAS SAKELARIS

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Mark BertoliniChairman, CEO | Aetna | Hartford, Conn.

F rom the chairman’s seat of a healthcare titan that pulled in more than $60

billion last year, Mark Bertolini wields remarkable influence over the health care industry and government officials. While Aetna’s proposed $37 billion acquisition of Humana remains in limbo, Bertolini’s opaque hints about a potential relocation from Hartford, Conn., the company’s home since 1853, has agitated local politicians.

The unresolved HQ drama isn’t the first time Bertolini has set off public harrumphing from government leaders. When Bertolini questioned the sustainability of the Affordable Care Act, he said he received a call at home from Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell seeking clarification. And he has boldly used a CNBC interview to

demand significant changes to the act that would bring more coverage flexibility and rate structures.

Even fellow Aetna executives have been caught off guard by his words and deeds: After reading Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” Bertolini stunned his executive team by successfully insisting on pay hikes and reductions in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the company’s lower-paid workers.

He also introduced free yoga and meditation classes, treatments he relied upon as part of his therapeutic recovery regimen following spinal cord injuries in a 2004 skiing accident.

“In any large organization, there is a very strong resistance to dramatic change,” Bertolini told the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in a January 2016 interview. “And there are a lot of people in a very large organization that try to protect the company from the nut in the corner office.”

-- PHIL HALL

Nicole GlarosChief product officer | Techstars | Boulder, Colo.

I n 2010, the founders of Sphero approached startup accelerator Techstars with little more to offer than a passion for robots and mobile

phones. Fast-forward five years, and their app-enabled Star Wars BB-8 is among the top 10 bestselling U.S. toys.

“I’m exceptionally proud of them,” said Nicole Glaros, who helped guide Sphero from the start along with hundreds of other startups as chief product officer at Techstars. The startup accelerator was founded in Boulder in 2006 and has since expanded to several other cities around the world.

Glaros, who joined the company in 2009, still gets a thrill from working in the heart of Boulder’s burgeoning startup scene. With the characteristic enthusiasm of a startup executive — and a third-generation entrepreneur — Glaros sees plenty more opportunities for Techstars.

“From the little experiment in Boulder to 23 accelerator programs and 1,000 startup weekends in 500-plus cities, we can make an impact on the entire world,” Glaros said.

Besides lending her voice to Techstars’ #givefirst campaign, Glaros also doles out wisdom on her popular blog and promotes diversity in the workplace. When she’s not mentoring young entrepreneurs, she still finds time to trail-run, mountain-bike and ski the Rocky Mountains.

— PAUL KAROLYI

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Angie HicksCo-founder, CMO | Angie’s List | Indianapolis

M any innovators muster a spark of brilliance that

disrupts an industry overnight, then move on to something else. Not so Angie Hicks, the namesake and chief marketing officer of Angie’s List.

Hicks, who co-founded the company 21 years ago, is a case study in perseverance. Incredibly, not until last year did the 3-million-member consumer

reviews site turn its first annual profit. Along the way, Hicks has endured enormous pressure from litigious shareholders weary of a metrics-driven business model predicated on growing a national footprint first. (The company is now in 253 markets.)

She’s also championed investments in technology that allow consumers to not only read reviews online but also to purchase services over the Angie’s List website.

“We’re not just about matching consumers to companies,” Hicks said in a

statement. “We’re about the whole experience and a job well done.”

The success of the Indianapolis company will continue to depend on the woman seemingly as omnipresent in TV commercials as Progressive Insurance’s “Flo.” Hicks and new CEO Scott Durchslag recently ditched a longstanding paywall for reviews, in part due to growing competition from sites such as HomeAdvisor.com. If anything, Hicks’ role as the face of Angie’s List will be more important than ever. — CHRIS O’MALLEY

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John LordOwner | LivWell Enlightened Health | Denver

W hen John Lord left New Zealand in 1998, he had no idea he would end up on the vanguard of a whole new

industry built around legal marijuana. In fact, he had never even used the stuff.

But he saw an opportunity, and in 2009, founded LivWell, which is a now a leader in Colorado’s marijuana retail industry, employing more than 550 people and making more than $80 million in 2015.

“The one thing I continually underestimated was the market cap,” Lord said, reflecting on his company’s fast growth. “There was no book to tell you these things.”

Lord’s background in the notoriously litigious world of baby products prepared him for success in a highly restricted industry. Still, Colorado’s dynamic regulatory environment has posed a challenge.

“It’s a bit of a white-knuckle ride,” he said. “Regulation now is being written at a rate where cause-and-effect hasn’t got a chance to kick in.”

With that uncertainty affecting LivWell’s bottom line, Lord is looking to expand beyond Colorado. Next in line for cultivation? LivWell Oregon.

— PAUL KAROLYI

Manny MedinaFounder | eMerge Americas | Managing partner | Medina Capital | Miami

I n the early 1990s, Manny Medina had an inkling the internet would be a game

changer and yearned to be a part of it. Then at the helm of Terremark Worldwide, Medina entered the tech world by way of the real estate firm’s expertise in commercial office construction.

“I essentially started building ‘telecommunications hotels,’ which is where the internet physically sits,” Medina said.

Constructing and managing worldwide data centers, Terremark eventually landed a contract to build the NAP of the Americas, one of the largest

telecommunications hubs in the world. That laid the groundwork for Terremark’s sale to Verizon in 2011 for $1.4 billion. Since then, Medina has focused on helping emerging tech companies grow, with an eye toward enriching the fledgling tech ecosystem in Miami.

His private equity firm Medina Capital has catapulted seed-stage startups from Latin America, while eMerge Americas, the tech conference he founded in 2013, has become the world’s only platform connecting technology companies across Europe and the Americas.

“When it comes to technology, Miami never got any respect,” he said. “That’s all changing.”

— NICOLE MARTINEZ

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Congratulations from your friends and neighbors in Detroit.

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Steve WynnChairman and CEO | Wynn Resorts | Las Vegas

S teve Wynn didn’t need to put his name on his own hotel to leave an indelible mark on Las Vegas. No single person is more

responsible for transforming the strip from a cheesy milieu of all-you-can-eat buffets to a world-class tourist destination. Wynn built his first casino, the opulent Mirage, for a stunning $600-plus million in 1989, luring his competitors into a game of catch-up they’re still playing.

His Bellagio would have remained his crowning glory had he not used some of the profit he received from a hostile 2000 takeover of his company by MGM to purchase the Desert Inn and replace it with the stunning Wynn Las Vegas and, later, Encore Las Vegas. But he didn’t earn his estimated $2.8 billion net worth just by building nice things. Nice is also the core principle guiding his empire.

“All of the razzmatazz and jazz we hear about facilities and everything else doesn’t amount to a hill of beans,” he famously said during a 2008 earnings call. “It’s customer experience that determines the longevity and endurance of these enterprises.”

— COREY LEVITAN

Tony HsiehCEO | Zappos | Las Vegas

T ony Hsieh was only 24 years old when he joined Zappos after

selling his internet ad company LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million.

Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) soon upended internet commerce with the simple, powerful notion of selling happiness. It explains why 75 percent of the online shoe and clothing shop’s business is repeat. Why should it matter if the shoes you buy don’t fit perfectly when you can send them back, no questions asked and no postage paid? Happiness is also integral to the Zappos

management style.It’s run as a holocracy, a

controversial organizational system that gives all employees a say in operations. (And it will continue to be, since the conditions of the company’s $1.2 billion sale to Amazon in 2009 include no corporate interference.) Nobody is too important to provide customer happiness at Zappos, according to Hsieh, and that includes himself.

The CEO, reportedly worth $840 million, lives in a trailer on the street by his company. He answers his own email from customers and can be frequently found strolling the streets of the downtown district his investment has singlehandedly revitalized. — COREY LEVITAN

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Jon PlattChairman and CEO | Warner/Chappell Music | Los Angeles

BY PATRICK LEE

C onsider Jon Platt a rainmaker. Over the course of his long

career in the recording industry, he has signed or developed some of the biggest songwriters and artists in the business, including Jay Z, Kanye West, Usher, Drake, Snoop Dogg and Beyoncé.

Warner/Chappell snapped him up in 2012 after 17 years at EMI, and Platt has since ascended to chairman and CEO. No wonder, since Warner Music

Group CEO Steve Cooper has said the former DJ brings a rare “combination of artistic sensibility and commercial savvy” to the table.

Platt talked about his business method in a recent interview:

Q: How do you deal with the disruptions in the music industry?A: My main goal — which is what has been my goal, as always — is that songwriters are treated fairly and compensated for their work. … Because no matter what the changes are in our business, everything ... revolves around music, and music starts with a song, and songwriters must

be compensated, and we won’t have it any other way.

Q: You have a great track record. What makes you so successful?A: I’ve been involved in music for ... [more than] 30 years now, if you include my DJ career. ... So the music aspect of it is there. When you mix that in with working with songwriters and recording artists in the infancy of their careers, and you help bring things to the table that can add something to that songwriter or artist’s career ... it tends to lead forward.

And you’re fair with them in the business aspect as well — which is kind of where it falls apart at times. ... There’s 10 people who have spotted talent early and contributed to that talent’s career, but then ... it gets to the point sometimes where that talent hasn’t been compensated in the right way, and that’s where the relationship falls apart.

It’s called “chemistry” for a reason. ... People know that I’m a fair guy. ... My ethos ... has always been: ... I don’t want the music business to change me; I want to change the music business.

Q: Anything else?A: Someone told me years ago there’s no losers in anything. It’s only those who quit before their turn comes. And so it’s really about perseverance. ... Any songwriter I sign, I sign them because I think they write No. 1 songs. And the reality is some have had their number ones ... and some haven’t had their number ones — yet.

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Ann PatchettCo-owner | Parnassus Books | Nashville, Tenn.

A nn Patchett is a warrior for books.

Just a few years ago, Nashville was starving for brick-and-mortar bookstores, but it didn’t know it. With e-readers galore, many could have assumed the hardcover and paperback were dead.

But not Patchett. She recognized Nashville’s

affinity for all things local, and fought back against the corporate book world by partnering with former

Random House sales rep Karen Hayes, opening up shop while most others were shutting their doors. The store is dubbed Parnassus, after the Mount Parnassus of Greek mythology, which is a haven for literature, music and learning — exactly what Patchett desired the shop to be.

But Patchett isn’t just your average bookstore owner. She’s also a world-renowned author of seven novels and three nonfiction books, and has the awards to prove it — including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel “Bel Canto.”

Since Parnassus opened in

2011, it has become a hub for creatives and local authors, and Patchett isn’t stopping anytime soon. Her brand-new novel, “Commonwealth,” hits shelves in September, and she recently launched Parnassus’ mobile library, Pegasus, a traveling, bright blue truck crammed with books — further proof that independent bookstores can thrive among corporate giants.

“You may have heard the news that the independent bookstore is dead, that books are dead, that maybe even reading is dead,” Patchett wrote in The Atlantic in 2012. “To which I say: Pull up a chair, friend. I have a story to tell.” — EMILY BILLS

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Patrick Soon-Shiong Investor, entrepreneur | Los Angeles

P atrick Soon-Shiong has a net worth estimated at $11.8 billion, ranking

No. 81 on Forbes’ list of world billionaires. Though he started out as a surgeon, today he has his hands on everything from basketball to journalism to technology.

Soon-Shiong built his wealth on a network of startup pharmaceutical and healthcare enterprises under the umbrella of NantWorks. Based in Culver City, Calif., the company employs data, technology and genetic information to improve the care of patients and pioneer treatments for cancer and other diseases. The South African-raised son of Chinese

immigrants, Soon-Shiong made his mark early, graduating from medical school at age 23 and working as a surgeon before founding two drug companies and developing the cancer drug Abraxane, now a staple of treatment. He sold his initial drug companies for about $8 billion.

Following that payday, Soon-Shiong has taken several NantWorks subsidiaries public with great success. His latest IPO, for the biotech startup NantHealth, saw shares jump 32 percent over their offer price on the first day of trading in June. Soon-Shiong also maintains strong ties to Southern California. He owns 4.5 percent of the Los Angeles Lakers, and recently invested $70.5 million in tronc Inc. (formerly Tribune Publishing), the parent company of the Los Angeles Times—making him tronc’s second-largest shareholder.

— PATRICK LEE

Brian CheskyCo-founder, CEO | Airbnb | San Francisco

W ith more than 2 million rentals available on nearly every continent, Airbnb has gone from air mattresses rented out of a

San Francisco apartment to an internet juggernaut valued at $30 billion.

After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004, Brian Chesky and his friend Joe Gebbia were unemployed and trying to make ends meet to pay rent in San Francisco. So they rented out sleeping space in their apartment.

That simple idea became Airbnb, which today counts 60 million guests among its users — and Brian Chesky is the bane of hotels everywhere. The ultimate verdict on the company’s success comes from Warren Buffett, who told Fortune, “I wish I’d thought of it.”

In contrast to the drama that often plagues Silicon Valley startups with a revolving door of executives and high-profile fallouts, the young CEO has led a remarkably stable, laser-focused company with its co-founders still intact. Introducing the company’s new logo in 2014, Chesky wrote that “the rewards you get from Airbnb aren’t just financial — they’re personal — for hosts and guests alike.” — MADISON PARK

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George A. Kalogridis President | Walt Disney World Resort | Orlando, Fla.

BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH

T hose who know him best say George A. Kalogridis is so passionate about

Disney World the brand’s actually become a part of him. A Disney “lifer” who started out bussing tables at

the Orlando park in 1971, Kalogridis presides over a vacation mecca that includes four theme parks and 29,000 hotel rooms. The Magic Kingdom alone holds the title of No. 1 attraction worldwide, with 20.4 million annual visitors.

Since those early days, that empire has grown into a brand unequalled in the hospitality industry. Along with Disneyland, Disney World pioneered the once-in-a-lifetime experience for

vacationers, forcing other resorts to offer more than just nice rooms, golf courses or beaches. But its push for more exciting parks, rides, restaurants and attractions has upped prices dramatically — too high for many average Americans, some say, but necessary to keep up with the crowds and demand for ever more entertainment, the company says. Kalogridis has held leadership positions across the company, from EPCOT to Disneyland Paris to president of Disneyland. He was behind the introduction of fan favorites like EPCOT’s International Food and Wine Festival and breakfasts with Disney characters, and was part of the team that introduced the collectible pin program.

Since taking the helm at Disney World Resort in early 2013, he has overseen a major makeover of Hollywood Studios as well as the transformation of Downtown Disney into a 120-acre retail complex called Disney Springs.

Accounts of his hands-on, empathetic management style—personally reaching out to a dissatisfied visitor or working as a janitor for a day —have defined his storied career at Disney.

Considered an “operator’s operator,” he piloted a major reorganization that converted independent departments into integrated “land”-based business units. Openly gay, he’s also devoted to LGBT rights and a cheerleader for the group’s major purchasing power.

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Randy MalinoffCOO | Wizard World | Los Angeles

W hat happens when you give people a place to unfurl

a cape, wear a mask and wield the weapon of their favorite character? Lines of fans around the block and an international empire. With a growing network of comic book conventions around the country, Wizard World has created a community that bridges the gap between the entertainment world and its

loyal fans.The man who pulls the

strings is Randy Malinoff, who was recently named chief operating officer. His 20-plus years of showbiz experience have quickly established him as a key player at Wizard World, which has capitalized on a geeked-out pocket of pop culture to provide a place where fans can not just dress up as their favorite characters, but also buy merchandise and meet their entertainment idols.

Prior to entering Wizard World, Malinoff worked at Universal Studios as vice president of digital marketing.

If you saw ads for hits like “The Fast and the Furious,” “King Kong” or “Jurassic Park 3,” Malinoff was the man behind the curtain. More recently, he served as a vice president at Universal Music Group Distribution (think Rihanna, Drake and Kanye West). He was also co-founder of That’s It Media Group and held executive positions with K-Tel records.

As his experience packs a new punch behind Wizard World, America’s largest pop culture touring expo’s footprint is expected to reach even more cities, larger crowds and bigger-name actors. — EMILY BILLS

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J. Craig VenterFounder, chairman and CEO | J. Craig Venter Institute |La Jolla, Calif.

D r. J. Craig Venter threw down the gauntlet when he established a private

company to sequence the human genome – “the language in which God created life,” as President Bill Clinton put it.

Frustrated with the pace of the Human Genome Project led by Dr. Francis Collins at the NIH, Venter said that he could sequence the human genome five years earlier than the NIH’s 2005 goal. It was an audacious claim, but Venter had already been the first to sequence a living organism. He would later become the first to achieve genomic transplantation, and the first

to create a synthetic life form.Establishing Celera to

compete with one of the most esteemed scientific research institutes in the world accelerated the sequencing process, and in 2000, Venter and Collins jointly announced that they had decoded (almost) the complete set of human genes.

Venter’s accomplishments have focused on accelerating science and discovery, and understanding “What is life?” After 20 years, he is getting closer to an answer at a molecular level. His research group at Synthetic Genomics (of which he is the co-founder, executive chairman and co-chief scientist) “designed a life form in the computer ... that would live and self-replicate,” he said, “so we’re starting to understand the fundamental

components of life.”His path to world renowned

scientist was circuitous.“I was drafted off my

surfboard in 1965 and ended up as a hospital corpsman in Vietnam,” he said. “I went from being a California surfer and a lousy student to wanting to ... do something meaningful with my life, in part, to honor all those people that I couldn’t help.”

Now, in addition to working toward the goal of personalized genomic medicine, he is pursuing using synthetic organisms to produce alternative fuels. It’s also reassuring to know his other company, Human Longevity, is continuing work to extend the “healthy, high-performance lifespan” so he has more time to make more scientific breakthroughs.

— BRYNA KRANZLER

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Jeanne P. JacksonStrategic adviser | Nike Inc. | Beaverton, Ore.

T he same personalized service that helped the Nike brand grow beyond the trunk of a Plymouth Valiant from which founder Phil

Knight peddled shoes in 1963 now has advanced the company’s lead in a retail environment redefined by digital experiences. Jeanne P. Jackson led the charge on that front, overseeing product development and merchandising initiatives that put technology at the center of the company’s $31 billion sales strategy.

During her tenure, Nike developed its direct-to-consumer web presence and rolled out a Nike+ mobile app that connects athletes to coaching services as well as customized shopping experiences. It invested in new production capabilities, including 3-D printing technology that could revolutionize the product design process and also allow Nike to manufacture individual fits for specific customers.

The overarching theme of Jackson’s work in the apparel and footwear empire: simplify the shopping experience at the same time customers increasingly expect highly personalized products and services. Although she passed the baton to longtime teammate Michael Spillane at the end of May, her value to the company is obvious as she continues to advise CEO Mark Parker.

— CHARLOTTE WOOLARD

Chris GrangerPresident | Sacramento Kings | Sacramento, Calif.

F or Sacramento Kings President Chris Granger, all that glitters is royal

purple, black, silver — and green.

Tasked with “relaunching” the franchise after an aborted attempt to move the team to Seattle in 2013, the 15-year NBA veteran helped implement “NBA 3.0,” the concept that technology, globalization and basketball are key elements of change. His efforts to secure the Golden 1 Center arena plan that kept the Kings in Sacramento resulted in a $500 million downtown mixed-use development project.

Granger also helped ensure that the Golden 1 Center demonstrates that forward thinking includes green thinking. When the arena opens in the fall, it will be the nation’s first to run entirely on solar power, something that other industry

leaders said was still years away. The arena also employs major water conservation methods, and all of its food and beverages are locally sourced.

Meanwhile, the Kings organization is two years into its “Sacramento Proud” campaign, which was launched as a thank-you to the fans who have supported the team for more than 30 years. It’s also a way to ignite community pride that goes beyond the basketball court. During the 2015-16 season, the Kings contributed more than $2 million to the community, worked with more than 1,500 nonprofit groups and donated thousands of tickets to area children, according to Granger.

“For us, ‘Sacramento Proud’ is not simply a tagline — it is a calling,” said Granger, now in his third year as president. “We strive every day to make our community a better place. We love Sacramento and try to live up to the mantra that we are in fact ‘bigger than basketball.’”

— ALAN NADITZ

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Amy BanseManaging director and head of funds | Comcast Ventures | Philadelphia/San Francisco

I n 1991, Amy Banse walked in the door at Comcast as an in-house

attorney, responsible mostly for programming acquisition. Twenty-five years later, she remains with the company, but to say that her responsibilities have expanded would be a gross understatement.

Today, the Harvard-educated Banse is considered one of the most powerful women in the cable and tech industries, with a long record of accomplishment

that has seen her profile grow right alongside the company she has served for nearly three decades. Over the course of her dynamic Comcast career, she helped the company acquire or launch numerous cable networks, oversaw the creation of Comcast’s first digital media division and, no matter what her role, has excelled in helping deliver more viewers, more customers and more profits.

As managing director and head of funds for Comcast Ventures — Comcast’s private venture capital affiliate — Banse plays a leading role in identifying and developing some of the nation’s most promising tech startups. Since she assumed

her role with Comcast Ventures in 2011, Banse has led the company’s investment into dozens of other companies, cutting across a number of sectors.

As a mother of four, she describes herself as “the ultimate consumer,” and said she leverages that perspective as she seeks out smart investments.

“I love technology and am drawn to consumer-oriented products that solve problems and make our lives better,” she said on Comcast Ventures’ website. “That, for me, is a threshold filter. Will it make a life easier, happier, more efficient?” — TIM HYLAND

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