Disney is getting ready to celebrate its 100 year anniversary. In 1923, the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio was founded by Walt and Roy Disney. Mickey Mouse, the most recognized face of Disney, will turn 100 in 2028, 100 years after his first-ever cartoon appearance. Disney has grown to be one of the most loved and recognized brands in the world, and its brand value, as of 2021, is $56.1 billion.
The current CEO of The Walt Disney Company is Bob Chapek, who stepped into the role after former CEO Bob Iger stepped down in 2020. Chapek joined Disney in 1993. He has been a leader in innovative technology in the company, encouraging early adoption of DVD and Blu-ray. He also was an important part of Star Wars merchandising after Disney acquired Lucasfilms, and he has led the parks and resorts through several recent renovations. Chapek has a net worth of $5.07 million but has an annual salary of $0, and makes his money mostly through the purchase of stocks.
McDonald’s is yet another brand that is considered all-American. It was founded as a restaurant, and then later a burger stand in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald. Over the years, it has grown to be the world’s largest restaurant chain and has over 38,000 restaurants around the world. As of 2021, its brand value is $37.9 billion.
The current CEO of McDonald’s is Chris Kempczinski. He succeeded Steve Easterbrook as CEO. Kempczinski has a history of working with larger brands such as Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Kraft Foods before working for McDonald’s. He has a net worth of $17.7 million and makes over $5 million each year.
Verizon was founded in 1998 when American company Bell Atlantic and British company Vodafone decided to join together to create a wireless telephone company. As of 2021, Verizon has a brand value of $63.7 billion. The current CEO of Verizon, Hanz Vestberg, was selected in 2018.
Vestberg is a Swedish businessman who joined Verizon in 2017 as the chief technology officer. A little over a year later, it was announced that former CEO Lowell McAdam was stepping down and that Vestberg would be taking his place. Vestberg has a current net worth of $26 million and an annual salary of $22.2 million.
Although AT&T is currently the largest telecommunications company, it does not have as big of a brand value as Verizon. AT&T has a brand value of $59.1 billion as of 2021. AT&T was actually founded by Alexander Graham Bell himself as the Bell Telephone Company, later changing its name to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).
The current CEO of AT&T is John T. Stankey. He became CEO in 2020 following Randall L. Stephenson’s resignation. He has worked with AT&T for the majority of his career, back when it was called the Southwestern Bell Corporation 1995. Stankey has been a long-time higher up at the company and even was the CEO of WarnerMedia while that company was under AT&T. His net worth is estimated to be about $26.6 million, and his salary is about $22.5 million.
The Coca-Cola Company began with the invention in 1886 of Coca-Cola, now known more commonly as Coke. It was invented by Confederate colonel and pharmacist John Pemberton. It was originally marketed during the temperance movement as a “temperance drink,” meaning it was non-alcoholic, and as a medicinal cure for all sorts of ailments. Now, we know that sodas are not good for our health, but Coke is about as American as you can get and is one of the largest brands in the country with a brand value of $37.9 billion as of 2021.
James Quincey is the current CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. He is from the U.K. but lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his family to be close to the Coke headquarters. He began working with Coke in 1996 and has worked in the Latin American and European divisions of Coke before being appointed to the position of CEO in 2016. Coke is known as one of the biggest plastic polluters in the world, and since becoming CEO, Quincey has announced a plan to recycle one bottle for every bottle sold by 2030. He has a net worth of $50 million and an annual salary of over $18 million.
Wells Fargo as we know it today is the result of a 1999 merger of Wells Fargo and Norwest Corporation. Before this merger, Wells Fargo was a financial institution that was formed around the California gold rush during the early 1850s, founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. Wells Fargo is now best known for its bank, which is currently the fourth largest bank in the United States. Its brand value as of 2021 is $40.1 billion.
The current CEO of Wells Fargo is Charles W. Scharf. Scharf has always worked in the financial world, and was even the CEO of Visa from 2012 to 2016. He then became the CEO of Bank of New York Mellon from 2017 to 2019, and directly after was appointed to be CEO of Wells Fargo. Scharf has a net worth of $52.3 million, and has an annual salary of over $34 million.
The first Starbucks opened as a coffee roaster in San Francisco in 1971. It was coincidentally named after a character in Herman Melville's famous book about a whale only because the founders liked the way the name sounded. The company didn’t start selling espresso drinks until the ‘80s, when they became pioneers in what is now called the “second wave of coffee.” The first wave focuses only on coffee as a drink, such as Folgers, whereas the second wave focuses on the coffee experience, like Starbucks, and the third wave focuses on the quality and artistry of coffee, like the hipster coffee shops. Starbucks has a brand value of $41 billion as of 2021.
Kevin Johnson is the current CEO of Starbucks. He has been the CEO since he succeeded former CEO Howard Schultz in 2017. Johnson is both a businessman and a software engineer. He not only has worked in the executive positions at Starbucks since 2009, he has also worked on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Johnson’s net worth is over $103 million, and he makes nearly $20 million each year as the CEO of Starbucks.
In 1978, Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah founded The Home Depot. It is now the largest home improvement store in the United States and one of the top 10 biggest brands in the United States as well. Its current CEO is Craig Menear. The Home Depot has a brand value of $50.5 billion as of 2021.
Menear began working at The Home Depot in 1997, and 10 years later he became the executive vice president of merchandising. In 2014, former CEO Frank Blank announced that he was stepping down and that Menear would take his place. Menear has a net worth of $116 million and makes nearly $11 million every year as the CEO of The Home Depot.
Sam Walton founded Walmart, a multinational retail corporation with a brand value of $77.5 billion as of 2021. It began as the humble Walton’s 5&10 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Through innovative business patterns, Sam Walton was able to grow the company to one of the largest in the world. The three living Walton children are all within the top 20 of the richest people in the world. The current CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon, is not even a billionaire.
Doug McMillon began working for Walmart in high school as a sales associate and worked his way up to eventually be given the title of CEO in 2014. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and a MBA from the University of Tulsa. McMillon’s current net worth is $254 million, and his yearly salary is $22 million.
Google is owned by the parent company Alphabet Inc., which in 2021 reached a brand value of $159.7 billion. As of 2019, the CEO of Alphabet and Google is Sundar Pichai. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In 2015, Google reorganized to then be a part of the broader company of Alphabet Inc., and in 2019, Larry Page stepped down as CEO and appointed Sundar Pichai to that position.
Pichai was born and raised in India and eventually moved to the United States to attend graduate school at Stanford University. He began working for Google in 2004 as part of the product management team where he helped lead the development of Google Chrome, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Maps. He currently has a net worth of $600 million and a yearly salary of $100 million.
Susan Wojcicki, the current CEO of YouTube, is the only woman on this list. Youtube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim and was bought by Google in 2006. It is a subsidiary of Google, so while Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet Inc., the company that owns Google, he is also the CEO of Google as a subsidiary, and Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube as a subsidiary. As of 2021, YouTube’s brand value is $44.5 billion.
Wojcicki actually had an important role in the birth of Google. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed Google’s search engine in her garage. She was officially hired as a Google employee in 1999, a few months after its founding, and has been a leader in the areas of AdSense, Google Analytics, Google Images, and Google Books. Wojcicki was also a big proponent of Google’s purchase of YouTube in 2006. She became YouTube CEO in 2014 and has been called “the most important person in advertising.” Wojcicki has a net worth of $815 million.
Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In 2000, Bill Gates stepped down as CEO, and Steve Ballmer was appointed as his replacement. In 2014, Ballmer stepped down, and Satya Nadella took his place. As of 2021, Microsoft has a brand value of $117.1 billion.
Much like Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella was also born and raised in India and eventually moved to the United States for graduate school where he received his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992. He has been the leader in pushing for the company’s emphasis on the Azure Cloud. Nadella’s net worth is $863 million, and his annual salary is $40 million.
Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne as a computer company where the team worked to develop the Apple I computer which went public in 1980. Apple is now a multinational technology company that sells electronics, software, and online services and is run by CEO Tim Cook. As of 2021, Apple has a brand value of $140.5 billion.
Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple when Steve Jobs stepped down from that position in 2011, about six weeks before Jobs died of pancreatic cancer. However, Cook had stood in for Jobs as CEO multiple times, while Jobs took health leaves due to his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Cook joined Apple in 1998 as the Senior Vice President for worldwide operations. Tim Cook has a net worth of $1.5 billion and a salary of $3.4 million. In 2014, he was the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out as gay.
Michael Dell is a businessman who is the founder, CEO and chairman of Dell Technologies which is one of the largest technology infrastructure companies in the world. He has a net worth of $54.6 Billion. In 2011, his 243.35 million shares of Dell stock were worth a total of $3.5 billion which gave him a 12% ownership of the company.
Born in Houston, Dell attended the University of Texas as a pre-med student. During this time, he started selling upgrade kits for personal computers as an informal business venture. Computers ended up being his real passion and he would go on to find Dell Inc. in 1984.
Phil Knight is currently the chairman emeritus, and the co-founder of Nike. Previously he served as chairman and CEO. On top of Nike, he is also the owner of the stop motion film company Laika. In 2020, he was ranked by Forbes as the 24th richest person in the world but now his wealth has accumulated to an estimated $55 Billion net worth.
Phil Knight is currently the chairman emeritus, and the co-founder of Nike. Previously he served as chairman and CEO. On top of Nike, he is also the owner of the stop motion film company Laika. In 2020, he was ranked by Forbes as the 24th richest person in the world but now his wealth has accumulated to an estimated $55 Billion net worth.
Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, and executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. Additionally, he has served as the executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017, and Technical Advisor from 2017 to 2020. Additionally, from 1997 to 2001, he was CEO of Novell.
In 2021, Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranked Schmidt as the 55th-richest person in the world. He has an estimated net worth of $26.8 Billion. But Schmidt isn’t just rich. He’s also a philanthropist. He started the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund and Schmidt Science Fellows.
Reed Hastings is the co-founder, chairman, and co-chief executive officer of Netflix. In addition to these duties, he also serves various boards and non-profit organizations. Furthermore, he was the founder of Pure Software until it was acquired by another company. Reed Hastings has a net worth estimated to be $6.3 Billion.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Hastings was the son of an attorney in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the Nixon administration, while his mother was a Boston debutante from a social register family. He would attend Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge as a child and later graduate from Bowdoin College with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics.
Ted Lerner, worth $5.5 Billion, is a real estate developer and the founder of the real estate company Lerner Enterprises. He is the largest private landowner in the Washington metropolitan area. On top of all this, he was the former managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team.
Raised an Orthodox Jew, Lerner attended Roosevelt High School in 1944. In the latter part of WWII, he served as a typist, but used his G.I. Bill to attend George Washington University, where he received his Associate’s degree and then moved on to the George Washington University Law School. During this time, he started selling homes on weekends, which inevitably caught his interest in real estate.
Travis Kalanick is the co-founder and former CEO of Uber. Before that, he was also the co-founder of Red Swoosh, a peer-to-peer content delivery network. For Uber he served as CEO from 2010 to 2017. He resigned due to pressure of public reports of an unethical corporate culture, including his ignoring reports of harassment.
It was last reported by Forbes that in 2017, Kalanick had a net worth of about $2.6 Billion. Currently, Kalanick is operating a venture fund that is focused on job growth in markets such as China and India. Having grown up in California, he owns a townhouse in the upper hills of San Francisco's Castro District and a home in Los Angeles.
Leslie Wexner is the chairman emeritus and founder of L Brands. Previously known as Limited Brands, Wexner acquired holdings in companies such as Bath & Body Works, Inc., Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Express Inc. Before transitioning into chairman emeritus, he served as CEO of L Brands.
While Leslie Wexner has made some philanthropic efforts, donating to various colleges and groups, it’s stained by the fact that he had a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that started in the 1980s and continued until Epstein’s death. He even allowed Epstein to run his business. Wexner is worth $4.8 Billion.
David Booth is the executive chairman and co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors. He is also an investor and philanthropist. Worth $5 Billion, he has given millions to the University of Chicago, the University of Kansas, and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He also started the Friends of Heritage Preservation for art restoration.
David Booth went to Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas and earned his Bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Kansas. After he would earn his Master’s degree in business at the same institution. David Booth has served numerous institutional boards over the years, including as the Governor of the Kravis Leadership Institute and the UCLA Foundation.
Richard DeVos was a Billionaire with an estimated net worth of $6 Billion. He was the co-founder of Amway, a multi-level marketing business, and the owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team. He’s also been the other of written works such as his memoir, titled “Simply Rich.”
DeVos was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was the son of Ethel Ruth, and Simon Cornelius DeVos, who worked in the electrical business. Growing up, he attended Grand Rapids Christian School and would go on to Calvin College. He also served in the military in WWII within the United States Army Air Corps.
John Malone was the CEO of Tele-Communications Inc for 24 years. He also served as interim CEO of Liberty Media. He now serves as chairman and voting shareholder for Liberty Media, Liberty Global, and Qurate Retail Group. Additionally, he owns 7% stock in Lionsgate and Starz Inc.
John Malone, as of 2021, is estimated to have a net worth of $9 Billion and is the largest private landowner in the United States, owning as much as 2.2 million acres. Born in Connecticut and raised a Catholic, he would graduate from Hopkins School in New Haven and earn his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics at Yale.
Charles Ergon was the co-founder and chairman of the Dish Network. He has served in the position of CEO twice, having stepped down in 2011 and resumed the position in 2015 until 2017. Altogether, he has served Dish since 1998. He owns 48 percent of Dish.
On top of Dish, he is the co-founder of EchoStar and has a 46 percent share of that company. Born in Tennessee, his mother was one of the first female accountants in the state of Minnesota. He would go on to earn his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Mark Benioff is an internet entrepreneur with a net worth of $10.4 Billion. He is the founder, CEO and chairman of Salesforce, which is a cloud computing company. Benioff founded Salesforce in 1999 – all in a rented San Francisco apartment. By 2009, he was one of the youngest global leaders in the world.
Now 57, Benioff owns Time, which he purchased for $190 million. Benioff has given back to the world as a philanthropist. He started the Salesforce.com Foundation in 2000 and gifted $100 million to the UCSF Children's Hospital. He’s also been a supporter of the environment. In 2019, he gave $900,000 to Team Trees.
Larry Ellison is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer, and the former CEO of the Oracle Corporation. He is the ninth wealthiest person in the United States and 10th wealthiest person in the world. He currently has a fortune of $108 Billion – wealth that has nearly doubled since 2018.
Larry Ellison was born in New York to an unwed Jewish mother. His father was an Italian-American United States Army Air Corps pilot. He was given up to his aunt and uncle for adoption and moved to Chicago. Now living the dream, the man has owned several aircrafts, yachts, and homes over the years.
Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft. He’s also the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. His wealth is estimated to be around $117 Billion, making him the eighth-richest person on Earth. He had been hired by Bill Gates back in 1980 and remained in the position until 1980.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ballmer was the son of Beatrice Dworkin and Frederic Henry Ballmer, who was a manager at the Ford Motor Company. Born to be a businessman, Ballmer would get a Harvard University education and retire as a billionaire. He is now 65 years old.
Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, while they were students at Harvard University. Facebook has grown to be one of the biggest companies in the world in less than 20 years and owns other social networking platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and others. Facebook has a brand value of $79.8 billion as of 2021.
Mark Zuckerberg at only 37 years old is the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $117.5 billion. His salary is now a mere $1 per year, but he still makes tens of millions of dollars each year through other means of compensation. Zuckerberg never actually completed his degree at Harvard because he dropped out his sophomore year to fully invest his time into Facebook. However, in 2017, Zuckerberg gave a commencement speech at Harvard, and afterward, he was awarded an honorary degree.
In February 2021, Jeff Bezos officially announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of Amazon and will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who was the former head of Amazon Web Services. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 originally as an online bookstore but gradually grew to selling more items until it became the world’s largest online marketplace and reached a brand value of $220.8 billion as of 2021.
Jeff Bezos’s net worth as of 2022 is valued at $188.4 billion, making him the richest person in the world. Jassy, Bezos’s successor, has a net worth of $400 million, but considering he is now the head of the richest company in the world, he will definitely grow his bank account considerably in the next several years. In 2020, as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos made on average $321 million each day. There were about 320 million citizens of the United States in 2020, so Bezos made enough money himself every day that he could have personally given each U.S. citizen one dollar at the end of every work day.
Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, business magnate and the richest man in the world. He has citizenship not only in the United States but in South Africa and Canada as well. Born to a Canadian mother and South African father, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree.
Elon Musk currently has an estimated net worth of $304 Billion – wealth so enormous, most of us could not even fathom it. Born to a Canadian mother and South African father, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. He is now the founder, CEO and Chief Engineer at SpaceX. He’s also, of course, the man behind Tesla, as its CEO and Product architect. In addition to Tesla and SpaceX, he’s also founded The Boring Company and Neuralink.
