The Most Famous

BUSINESSPEOPLE from United States

This page contains a list of the greatest American Businesspeople. The pantheon dataset contains 847 Businesspeople, 267 of which were born in United States. This makes United States the birth place of the most number of Businesspeople.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary American Businesspeople of all time. This list of famous American Businesspeople is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of American Businesspeople.

1. Howard Hughes (1905 - 1976)

With an HPI of 78.82, Howard Hughes is the most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 66 different languages on wikipedia.

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, investor, philanthropist and aircraft pilot. He was best known during his lifetime as one of the richest and most influential people in the world. He first became prominent as a film producer, and then as an important figure in the aviation industry. Later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle—oddities that were caused in part by his worsening obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain from a near-fatal plane crash, and increasing deafness. As a film tycoon, Hughes gained fame in Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he produced big-budget and often controversial films such as The Racket (1928), Hell's Angels (1930), and Scarface (1932). He later acquired the RKO Pictures film studio in 1948, recognized then as one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age, although the production company struggled under his control and ultimately ceased operations in 1957. Through his interest in aviation and aerospace travel, Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers, designers, and defense contractors.: 163, 259 He spent the rest of the 1930s and much of the 1940s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer (1935) and the gigantic H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose, 1947), the largest flying boat in history with the longest wingspan of any aircraft from the time it was built until 2019. He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, renaming it Hughes Airwest. Hughes won the Harmon Trophy on two occasions (1936 and 1938), the Collier Trophy (1938), and the Congressional Gold Medal (1939) all for his achievements in aviation throughout the 1930s. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973 and was included in Flying magazine's 2013 list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No. 25. During his final years, Hughes extended his financial empire to include several major businesses in Las Vegas, such as real estate, hotels, casinos, and media outlets. Known at the time as one of the most powerful men in the state of Nevada, he is largely credited with transforming Las Vegas into a more refined cosmopolitan city. After years of mental and physical decline, Hughes died of kidney failure in 1976. His legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.

2. Bill Gates (b. 1955)

With an HPI of 78.27, Bill Gates is the 2nd most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 168 different languages.

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist best known for his roles at Microsoft Corporation. He co-founded the software company with his childhood friend Paul Allen and later held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief software architect. He was also being its largest individual shareholder until May 2014. He was a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. In 1975, he and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates led the company as its chairman and chief executive officer until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer, but he remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect. During the late 1990s, he was criticized for his business tactics, which were considered anti-competitive. In June 2008, Gates transitioned into a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation he and his then-wife Melinda had established in 2000. He stepped down as chairman of the Microsoft board in February 2014 and assumed the role of technology adviser to support newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella. In March 2020, Gates left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus on his philanthropic efforts on climate change, global health and development, and education. Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world's top billionaires. From 1995 to 2017, he held the title of the wealthiest person in the world every year except in 2008 and from 2010 to 2013. In 1999, he became the first ever centibillionaire when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. Since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates has pursued other business and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of several companies, including BEN, Cascade Investment, TerraPower, Gates Ventures, and Breakthrough Energy. He has donated to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity. Through the foundation, he led an early 21st century vaccination campaign that significantly contributed to the eradication of the wild poliovirus in Africa. In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth towards philanthropy.

3. Larry Ellison (b. 1944)

With an HPI of 76.62, Larry Ellison is the 3rd most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 60 different languages.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer and executive chairman. As November 13 2024, he is the third-wealthiest person in the world, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of US$208 billion, and the second-wealthiest in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated net worth of $237 billion. Ellison is also known for his ownership of 98% of Lānaʻi, the sixth-largest island in the Hawaiian Islands.

4. John D. Rockefeller (1839 - 1937)

With an HPI of 76.61, John D. Rockefeller is the 4th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 75 different languages.

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. In his retirement, he focused his energy and wealth on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the Southern United States. Rockefeller's wealth soared as kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak in 1900. Oil was used in lamps, and as a fuel for ships and automobiles. Standard Oil was the greatest business trust in the United States. Through use of the company's monopoly power, Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and, through corporate and technological innovations, was instrumental in both widely disseminating and drastically reducing the production cost of oil. Rockefeller's company and business practices came under criticism, particularly in the writings of author Ida Tarbell. The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws. It was broken up into 34 separate entities, which included companies that became ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, and others—some of which remain among the largest companies by revenue worldwide. Consequently, Rockefeller became the country's first billionaire, with a fortune worth nearly 2% of the national economy. His personal wealth was estimated in 1913 at $900 million, which was almost 3% of the US gross domestic product (GDP) of $39.1 billion that year. Rockefeller spent much of the last 40 years of his life in retirement at Kykuit, his estate in Westchester County, New York, defining the structure of modern philanthropy, along with other key industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie. His fortune was used chiefly to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy through the creation of foundations that supported medicine, education, and scientific research. His foundations pioneered developments in medical research and were instrumental in the near-eradication of hookworm in the American South, and yellow fever in the United States. He and Carnegie gave form and impetus through their charities to the work of Abraham Flexner, who in his essay "Medical Education in America" emphatically endowed empiricism as the basis for the US medical system of the 20th century. Rockefeller was the founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church-based institutions. He adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life. For advice, he relied closely on his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller: they had four daughters and a son together. He was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church, taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor. Religion was a guiding force throughout his life, and he believed it to be the source of his success. Rockefeller was also considered a supporter of capitalism based on a perspective of social Darwinism, and he was quoted often as saying, "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest."

5. Jeff Bezos (b. 1964)

With an HPI of 75.93, Jeff Bezos is the 5th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 92 different languages.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( BAY-zohss; né Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American business magnate best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. He is the second wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of US$230 billion as of November 13, 2024, according to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He was the wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes. Bezos was born in Albuquerque and raised in Houston and Miami. He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields from 1986 to early 1994. Bezos founded Amazon in mid-1994 on a road trip from New York City to Seattle. The company began as an online bookstore and has since expanded to a variety of other e-commerce products and services, including video and audio streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It is the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the largest provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch. Bezos founded the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin in 2000. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015 and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth; he flew into space on Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021. He purchased the major American newspaper The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million and manages many other investments through his venture capital firm, Bezos Expeditions. In September 2021, Bezos co-founded Altos Labs with Mail.ru founder Yuri Milner. The first centibillionaire on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires Index and the second ever to have eclipsed the feat since Bill Gates in 1999, Bezos was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150 billion in July 2018. In August 2020, according to Forbes, he had a net worth exceeding $200 billion. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as the CEO and president of Amazon and took over the role of executive chairman. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy succeeded Bezos as the CEO and president of Amazon.

6. Vince McMahon (b. 1945)

With an HPI of 75.93, Vince McMahon is the 6th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 49 different languages.

Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American businessman and former professional wrestling promoter. McMahon, along with his wife Linda, is a co-founder of the modern WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Outside of professional wrestling McMahon has occasionally ventured into promoting other sports; his projects have included the World Bodybuilding Federation and the XFL football league. He is the owner of Alpha Entertainment. McMahon graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in business in 1968, and began his tenure in professional wrestling as a commentator for WWE (then called the World Wide Wrestling Federation or WWWF) for most of the 1970s. He bought the company from his father, Vincent J. McMahon, in 1982 and almost monopolized the industry, which previously operated as separate entities across the United States. This led to the development of the annual event WrestleMania, which became one of the world's most successful professional wrestling events. WWE then faced industry competition from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1990s before purchasing and absorbing WCW in 2001. WWE also purchased the assets of the defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 2003. McMahon appeared on-screen for WWE from 1969 until 2022, initially as a personable play-by-play commentator. In 1997, he adopted the character of Mr. McMahon, portrayed as an irascible, villainous, swaggering tyrant who obsessed over maintaining control of his wrestling company and often growled the catchphrase "you're fired!" when dismissing an employee. Under the villainous Mr. McMahon gimmick, he competed in wrestling matches and became a one-time WWE Champion, a one-time ECW Champion, a Royal Rumble winner, and a multi-time pay-per-view headliner. Following claims of hush-money agreements McMahon paid over affairs with former WWE employees, McMahon stepped down as CEO and chairman of WWE in June 2022, pending the conclusion of an internal investigation. He was replaced by his daughter, Stephanie McMahon. The following month, McMahon announced his retirement from WWE, but his return to WWE as executive chairman was confirmed in January 2023. That April, Endeavor Group Holdings announced a merger between WWE and Zuffa, owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts promotion; McMahon served as the executive chairman of the new merged company, TKO Group Holdings (TKO). McMahon later resigned from TKO in January 2024 after allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault. McMahon is currently under a federal probe.

7. Warren Buffett (b. 1930)

With an HPI of 75.85, Warren Buffett is the 7th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 100 different languages.

Warren Edward Buffett ( BUF-it; born August 30, 1930) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who currently serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his investment success, Buffett is one of the best-known investors in the world. As of October 2024, he had a net worth of $147 billion, making him the eighth-richest person in the world. Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. The son of US congressman and businessman Howard Buffett, he developed an interest in business and investing during his youth. He entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before graduating from the University of Nebraska at 19. He went on to graduate from Columbia Business School, where he molded his investment philosophy around the concept of value investing pioneered by Benjamin Graham. He attended New York Institute of Finance to focus on his economics background and soon pursued a business career. He later began various business ventures and investment partnerships, including one with Graham. He created Buffett Partnership Ltd. in 1956 and his investment firm eventually acquired a textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway, assuming its name to create a diversified holding company. Buffett emerged as the company's chairman and majority shareholder in 1970. In 1978, fellow investor and long-time business associate Charlie Munger joined Buffett as vice-chairman. Since 1970, Buffett has presided as the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, one of America's foremost holding companies and world's leading corporate conglomerates. He has been referred to as the "Oracle" or "Sage" of Omaha by global media as a result of having accumulated a massive fortune derived from his business and investment success. He is noted for his adherence to the principles of value investing, and his frugality despite his wealth. Buffett has pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He founded the Giving Pledge in 2010 with Bill Gates, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes.

8. Tim Cook (b. 1960)

With an HPI of 72.34, Tim Cook is the 8th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 63 different languages.

Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who is the current chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Cook had previously been the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs. Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as a senior vice president for worldwide operations, and then as vice president for worldwide sales and operations. He was appointed chief executive on August 24, 2011, after Jobs, who had cancer and died later that year, resigned. During his tenure as the chief executive of Apple and while serving on its board of directors, he has advocated for the political reform of international and domestic surveillance, cybersecurity, national manufacturing, and environmental preservation. Since becoming CEO, Cook has also replaced Jobs's micromanagement with a more liberal style and implemented a collaborative culture at Apple.: 314 Since 2011 when he took over Apple, to 2020, Cook doubled the company's revenue and profit, and the company's market value increased from $348 billion to $1.9 trillion. In 2023, Apple was the largest technology company by revenue, with US$394.33 billion. Cook is also on the boards of directors of Nike, Inc. and the National Football Foundation; he is a trustee of Duke University, his alma mater. Outside of Apple, Cook engages in philanthropy; in March 2015 he said he planned to donate his fortune to charity. In 2014, Cook became the first and only chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out as gay. In October 2014, the Alabama Academy of Honor inducted Cook, who spoke on the state's record of LGBT rights. It is the highest honor Alabama gives its citizens. In 2012 and 2021, Cook appeared on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

9. Jeffrey Epstein (1953 - 2019)

With an HPI of 72.08, Jeffrey Epstein is the 9th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( EP-steen; January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American financier and sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional life as a teacher at the Dalton School despite lacking a college degree. After his dismissal from the school in 1976, he entered the banking and finance sector, working at Bear Stearns in various roles before starting his own firm. Epstein cultivated an elite social circle and procured many women and children whom he and his associates sexually abused. In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter. Federal officials identified 36 girls, some as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused. Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He was convicted of only these two crimes as part of a controversial plea deal, and served almost 13 months in custody but with extensive work release. Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He died in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. The medical examiner ruled that his death was a suicide by hanging. Epstein's lawyers have disputed the ruling, and there has been significant public skepticism about the true cause of his death, resulting in numerous conspiracy theories. Since Epstein's death precluded the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against him, a judge dismissed all criminal charges on August 29, 2019. Epstein had a decades-long association with the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited young girls for him, leading to her 2021 conviction on U.S. federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy for helping him procure girls, including a 14-year-old, for child sexual abuse and prostitution.

10. David Rockefeller (1915 - 2017)

With an HPI of 70.97, David Rockefeller is the 10th most famous American Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, and family patriarch from 2004 until his death in 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller. He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death.

People

Pantheon has 310 people classified as American businesspeople born between 1738 and 2000. Of these 310, 166 (53.55%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living American businesspeople include Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Jeff Bezos. The most famous deceased American businesspeople include Howard Hughes, John D. Rockefeller, and Jeffrey Epstein. As of April 2024, 43 new American businesspeople have been added to Pantheon including Johnny Kitagawa, Larry Fink, and Timothy Dexter.