Business Reference: Executives & Entrepreneurs

US oil executive and environmentalist. Anderson created Atlantic Richfield (ARCO, part of UK oil company BP since 2000) in 1966 after the merger of the Atlantic Refining and Richfield Petroleum oil companies.

US automobile executive and engineer, who left a successful career at General Motors in 1973 to build a futuristic sports car.

US film producer, animator, and pioneer of family entertainment, whose career spanned the development of the motion picture medium, and opened Disneyland, his first theme park.

US entertainment executive whose leadership had transformed the Walt Disney Company into a major media conglomerate by the mid-1990s.

American merchant, b. Conway, Mass. In 1856, after five years' apprenticeship in a general store in Pittsfield, Mass., he went to Chicago and became a clerk for Cooley, Wadsworth & Co., a leading dry-goods house there, of which he became a junior partner in 1862.

US film producer. He founded the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation in 1917, which merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924, although he was not part of the deal.

US publisher, founder of Playboy magazine in 1953.

US fashion designer, founder of Calvin Klein Inc., who became known for his simple clothing lines and perfume items. He founded the company in 1968, popularized designer jeans in the 1970s, and revolutionized fashion advertising in the 1980s.

Poet, designer of textiles and wallpaper, successful businessman, father (often so-called) of the Arts and Crafts movement.

US business executive. As president of IBM (International Business Machines) 1952-56, he placed the company at the centre of the industry.

American talk-show host, producer, and actress. Producer and host of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986-present), Winfrey has also acted in films such as The Color Purple (1985) and Beloved (1998).

Hungarian-born US computer entrepreneur. Together with Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, Grove participated in the founding of the microprocessor manufacturing company Intel in 1968.

US computer entrepreneur. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation in 1975, with school friend and fellow entrepreneur Paul Allen, and succeeded in converting a passion for computers into a globally dominant software business.

US engineer, entrepreneur-manager, government adviser, and philanthropist, who co-founded the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) with university friend, William Hewlett, in 1939.

The visionary entrepreneur is not content to create a business, but must shape the future.

US computer entrepreneur, who founded the world-famous Internet retailer Amazon.com with an initial investment of US$300,000 from his parents. Voted Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1999, his company is one of the most frequently visited shopping sites on the Internet with an estimated 20 million customers in 160 countries, employing 17,000 staff.

US computer entrepreneur and founder in 1977 of Oracle Corporation, the world's second largest software company. Ellison, whose biography is entitled The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: Inside Oracle Corporation (1997), was estimated in 2000 by US financial magazine Forbes to be the second richest person in the world - after his arch-rival Bill Gates.

US entrepreneur and politician, mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013.

US electrical engineer and computer inventor. With Steven Jobs he formed Apple Computer in 1976 to make the Apple I. He played a major role in designing the later Apple models, Lisa and Macintosh.

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on 24 February 1955.

US media entrepreneur. He began his career in the 1960s in advertising, and built up the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) communications empire from his father's billboard advertising business.

US entrepreneur and philanthropist who achieved legendary fame as a stock market investor and is believed to have become the wealthiest individual in the world.

US engineer, entrepreneur-inventor, and philanthropist who co-founded the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) with university friend, David Packard, in 1939. The garage in Palo Alto, California, in which the company started, was designated a state Historical Landmark in 1989, and celebrated as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.