Many of the top business leaders on the list below are there because they’ve managed to combine level of leadership and brilliance with an eye towards improving the lot of humanity writ large. Companies can come and go, but what is truly remembered by the masses is not a company’s product but the impact that leaders leave behind. In each of the following business leaders, we can note that each posses the power of motivation and innovation that has created an everlasting impact on the world.
Bill Gates
Perhaps a man who needs little introduction, Bill Gates is still undeniably a business leader who has left a lasting mark on the world. By founding Microsoft, Bill Gate’s would eventually usher in the era of personal computers.After much success with Microsoft, Bill Gates teamed up with his own wife to found the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has significantly moved towards ending malaria globally. Bill and Melinda’s efforts to bring clean water to developing countries might just eclipse Bill Gates’s business record when all is said and done.
Elon Musk
A man who has gone from rags to riches multiple times in his career, Elon Musk came from South Africa and eventually founded a number of companies: PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors. More recently, Elon’s other company – humorously named “The Boring Company” – is working with the city of Los Angeles to create an underground hypertube transportation line.
Tim Cook
Bill Gates, it must be said, is historically inexorably linked to Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. When Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer back in 2011, Tim Cook took over Apple as chief executive officer. Many tech industry insiders and economists had doubts about whether Tim Cook could handle new product developments, impending lawsuits with Samsung, and calls for tech companies to be broken up. Tim has weathered all of these storms, including a series of battles from the FBI to provide backdoor access to iPhones, and overseen the launch of the long-awaited iPhone X.
Reshma Saujani
Reshma may be a new name for some readers, but she’s helped to promote technology training for literally hundreds of thousands of girls from around the United States. For these efforts, she certainly deserved recognition. By training, Reshma is a lawyer who went on to found “Girls Who Code,” a nonprofit organization designed to balance the gender gap in the tech industry and empower tomorrow’s female leaders. Reshma reminds us all that anything is possible in today’s world.
Originally published on DarrellMadding.com