(1918-1992)
Sam Walton opened his first discount store in 1962 on the theory that large-scale budget retailers could do well in rural areas with little competition through volume buying and a well-organized distribution system. Walton’

(1937-present)
A pioneer of the discount brokerage concept, Schwab’

(1837-1913)
A titan of Wall Street finance and a railroad magnate, J.P. Morgan was one of the leading industrialists of the early 20th century and a preeminent symbol of American capitalism. He began as an accountant with a New York banking firm and later became a partner in the firm Drexel, Morgan and Co., which became the main source of U.S. government financing. A railroad organizer, he arranged a deal between the two largest U.S. rail lines, the New York Central Railroad and the 

(1939-present)
Knight, the co-founder and CEO of Nike, has made his athletic shoe company one of the world’

(1955-present)
The founder of Apple Computer Corp., Jobs helped bring about the personal computer revolution. Jobs and a friend, Stephen Wozniak, built their first computer in 1976, when he was 21, putting the machine together in Jobs’

(1953-present)
He was appointed as a member of the Board to a full 14-year term, which expires January 31, 2020, and to a four-year term as Chairman, which expires January 31, 2010.
Before his appointment as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke was Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, from June 2005 to January 2006. Dr. Bernanke has already served the Federal Reserve System in several roles. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005, a 

(1851-1902)
His surname has become one of the most widely used terms in the American business lexicon. Dow and Edward D. Jones founded the financial news service Dow Jones &

(1863-1947)
Ford, considered the father of the auto industry, launched a business that revolutionized American life perhaps more than any other. He founded Ford Motor Co. in 1903 and five years later introduced the Model T, the first car to target the mass market. Ford became the biggest automobile producer in the world, manufacturing low-cost automobiles by cutting production costs, controlling raw materials and using an assembly line. When his factory workers began quitting because of the 

(1955-present)
The world’s wealthiest man and most famous Harvard University dropout, Gates has become the symbol of the high-tech revolution and the new era of young entrepreneurs revolutionizing American business. He and friend Paul Allen began developing computer software in 1975 and went on to form Microsoft. The fledgling company licensed its MS-DOS operating system to IBM for use on its first personal computer, the IBM PC, which set the standard for the PC industry, and MS-DOS became 

(1901-1966)
When this aspiring young cartoonist returned home after serving as an American Red Cross truck driver during World War I, he and a partner set up a movie studio that made short animated films. A film starring his mischievous creation, Mickey Mouse, which featured a novel technology in movies – sound – caused a sensation. This cartoon king went on to produce scores of animated features and other entertainment as well as plan a fantasy amusement park, Disney-land. His savvy