JERRY YANG

Jerry Yang the Taiwanese-born American internet mogul is most famed as the founder of the Yahoo! navigational guide and the co-founder and the former Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! Inc. He is listed in the “25 Most Influential men on the Web” and the 140th on Forbes “400 Richest Americans” list.

Yang was born on 6th November 1968 in Taipei, Taiwan. He moved to the U.S with his family at the age of 10. Yang did not know how to speak the English language however he became fluent in just three years. He attended the Sierramont Middle School and Piedmont Hills High School. He graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor and master degree in electrical engineering. During his time in Stanford he created a website with David Filo, called “Jerry and Dave’s Guide to the World Wide Web” that was later renamed ‘Yahoo!’ The website’s immense popularity encouraged Yang and Filo co-found Yahoo! Inc. in 1995. Yahoo! began as a web portal; a directory that provided a wide variety of products and services. The website is now one of the leading most trafficked websites in the internet.

In 1999, at the MIT Technology Review TR100 Yang was named one of the top 100 innovators in the world, under the age of 35. He was CEO of the company from 2007 till 2009 though throughout this time he was very much criticized by several investors as the stock prices and revenues did not rise. The situation worsened when he refused Microsoft’s offer of buying Yahoo! for 47 billion dollars. Consequently Yang was replaced as CEO by Carol Bartz with Yang assuming his previous role of ‘Chief Yahoo’ and member of Board of Directors. In 2012 it was announced that he would leave the company along with all his responsibilities.

By 2008 the company’s shares had dropped to only 14 dollars per share. BusinessWeek listed Yang as the ‘Worst Managers of 2008’. At the time of Yang’s resignation from the board Yahoo! market capitalization was only 20 billion dollars. Despite the company’s bleak situation, Yang did play a key role in managing and developing the company’s business policies, international ventures and improving its vision. His business career and contribution to the internet media industry proves his talent as a business magnate. Presently Yang is member of the board of Cisco, Alibaba, the Asian Pacific Fund andYahoo! Japan. He also sits on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.

Yang got married to Akiko Yamazaki whom he met at Stanford. She is a graduate in Industrial engineering and director at the Wildlife Conservation Network. Yang is also a philanthropist; he donated 75 million dollars to his alma mater, Stanford University which was utilized in building the ‘Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building’. With a net worth of 1.2 billion dollars, Yang is one of the richest people in the U.S. With his deep insight into the world of business, Yang has achieved a lot at a young age.

Carlos Ghosn

Carlos Ghosn is a businessman of French Lebanese origin famed most as the CEO and chairman of Renault and Nissan. He holds the same posts at the Renault-Nissan Alliance. He is known as ‘Le cost killer’, ‘ice breaker’ and ‘Mr. Fix it’ for the way he orchestrated financial turnaround at Nissan.

Ghosn was born on 9th March 1954 in Porto Velho, Brazil. He did his secondary studies in Beirut, Lebanon at Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour. He graduated in 1978 from École Polytechnique in engineering and his post graduate studies from the École des Mines de Paris. After his graduation he got a job at the biggest automotive supplier, Michelin & Cie in France. He stayed there for 18 years, At 30, Ghosn was made the chief operating officer of Michelin’s South American operation worth $300 million. He had to go to Rio de Janeiro where he was reporting to Francois Michelin directly. He gave Ghosn the responsibility of turning around an unprofitable operation. With Ghosn’s ingenious business tactics and smart decisions the division became profitable in less than two years. In 1990 he was appointed the CEO and chairman of the Michelin North America. His role included car engineering, development, advanced research, powertrain operations, car manufacturing and procuring and administration of Renault doings in South America.

In 1999 Ghosn bought 36.8% stake in Nissan and soon joined the company as CEO becoming the president in 2000. He kept his positions in Renault. At his joining time Nissan was under a debt of $20 billion and very few of its models were lucrative. To turn around the future of Nissan was almost impossible and Ghosn promised to leave the company if he was not able to do anything about their current situation. Once again Ghosn worked his magic and even received some criticism from the Wall Street Journal that disapproved his radical methods. But contrary to these accusations, Nissan’s profits elevated from their loss of more than $6 billion to a profit of $2.7 billion. His three year turnaround plan had been accomplished in only a year. He spearheaded key fundamental changes at Nissan making it a thriving business in no time. Carlos Ghosn is the first person in the world to run 2 companies on the Fortune 500.

According to Forbes magazine Ghosn is the ‘the hardest-working man in the brutally competitive global car business’. He is ‘Seven-Eleven’, a term coined by the Japanese media. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Arabic. He has invested in Ixsir, a vineyard working for environment benefits. Some also see him as a presidential candidate of Lebanon although he has never mentioned any sort of political interests. He starred in the documentary ‘Revenge of the Electric Car’ (2011). His life story was made into a comic book named ‘The True Story of Carlos Ghosn’ sold in Japan. He also wrote a book called ‘Shift: Inside Nissan’s Historic Revival’ which is a best-seller. Ghosn is often a subject of university thesis and business essays. He has been honored with several awards such including the ‘Most Respected CEOs’ by CEO Quarterly Magazine (2010) and ‘Asia Business Leader of the Year’ by CNBC (2011). He was added in the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame in 2010.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey has overcame many challenges in her early life to become a media giant. Oprah was born in 29 January 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi,with unwed teenage parents. She had a difficult childhood and living in poverty in her grandmother’s home for her first 6 years, after that between her father’s residence in Nashville and her mother’s in Milwaukee. She's an excellent student, she won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University then became interested in journalism and media. After a career in broadcast news, she move to talk show television. With the success of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah built a media empire that includes a magazine, film production company and cable network.

Oprah's Beginnings

In 1976, Oprah Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the TV chat show People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for 8 years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show,A.M. Chicago. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Within several months, Winfrey's open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Her success led to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg's 1985 film The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions ('Oprah' spelled backwards) and making more and more money from syndication.

Success and Fame

In 1994, with talk shows becoming increasingly trashy and exploitative, Winfrey pledged to keep her show free of tabloid topics. Although ratings initially fell, she earned the respect of her viewers and was soon rewarded with an upsurge in popularity. Her projects with Harpo have included the highly rated 1989 TV miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place, which she also starred in. Winfrey also signed a multi-picture contract with Disney. The initial project, 1998's Beloved, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison and starring Winfrey and Danny Glover, got mixed reviews and generally failed to live up to expectations.

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