No.4 - JACK MA (ALIBABA)

Age: 54

Years at current company: 19

Nationality: Chinese

Industry: E-commerce

Turnover: $60bn

Rate of growth: 61% per year since 2015

While Jack Ma has expanded Alibaba’s range of commercial activities, 63% of turnover still comes from e-commerce. Ninety per cent of all transactions between individuals carried out on the internet in China take place on its Taobao platform, the biggest e-commerce site in the world. Taobao’s unheard of success has provided Alibaba with a considerable war chest with which it aims to conquer new markets. Jack Ma wants to increase today’s deal volume of 547 billion dollars by five by 2040.    

Notable success: In 2005 Ma’s company routed eBay in the Chinese market, a success which put the Hangzhou-headquarted giant on the radar of Yahoo!, which promptly pumped a billion dollars into the company.