No.7 - MARTIN BOUYGUES (BOUYGUES)

Age: 66

Years at current company: 29

Industry: Construction, telecoms & media

Turnover: $37.8bn

Rate of growth:  3.6% in 2017

At the head of Bouygues since 1989, Martin Bouygues has made the family business that was historically known for its construction arm ‒ 80% of turnover ‒ a solid communication and telecommunications company. The proof: the company Bouygues Telecom, created by the CEO in 1996, experienced significant growth in 2017. The group as a whole posted growth of close to 4% in 2017 with revenue of 37.8 billion dollars.

Notable success: to turn the company round after finding itself in a difficult position in 2012, Martin Bouygues launched a voluntary redundancy scheme which impacted over a thousand people. "We got through it, no one believed we would," he said during the presentation of the group’s results, which are now in the black, last February.