No.9 - MARK ZUCKERBERG (FACEBOOK)

Age: 34

Years at current company: 14

Nationality: American

Industry: Internet

Turnover: 45bn

Rate of growth: 699% over 5 years

The Cambridge Analytica scandal could have sounded the death knell for Facebook but, once again, Mark Zuckerberg has weathered the storm. Accused of having stolen the idea for Facebook from some of his fellow Harvard students, he also came in for severe criticism for not doing more to prevent the spread of fake news on his social network. In July 2018 118 billion dollars was wiped off the value of Facebook. Yet against all adversity, it continues to thrive. The acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp both expanded and reduced the average age of his company’s user base and his investment in AI has also led to new products which are attracting investment.       

Notable success: Over 2.2 billion users - one-third of the world’s population - connect to Facebook each month.