Roman Abramovich biography

Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (IPA: [rɐˈman ɐrˈkadʲjevʲɪtɕ ɐbrɐˈmovʲɪtɕ]; Russian: Рома́н Арка́дьевич Абрамо́вич; born on 24 October 1966 in Saratov, Russian SFSR, USSR) is a Russian billionaire and the main owner of private investment company Millhouse Capital, referred to as one of the Russian oligarchs. According to the 2007 Forbes magazine, as of 3 August 2007, he had a net worth of $18.7 billion,[1] and according to Russian Finance magazine, as of January 2007, his fortune was 551.0 billion rubles (roughly $23 billion).[2] He was considered to be the second richest person currently living within the United Kingdom in 2008.[3]

The stress on his family name is often placed on the second syllable (Abrámovich) when pronounced in English, whereas the original Russian name is stressed on the third (Abramóvich).

In Russia, Abramovich is prominent as the governor of Chukotka, a post to which he was elected in 2000, and has spent over $1 billion on good causes in the region,[4] which now has one of the highest birth rates in Russia.[5]. He is most famous outside Russia as the owner of Chelsea Football Club, an English Premiership football team, and for his wider involvement in European football. Despite his high profile around the world, Abramovich makes virtually no public statements about his activities.

In 2003 Roman Abramovich was named Person of the Year by Expert, a Russian business magazine. He shared this title with Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Richard Li biography

Richard Li Tzar Kai (traditional Chinese: 李澤楷; simplified Chinese: 李泽楷; pinyin: Lǐ Zékǎi) was born on 8 November 1966 in Hong Kong, the younger son of successful entrepreneur Li Ka-Shing and brother of Victor Li. He is chairman and executive director of PCCW Limited and Pacific Century Group in Hong Kong. He is also chairman of Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited and the non-executive director of the Bank of East Asia.

Rather than enter into his father's business, Richard Li entered into the media business . He cut his deal-making teeth building STAR TV into Asia's first satellite broadcasting service with a loan from his father,[citation needed] Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing. He then sold it to global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for US$950 million in 1995 and turned his attention to the Internet.

He sparked a frenzied buying spree for Hong Kong technology stocks in April 1999 when he announced he would turn sleepy telecommunications equipment distributor "Tricom Holdings" into Asia's premier Internet company under the name PCCW. The stock had recorded a 1,286 percent gain in a single day.[citation needed]

He bought Cable & Wireless HKT in 2000. On August 2000, Li was seen as a saviour when his flagship PCCW outbid rival Singapore Telecommunications for HKT in a US$28.5 billion deal, Asia's largest corporate takeover, he was dubbed "Superboy" (小小超) by the local media.[citation needed] However, as local euphoria surrounding HKT's takeover waned and global tech and telecom shares tanked, shareholders' praise soon turned to criticism.[citation needed]

Li suffered embarrassment in March 2001 when a newspaper [1] revealed he attended but did not finish his degree at California's Stanford University, contrary to PCCW's claims.

He endured another setback on February 2003 when PCCW made an approach to acquire Britain's Cable & Wireless, which was rebuffed. PCCW later denied making a formal offer, which has led to an investigation by the Hong Kong stock exchange.[citation needed] The company was later cleared mainly due to insufficiency of evidence.

Li gave up his spot as PCCW's chief executive officer on July 25, 2003 but remains as chairman and executive director. Jack So, who left his chairman position at Hong Kong subway operator MTR Corp, took up the job of group managing director of PCCW.

In August 2006 Li paid HKD$280 million for a 50% stake in Chinese business paper Hong Kong Economic Journal.[citation needed] Li promised no changes to the editorial content nor layoffs in the short term.[citation needed]

Ted Turner biography

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938[2]) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is best known as the founder of the cable television network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition to CNN, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is well known for his $1 billion gift to support UN causes, which created The United Nations Foundation, a public charity that builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world's most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN through advocacy, public outreach, and grant making. Turner serves as the Chairman of the board of directors for the foundation.[3]

Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business which he took over at the age of 24 after his father's suicide.[4] The billboard business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, was worth approximately $1 million when Turner took it over in 1963. Purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the assemblage of the Turner Broadcasting System. His Cable News Network revolutionized news media, coming to the forefront covering the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Using his media empire for publicity, Turner turned the Atlanta Braves baseball team into a nationally popular franchise and launched the charitable Goodwill Games.

Turner's penchant for making controversial statements has earned him the nickname "The Mouth of the South".[5] Turner was also in the news for his much publicized marriage to actress and political activist Jane Fonda, as well as their subsequent divorce.

In addition to his charitable donations, Turner has devoted his assets to a blend of environmentalism and capitalism, owning more land than any other American, and using much of that land for ranches as part of his plan to re-popularize bison meat (for his Ted's Montana Grill chain), in the process amassing the largest herd in the world. He also created the environmental education/action animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. On April 26, 2007 Ted Turner was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame.

Li Ka-shing biography

Sir Li Ka-shing, GBM, KBE (simplified Chinese: 李嘉诚; traditional Chinese: 李嘉誠; pinyin: Lǐ Jiāchéng, Jyutping: Lei5 Gaa1-sing4, Li2 Gia1-sêng5 gdr, born July 29, 1928[2]), is a wealthy businessman from Hong Kong. He is the richest person of Chinese descent in the world, one of the richest and most influential investors in Asia, and the eleventh richest man in the world according to Forbes with an estimated wealth of $26.5 billion on February 11, 2008.[3] Presently, he is the Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings in Hong Kong.

Considered one of the most powerful figures in Asia, Li was named "Asia's Most Powerful Man" by Asiaweek in 2001. Forbes Magazine and the Forbes family honored Li Ka-shing with the first ever "Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award" on September 5, 2006, in Singapore.[4] In spite of his wealth, Li has a reputation for leading a no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch. Li is also regarded as one of Asia's most generous philanthropists, donating over US$1 billion to date to charity and other various philanthropic causes. [5]

Li is often referred to as "Superman" in Hong Kong because of his business prowess. His peers in Hong Kong include Lee Shau Kee of the Henderson Land Development, New World Development's Cheng Yu-tung, Kwok family of Sun Hung Kai Properties, and Henry Fok Ying-tung, among others.

Li Ka-shing was born in Chaozhou in the Guangdong Province, China in 1928. In 1940 the Li family fled to Hong Kong to avoid the turmoils in China.[6] Li's family stayed at the home of his wealthy uncle. The arrogance of Li's uncle with his immense wealth ignited Li's determination to make a place for himself in the world.

Li's father died in Hong Kong. Shouldering the responsibility of looking after the livelihood of the family, Li was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he labored 16 hours a day. By 1950, his hard work, prudence and his pursuit of excellence had enabled him to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li led and developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong continued to expand by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and 1985 respectively.[7]
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Mark Zuckerberg biography

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American entrepreneur. As a Harvard student he founded the online social networking website Facebook with the help of fellow Harvard student and computer science major Andrew McCollum as well as roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. He now serves as Facebook's CEO. In 2008, [2] Forbes Magazine named him as "the world's youngest self-made billionaire" with a theoretical net worth of US $1.5 billion[3], though the validity of this label has also been met with controversy.[4]

Mark Zuckerberg was born to a Jewish-American family and raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy where he was a resident of Browning House and was recruited by both Microsoft and AOL in his senior year due to a hacking project. Instead, he opted to attend Harvard University. [5]

Steve Ballmer biography

Steven Anthony Ballmer (born March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000.[1] Ballmer is the second person after Roberto Goizueta to become a billionaire in U.S. dollars based on stock options received as an employee of a corporation in which he was neither a founder nor a relative of a founder. In Forbes 2008 World's Richest People ranking, Ballmer was ranked the 43rd richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of $15 billion.

On October 2, 2006, Ballmer was awarded honorary citizenship of Lausen, Switzerland. His father, Frederick Ballmer, who emigrated to the US at the age of 23 as "Hans Friedrich Balmer", was a citizen of the same municipality.[2] His father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. In 1990 Ballmer married Connie Snyder, on Microsoft's PR team at the Waggener Group in the '80s. They have two sons.

Steve Ballmer was born March 24, 1956 and grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan to a Swiss father and a Jewish-American mother. In 1973, he graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a high school, and now sits on its board of directors.[3] In 1977, he graduated from Harvard University [4] with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the Harvard Advocate, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. He then worked for two years as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble, where he shared an office with Jeffrey R. Immelt, the current CEO of General Electric.[5] In 1980, he dropped out from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.[6]

Michael Bloomberg biography

Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and the Mayor of New York City. He gained his wealth as the founder of financial news and data company Bloomberg L.P. Although a lifelong Democrat, he ran on the Republican ballot and was elected mayor in 2001, then reelected to a second term in 2005.

He was frequently mentioned as a possible independent candidate for the 2008 presidential election and fueled that speculation when he left the Republican Party in June 2007.[3] He repeatedly denied any plans to run and said the news media had concocted rumors of his possible presidential bid. He ended speculation on the matter in a February 2008 New York Times Op-Ed piece where he wrote "I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president."[4] There is also much speculation that he will run as a vice-presidential candidate. [5]

Bloomberg was born to a Jewish family at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Boston neighborhood of Brighton on February 14, 1942. His father, William Henry Bloomberg, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on January 19, 1906, was the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, a Russian Jewish immigrant and a real estate agent. His mother, Charlotte (Rubens) Bloomberg, born January 3, 1909 in New Jersey, was the daughter of a Russian immigrant and a New Jersey-born mother. She is still alive and reported to be in very good health for her age.[6] The family lived in the Boston neighborhood of Allston until Bloomberg was two years old; they subsequently moved to Atherton Road, in Brookline, Massachusetts for the next two years, and finally settled in Medford, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb, where Bloomberg lived until after he graduated college. His younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, is Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol.

Bloomberg attended Johns Hopkins University, where he joined Phi Kappa Psi, and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electrical engineering. Later he received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Harvard Business School. He also achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.[7][8]

Bloomberg married Yorkshire-born Susan Brown in 1975. Their marriage produced two daughters, Emma (b. ca. 1979) and Georgina (b. 1983), who were featured on Born Rich, a documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Georgina was romantically linked in 2007 with Cian O'Connor, the Irish showjumper whose 2004 Olympic gold medal was withdrawn.[9]Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993 following 18 years of marriage. He is currently seeing former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.