Joseph Grendys, owner, chairman, and CEO of Koch Foods, built one of America’s largest vertically integrated poultry producers from a small Chicago-based chicken distributor into a multibillion-dollar industry giant. Joining the company in the 1980s, he expanded Koch Foods through strategic acquisitions, processing plant development, and an aggressive focus on efficiency across farming, processing, and distribution. Today, the company supplies major retailers and food-service chains nationwide, ranking among the top poultry producers in the United States. Known for his low profile and disciplined operations, Grendys has become one of the most successful self-made figures in American agribusiness.

Joseph Edelman, founder and CEO of Perceptive Advisors, is one of the most successful and influential biotech hedge fund managers of the modern era. Since launching the firm in 1999, he has built Perceptive into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse specializing in life sciences, backing breakthrough companies across biotechnology, medical devices, and healthcare innovation. Known for his deep scientific understanding, high-conviction portfolio strategy, and early identification of transformative therapies, Edelman has consistently ranked among the top performers in healthcare investing. His disciplined, research-driven approach has made Perceptive a critical source of capital for emerging biotech and a defining force in the global life sciences ecosystem.

Jef Colruyt, chairman and former CEO of the Colruyt Group, leads one of Europe’s most efficient and respected retail empires, built on a disciplined focus on low prices, operational simplicity, and long-term family stewardship. Taking the helm in 1994, he expanded the Belgian retailer into a diversified group spanning supermarkets, wholesale distribution, fuel stations, renewable energy, and digital services, all while maintaining a culture of frugality and sustainability. Under his leadership, Colruyt strengthened its position as the dominant price leader in Belgium and a key player in European retail. Known for his understated style and values-driven governance, Jef Colruyt remains one of the continent’s most influential family-business leaders.

Marc Coucke, Belgian entrepreneur and investor, built his fortune as the cofounder of Omega Pharma, transforming a small over-the-counter medicine distributor into one of Europe’s largest consumer healthcare companies before selling it to Perrigo for billions. After the sale, Coucke diversified through his investment company Alychlo, acquiring and backing businesses across pharmaceuticals, hospitality, sports, real estate, and leisure—including theme parks, luxury resorts, and the Belgian football club R.S.C. Anderlecht. Known for his charismatic style, bold dealmaking, and expansive portfolio, Coucke has become one of Belgium’s most influential business figures, blending entrepreneurial drive with high-profile investments across Europe.

Joseph Craft III, president and CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, is one of the most prominent figures in the American coal industry, overseeing one of the nation’s largest and most efficient coal producers. Since taking leadership in the late 1990s, Craft has expanded Alliance through disciplined capital allocation, long-term supply contracts, and a focus on low-cost, high-productivity mining operations across the Midwest and Appalachia. Beyond energy, he is an influential political and philanthropic figure, supporting education, economic development, and university programs throughout Kentucky and Oklahoma. Craft’s combination of operational expertise and strategic influence has made him a defining leader in U.S. energy and regional industry.

Joseph Chetrit, founder of the Chetrit Group, is one of New York’s most enigmatic and influential real estate investors, known for executing some of the city’s largest and most complex property deals with minimal public profile. After building an early fortune in textiles, Chetrit shifted into real estate in the 1990s, assembling a multibillion-dollar portfolio that includes office towers, residential conversions, hotels, and landmark properties across Manhattan, Miami, Los Angeles, and beyond. His firm has been involved in major transactions such as the Sears Tower sale, the Chelsea Hotel redevelopment, and large-scale waterfront projects. Chetrit’s combination of discretion, scale, and contrarian timing has made him a defining—if quietly spoken—force in American real estate.

Joseph Bae, co-CEO of KKR, is one of the most powerful private equity leaders of his generation, having played a central role in transforming the firm from a classic buyout shop into a diversified global investment powerhouse. Joining KKR in 1996, he spearheaded the firm’s expansion across Asia—building its offices, teams, and flagship funds—before taking on broader leadership of global private equity, growth, credit, and infrastructure platforms. As co-CEO, Bae oversees hundreds of billions in assets and helps set the strategic direction of one of the world’s most influential alternative asset managers. Known for his global mindset, disciplined dealmaking, and talent-building leadership, he remains a defining voice in the evolution of modern private equity.

José E. Feliciano, cofounder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, is one of the most influential private equity investors of his generation, helping build Clearlake into a top-tier global firm focused on technology, industrials, and consumer businesses. Since launching the firm in 2006 with Behdad Eghbali, Feliciano has overseen a disciplined strategy combining operational transformation with data-driven value creation, driving assets under management to well over $70 billion. A leader in expanding Latino representation in finance, he is also a major philanthropist through the SUPERB and Somos foundations, supporting education, entrepreneurship, and social mobility. Feliciano’s blend of investment rigor, cultural leadership, and long-horizon thinking has made him a defining force in modern private equity.

José Fanjul, vice chairman and president of Fanjul Corp, is one of the most powerful figures in the global sugar industry, helping lead the multibillion-dollar conglomerate that includes Florida Crystals, Domino Sugar, and extensive real estate and energy holdings. After the family’s exile from Cuba, Fanjul played a central role in rebuilding and expanding the business across the United States and the Caribbean, transforming it into a vertically integrated sugar and agribusiness giant. Known for his strategic political relationships, long-term operating vision, and deep philanthropic commitments—particularly in education and community development—Fanjul remains a defining force in American agribusiness and one of the most influential private industrialists in Florida.

Jorge Pérez, founder, chairman, and CEO of The Related Group, is widely known as the “Condo King of Miami,” having shaped the modern skyline of South Florida through four decades of large-scale residential development. Since launching the firm in 1979, Pérez has built tens of thousands of luxury, mixed-income, and urban revitalization units across the region, partnering with top global architects and redefining Miami as an international hub of design, culture, and luxury real estate. A major patron of the arts, Pérez played a central role in establishing the Pérez Art Museum Miami and continues to support cultural and community development across the city. His influence spans real estate, philanthropy, and the transformation of Miami into a global destination.

Jorge Mas Santos, chairman and former CEO of MasTec, has transformed the engineering and infrastructure firm founded by his father into a multibillion-dollar leader in energy, telecommunications, and utility construction across North America. Under his stewardship, MasTec expanded from a regional contractor into a diversified powerhouse building renewable-energy projects, 5G networks, oil and gas pipelines, and critical power-distribution systems. Beyond MasTec, Mas Santos is an influential civic and political figure within the Cuban-American community and a principal owner of Inter Miami CF, helping shape the growth of Major League Soccer alongside global partners. His blend of business leadership, cultural advocacy, and sports ownership defines him as one of Miami’s most prominent modern leaders.

Jon Oringer, founder and executive chairman of Shutterstock, is one of the earliest pioneers of the digital content marketplace economy. In 2003, he launched Shutterstock as a one-man operation—personally shooting the site’s first 30,000 stock photos—before scaling it into a global platform offering millions of images, videos, and creative assets to customers in more than 150 countries. Oringer took Shutterstock public in 2012, becoming New York’s first tech billionaire, and has since focused on building Pareto Holdings, an investment firm backing early-stage startups in Miami and beyond. Known for his product intuition and bootstrap discipline, he remains a central figure in the evolution of digital media licensing.

Jon Oringer, founder and executive chairman of Shutterstock, is one of the earliest pioneers of the digital content marketplace economy. In 2003, he launched Shutterstock as a one-man operation—personally shooting the site’s first 30,000 stock photos—before scaling it into a global platform offering millions of images, videos, and creative assets to customers in more than 150 countries. Oringer took Shutterstock public in 2012, becoming New York’s first tech billionaire, and has since focused on building Pareto Holdings, an investment firm backing early-stage startups in Miami and beyond. Known for his product intuition and bootstrap discipline, he remains a central figure in the evolution of digital media licensing.

Jonathan M. Nelson, founder and managing partner of Providence Equity Partners, has built one of the world’s most successful private equity firms specializing in media, communications, education, and technology investments. Since founding Providence in 1989, he has overseen hundreds of transactions and managed billions in assets, backing major companies like Hulu, Univision, Warner Music Group, and Sotheby’s. Known for long-term sector-focused investing and operational support, Nelson has shaped entire industries—particularly media and telecom—while steering Providence as a top-tier global investment house.

Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone, is one of the most influential investors in modern finance, credited with building the firm’s real estate arm into the world’s largest private property platform. Joining Blackstone in 1992, he pioneered the company’s massive expansion into opportunistic real estate, logistics, hospitality, and large-scale global acquisitions, including the Hilton Hotels deal—one of the most profitable private equity investments in history. As COO, Gray now helps steer Blackstone’s multi-trillion-dollar asset management strategy across private equity, credit, infrastructure, and insurance. Known for his analytical discipline, bold dealmaking, and philanthropic leadership in cancer research, Gray is a central architect of the firm’s rise to global dominance.

Jon Yarbrough, founder of Video Gaming Technologies (VGT), built a fortune by transforming a niche market—Class II gaming machines for tribal casinos—into one of the most profitable segments in the gaming industry. Launching VGT in 1991, he focused on underserved Native American casino operators, combining tailored game design with revenue-sharing partnerships that allowed tribal gaming to scale rapidly across the United States. After decades of growth and recurring revenue dominance, Yarbrough sold VGT to Aristocrat Leisure for $1.3 billion, becoming one of America’s wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs. Low-profile and disciplined, he has since expanded into private investments, technology ventures, and philanthropy.

Jon Stryker, architect, philanthropist, and heir to the Stryker medical-technology fortune, has built one of the most influential private foundations advancing social justice and conservation worldwide. As founder and board president of the Arcus Foundation, he has directed hundreds of millions toward LGBTQ+ rights, racial equity, and primate wildlife protection, establishing Arcus as a leading global grantmaker in both human rights and biodiversity. Trained as an architect, Stryker has also financed major cultural, educational, and civic projects through organizations like the New College Institute and the John Stryker Institute for Gender and Sexuality. His work reflects a distinctive combination of design thinking, impact philanthropy, and values-driven legacy building.

John Sall, cofounder and executive vice president of SAS Institute, helped transform a university statistics project into the world’s largest privately held analytics software company. An expert in statistical methods and visualization, Sall led the development of JMP, SAS’s widely adopted exploratory analysis software used across science, engineering, and industrial research. Alongside cofounder Jim Goodnight, he has championed long-term, employee-centric management and reinvestment in research over short-term profit, making SAS a model of sustainable tech growth. A major philanthropist in education, nature conservation, and science innovation, Sall’s impact spans both the global analytics industry and public access to scientific literacy.

John H. Ruiz, founder and CEO of MSP Recovery, transformed a boutique health-care-law practice into a leading national firm specializing in recovery of Medicare, Medicaid and insurance reimbursements. Since launching MSP Recovery in 2014, Ruiz has built the company into a multibillion-dollar enterprise using proprietary data analytics and legal expertise to reclaim improperly paid claims on behalf of providers and payers. Under his leadership, MSPR has expanded into adjacent services and continues innovating in health-care compliance and recovery, establishing Ruiz as one of America’s foremost entrepreneurial leaders in health-care litigation and finance.

John Pritzker, hospitality investor and member of the Pritzker family behind Hyatt Hotels, has built a distinct legacy in luxury travel and lifestyle ventures through Geolo Capital, the private equity firm he founded in 2005. After early leadership roles at Hyatt and the family’s travel assets, he shifted toward boutique hospitality, backing high-end brands such as Two Roads Hospitality—later acquired by Hyatt in a landmark deal that returned him to the business his family helped create. Pritzker has focused on experiential hotels, wellness properties, and entertainment-driven real estate while maintaining a strong philanthropic presence in arts, education, and community causes. His career reflects a blend of entrepreneurial independence and deep industry heritage.