• 10 Most Powerful CEOs Under 40

    Posted date:  April 5, 2011  |  No comment

    Imagine being under 40 and running a company.

    No – running a major corporation. We found ten fellas doing just that. And these CEOs aren’t kidding around.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    1. Larry Page


    Age: 38

    Company: Google

    Today is the big day for Google co-founder Larry Page, as he becomes the company’s chief executive officer, taking the reins from Eric Schmidt. Though the 38-year-old Page has never acted as the CEO of a public company, Schmidt is confident that his protégée is “ready” to oversee Google and its 24,000 employees.

    2. Mark Zuckerberg

    Age: 26

    Company: Facebook

    In case you haven’t heard, Zuckerberg’s little social networking website has taken off over the past few years. The Harvard dropout has taken the world by storm and even got a movie made about his online venture. He’s currently worth $13.4 billion. Not too shabby for your mid-20s, Mark. Not too shabby at all.

    3. Edward Rosenfeld

    Age: 34

    Company: Steve Madden

    Rosenfeld was named the chairman and CEO of Steven Madden Ltd. in 2008 at the ripe old age of 31. He joined the company in ’05 as its EVP of strategic planning and

    finance, but don’t think this is your regular high-strung CEO. The company’s namesake, Steve Madden, once compared Rosenfeld’s demeanor to a “warm bath.”

    4. Matthew McCauley

    Age: 37

    Company: Gymboree

    No kidding around here! McCauley (shown with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg) is CEO of Gymboree, a children’s clothing chain. In 2010, the company was acquired by Bain Capital for $1.8 billion in cash. Sounds like McCauley is doing something right.

    5. Lil Wayne

    Age: 28

    Company: Young Money Entertainment

    The rapper heads up Young Money Entertainment, which is part of Cash Money Records. Artists on the label include the popular Drake and the always-colorful Nicki

    Minaj. Despite his CEO status, Lil Wayne still performs and has a new album coming out in May.

    6. Michael Reger

    Age: 34

    Company: Northern Oil & Gas

    The man’s got oil in his blood! Reger’s great-grandfather, grandfather and father all worked in the oil business at various companies. Reger himself became the CEO (and chairman of the board) of Northern Oil & Gas in 2007.

    7. Elon Musk

    Age: 39

    Company: Tesla Motors

    Musk, far left, makes our list by a couple of months (he turns 40 in June this year) but he founded the company in 2003 when he was just 32. The CEO has a history of making profitable business decisions. He first sold Zip2 for more than $300 million to AltaVista at 28. From there he developed a company that became PayPal; that sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

    8. James Murdoch

    Age: 38

    Company: News Corp International

    Rupert just promoted his son James to chairman and chief executive of News Corps’s international operations. The new gig will have the younger Murdoch relocating from London to New York. Sounds like a worthy move to us!

    9. Kevin Plank

    Age: 38

    Company: Under Armour

    Plank founded Under Armour Performance Apparel in 2000 from his grandma’s D.C. townhouse. Formerly a college football player for the University of Maryland,

    Plank disliked how cotton T-shirts felt so he started making his own “from stretchy women’s lingerie fabric.” Although it sounds a little weird, apparently he was on to something.

    At left, New York Jets football team owner Woody Johnson talks with Kevin Plank (right) during their appearance on the Fox Business show “America’s Nightly Scoreboard.”

    10. Jack Dorsey

    Age: 34

    Company: Once for Twitter, now for Square
    Originally Twitter’s CEO (and co-founder), Dorsey moved on to create Square, an e-commerce company. As if being a CEO of a start-up company doesn’t keep one

    busy enough, this tech go-getter is taking on another gig and returning to Twitter as its executive chairman.

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