Business
Founders and leaders of the companies people worked for and bought from. 96 people are remembered here. Light a candle, read their story, and add a memory of your own.
Benjamin M. Rosen1933 – 2026 · Venture capitalistPC-era VC who backed Compaq and taught Wall Street to love the Apple II.
98 candles · 6 tributes
Hiroshi Okuda1932 – 2026 · BusinessmanToyota outsider who forced the Prius into the world and remade Japanese industry.
97 candles · 4 tributes
Bruce Lunsford1947 – 2026 · AttorneyKentucky builder who raced Art Collector and nearly unseated Mitch McConnell.
66 candles · 10 tributes
Sir Roger Jones1943 – 2026 · PharmacistWelsh pharmacist-entrepreneur who built Penn Pharma, led the WDA, and never stopped fishing for Wales.
58 candles · 5 tributes
Richard Moravek1970 – 2026 · EntrepreneurOlomouc developer who built districts meant to outlast him.
53 candles · 5 tributes
William Henry Draper III1928 – 2026 · Venture capitalistSilicon Valley venture pioneer who led Ex-Im Bank and UNDP, backing founders and human development worldwide.
48 candles · 5 tributes
Martha Rivers Ingram1935 – 2026 · BusinesswomanNashville's First Lady of the Arts who built halls, saved a symphony, and led a billion-dollar company.
46 candles · 6 tributes
Robert Charles Ford II1953 – 2026 · Defense contracts executiveMelbourne defense contracts executive, reunited with his beloved Ann.
41 candles · 8 tributes
Klaus-Michael Kühne1937 – 2026 · German billionaire businessmanLogistics patriarch who built a global freight empire and left it to a Swiss foundation.
34 candles · 8 tributes
Brian Dyson1935 – 2026 · Business executiveCoca-Cola leader who launched Diet Coke, weathered New Coke, and taught the world work is rubber, the rest is glass.
32 candles · 5 tributes
Guus Kouwenhoven1942 – 2026 · BusinessmanDutch timber baron convicted over Liberia's war, who never served the sentence.
31 candles · 9 tributes
Nathaniel Spychala1983 – 2026 · MechanicHoldingford mechanic and father whose hands fixed what family needed.
15 candles · 4 tributes
Pasquale Formisano† 2026 · Shipping executiveMSC founding-generation captain who helped open Antwerp and build a global line.
13 candles · 1 tributes
Richard Manoogian1936 – 2026 · Business executiveHe turned a small Detroit parts maker into a global company and gave much of his fortune to the arts.
11 candles · 1 tributes
Gary Cosay† 2026 · Talent agentCo-founder of United Talent Agency who championed television's writers for decades.
10 candles · 1 tributes
Michael Wynne1944 – 2026 · Secretary of the Air ForceWest Point engineer and 21st Secretary of the Air Force who put principle above position.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Raj Vikash Verma† 2026 · Banker and regulatorHousing finance pioneer who led India's National Housing Bank and brought mortgage guarantees to India.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Carmine J. Puniello1942 – 2026 · Mechanical engineer and contractorEngineer who helped build Arden into a leading New England contractor and served Bristol for decades.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Andrew Milne† 2026 · Fintech entrepreneurCo-founder of Kuunda, who built credit tools for Africa's mobile-money networks.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Nick Wilsdon† 2026 · SEO consultant and entrepreneurA legend of SEO who spent his gifts lifting everyone around him.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Lawrence Melville "Larry" Ollis1931 – 2026 · BusinessmanHe gave Springfield Little Theatre a lasting home in the Landers.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Wai "Bill" Jun Yee1935 – 2026 · RestaurateurSecond-generation keeper of Ding Ho, Columbus's oldest Chinese restaurant.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Trent Mead† 2026 · ChefBattle Creek chef who led the kitchens at Lucky Rooster and One Nation.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Kenneth Aaron Stern1971 – 2026 · Family carpet store owner and operatorA devoted husband, father and grandfather whose heart stayed with family.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros1944 – 2026 · Spanish executive and civil servantHe rescued Iberia, ran Mercedes-Benz in Spain and spent his last public years selling Spain to the world.
9 candles · 1 tributes
Yuri Shkuropat1937 – 2026 · Civil engineerA builder who led Irkutsk and helped raise much of the city he served.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Grigory Luchansky1945 – 2026 · BusinessmanHe built a trading empire from the ruins of the Soviet economy and never stopped defending his name.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Jerome "Pops" Kunz† 2026 · Shrimp boat captainGalveston Mosquito Fleet captain who lived If you rest, you rust.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Michael W. Rice1942 – 2026 · BusinessmanGrandson of the Utz founders, he spent five decades turning a Hanover chip maker into a national brand.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Salah Bachir1955 – 2026 · Media executiveCineplex Media executive, art collector and tireless Toronto philanthropist.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Shi Wenbo1950 – 2026 · BusinesspersonCo-founder and chairman of Hengan International, builder of China's hygiene brands.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Jim O'Connor1943 – 2026 · Automotive executiveFord executive who led Ford Division, Lincoln-Mercury and Ford of Canada.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Donald Weder1947 – 2026 · Inventor and manufacturerProlific inventor who led Highland Supply and held more U.S. patents than Edison.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Alfonso Fanjul Jr.1937 – 2026 · Sugar executiveCuban exile who rebuilt a sugar dynasty and steered Domino and Florida Crystals for decades.
8 candles · 1 tributes
Louie Shum Chun-ying (沈振盈, "Master Shum")1961 – 2026 · Stock market commentatorHong Kong's Master Shum, whose market calls were followed, argued over and remembered.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Darrell Richard Wells1942 – 2026 · Investor and bankerLouisville investor who founded Commonwealth Bank & Trust and served Churchill Downs for 29 years.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Sergio Erede1940 – 2026 · Corporate lawyerThe dean of Italy's business lawyers, who shaped half a century of the country's biggest deals.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Joe Redner1940 – 2026 · BusinessmanTampa's Strip Club King, who fought city hall for fifty years in the name of free expression.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Martha Tilaar1937 – 2026 · Entrepreneur and beauty specialistIndonesian beauty industry pioneer who grew Sariayu and jamu from a Menteng garage salon.
7 candles · 1 tributes
AVS Raju1937 – 2026 · IndustrialistHe left his village at 18 and built one of India's great construction companies.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Stephen A. Jarislowsky1925 – 2026 · Investor and philanthropistMontreal investor who made corporate ethics and education his life's work.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Annette Green1924 – 2026 · Fragrance Foundation presidentShe built the American fragrance industry a home, and its awards.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Howard H. Stevenson1941 – 2026 · Harvard Business School professorHarvard's father of entrepreneurship, who taught that opportunity is pursued beyond the resources you control.
7 candles · 1 tributes
William "Wink" Brown1958 – 2026 · FirefighterTennessee fire chief and instructor who spent five decades building departments and firefighters.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Piyushbhai Desai† 2026 · ChairmanWagh Bakri chairman who built a tea empire on quality, integrity and Gandhian values.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano1947 – 2026 · Business executiveFounding chairman of Hera, who built one of Italy's great public utilities.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Paul Gauselmann1934 – 2026 · BusinessmanMerkur Group founder who turned a jukebox side hustle into a global games empire
7 candles · 1 tributes
Simon Isaacs, 4th Marquess of Reading1942 – 2026 · Hereditary peerA peer, banker and philanthropist who gave his later years to medical aid and persecuted Christians.
6 candles · 1 tributes