A great business leader needs a variety of different skills, chief among them creativity and the ability to turn an idea into a successful, profitable business. From Reshma Saujani to Arne Sorenson, this article looks at five trailblazing leaders and their impressive achievements in the business world.
1. Reed Hastings
Cofounder and CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings is a leader who orchestrated one of the most successful pivots in corporate history, transforming what started as a no-late-fee, no-due-date DVD subscription service into an online streaming platform that shook the entertainment industry to its core.
After Netflix went public in 2002, Hastings retained a 1% share. Today, the video streaming service boasts more than 220 million global subscribers and streams a wide variety of films, TV shows, and original content.
In 2020, Hastings and his wife donated $120 million to two historically Black colleges and the UNCF, a college and scholarship fund.
2. Reshma Saujani
A passionate advocate for diversity in tech, Reshma Saujani champions women coders all over the world as the founder of the nonprofit Girls Who Code. She is also an experienced lawyer and politician, and has been involved in drafting legislation to help bridge gender gaps in the tech industry.
Operating with the ethos that if you teach one girl how to code, she will teach several more, Saujani has helped deliver a free computer science education to more than 40,000 young women in all 50 states of America. She has also delivered speeches at the White House and received mentoring from Hilary Clinton.
Saujani says that chasing her dreams, rather than a credential, was the best decision she ever made. As the daughter of refugees, she explains that her immigrant mentality encouraged her to be brave, work hard, and never give up on pursuing the American dream. Saujani was named in Fortune‘s 40 Under 40 list in 2015 and has authored several bestsellers.
3. Ma Huateng
Ma Huateng is the founder and president of Tencent, one of China’s largest internet companies and likely the most powerful company in Asia today. He has featured twice among TIME magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world: once in 2007 and again in 2014.
Ma was born in Guangdong Province in 1971 and relocated with his family to the city of Shenzhen near Hong Kong as a boy. He graduated from Shenzhen University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and cofounded Tencent in 1998.
From its early beginnings as a small internet company, Tencent grew to become one of the largest, most popular internet service portals in China. Through his hard work, dedication, and client-friendly strategies, Ma is credited with changing the dimensions of China’s internet industry. His company has done much to improve quality of life in the country by providing a variety of different technology and communications products and services, including mobile and telecoms, web portals, social networking, multiplayer online games, e-commerce, and entertainment.
Guided by corporate social responsibility policies, Tencent has set up several initiatives focused on educating youth, providing care to underserved and impoverished communities, and delivering disaster relief.
4. Arne Sorenson
The late Arne Sorenson was the CEO and president of the hospitality industry giant Marriott International. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1983, became a partner in a law firm, then joined Marriott in 1996. Sorenson was elected CEO of Marriott International in 2012, making history as the first person outside of the Marriott family to hold that position.
During his tenure, Sorenson catapulted Marriott International to success after success, pushing the company to become the world’s largest hotel group. With an uncanny knack for anticipating where his industry was going next and positioning his company for growth, Sorenson spearheaded Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2016 in a blockbuster deal worth a reported $13 billion that grew Marriott’s asset portfolio from 19 businesses to 30. In 2019, Chief Executive magazine named him “CEO of the Year.”
Sorenson died in February 2021 after battling pancreatic cancer for almost two years. In September 2021, he was posthumously awarded the Lodging Conference’s Above and Beyond Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the hospitality industry.
5. Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg is an American author, activist, and tech executive best known as the COO of Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. She also serves on Meta’s board of directors and made history as its first female member when she was elected to the position in 2012. In addition, Sandberg is the founder of LeanIn.org, the nonprofit she established to provide women with support and inspiration to help them achieve their goals. The organization takes its name from her 2013 bestseller, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.
Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations and helped launch Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm. She also served as chief of staff to US Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers.
Sandberg is a regular keynote speaker at various prestigious industry events. In 2012, she was listed among the TIME 100 list of the most influential people, and she currently ranks 36th in the Forbes list of most powerful women in the world.