The Man Behind “America’s Most Admired Company”
Bob Iger (Photo Credit: Angela George)
Robert Allen Iger (b. 1951) was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. He studied television and radio at Ithaca College (with the dream of becoming a news anchor) and there had his first media job on the college television station. After several months working as a casual weatherman, and struggling to find a reporting job, Iger joined ABC as a “studio supervisor” helping out on the set of soap operas and game shows. A few years later he joined the production team at ABC Sports, a position he held for nearly a decade. From there, he became a VP of ABC Sports, and a few years later a VP of ABC. In 1992, he became the company’s president, having incredibly worked his way up from an entry-level position, with just a bachelor’s degree in hand. Iger went on to launch some of ABC’s most popular television shows, including Home Improvement, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?Meanwhile, because of his tremendous success and famous foresight, he was one of only a few executives to survive the buyout of ABC, first by Capital Cities Broadcasting, and then again by The Walt Disney Company. In 1999, Iger was made president of Walt Disney International. By 2005, he took over as CEO as well, and was put in charge of Disney’s day-to-day operations, vowing to fix the struggling company. Soon, Iger engineered Disney’s takeover of Pixar, and then its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. To the latter he gave the necessary boost to bring out the “Marvel Cinematic Universe”, now the highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Iger had a vision to do something similar with Star Wars, and in 2012 acquired Lucasfilm. Star Wars has since become the second highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Iger has expanded Disney in other ways, too, including a new $5.5 billion Disney Resort in Shanghai. All in all, he increased Disney’s value from $48 billion to some $170 billion, and hired over 18,000 people during his tenure, earning the company multiple accolades including “America’s Most Admired Company” (Fortune Magazine), the “World’s Most Reputable Company” (Forbes), and the “Best Place to Launch a Career” (BusinessWeek). Iger, meanwhile, has been called the “Best CEO”, won multiple “CEO of the Year” awards, as well as a “Corporate Humanitarian Award” and “Equal Opportunity Award”. He is ranked among the 25 most powerful people in business. Iger is also a generous philanthropist, and has been given the Ambassador for Humanity Award for his efforts.
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Words of the Week
For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
– Dr. Robert Jastrow, renowned astrophysicist
Michael Saul Dell (b. 1965) was born in Houston, Texas to a Jewish family of German ancestry. He had a mind for business from a very young age, applying to take a high school equivalency exam at just 8 years of age, working in a restaurant by 12, and earning money from stocks throughout his teen years. At 15, he earned $18,000 (more than his high school teachers) by selling newspaper subscriptions to a specific demographic he had targeted by looking through public court records. It was during his first year of university studies that Dell started to put together personal computers in his dorm room. Shortly after, he founded his company, PC’s Limited, and quickly sold some $80,000 in upgraded computers, before incorporating as Dell Computer. By the time he was just 27, Dell’s company was already among the Fortune 500 world’s largest corporations, making him the youngest ever CEO on the list. In 1996, Dell Inc. was one of the first companies to sell computers over the web, and was soon making $1 million a day in online sales. Just five years later, it had become the world’s largest maker of personal computers. Today, it has 138,000 employees, and remains one of the top tech firms and computer manufacturers. Last year, Dell Inc. completed its acquisition of EMC Corporation in a deal worth a record-breaking $67 billion. Michael Dell is still the company’s CEO, and is also on the boards of the World Economic Forum, and three international business schools. He has been voted CEO of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year. In 1999, he and his wife founded the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, which has since donated an astounding $1.23 billion to various causes around the world, including schools and medical institutions, charities in India, Africa, and across America, as well as the IDF. Most recently, Dell pledged $36 million to his hometown of Houston for its relief efforts following Hurricane Harvey.