Famous Entrepreneurs

William Samuel Paley was born on 28th September 1901 and became a billionaire through his leadership as the chief executive for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). He helped what originally started off as a small radio network turn into the one of the leading radio and television network operations in America.

Paley moved to Philadelphia in the early 1920s due to his father’s success at managing a cigar company which led to him becoming a millionaire. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and achieved a degree afterwards expecting to go into his father’s cigar business. However in 1927 his father along with some business partners bought a Philadelphia radio network that was struggling called the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. This network had 16 stations and it was the intention of Paley’s father to use the network for advertising. The network helped to double the sale of cigars made by his company and by 1928 the family had majority ownership of the network. Over the next ten years the network grew to have 114 affiliate stations.

During the Second World War Paley became friends with Edward R. Murrow who was the head of CBS’s European News. This led to him realising the potential amount of money that could be made through radio. He realised good programming was essential to selling advertising time and therefore create profit for the network. He therefore changed broadcasting business model through successful programming and by realising that advertisers were the most important factor in broadcasting. He gave network programming to affiliate stations at the best prices which allowed for the widest available distribution for programming and advertising. This consequently allowed him to charge more for the advertising time. His ability to use broadcasting to its best ability led to CBS growing into a leading world communication empire.

In 1946 CBS expanded into television and was highly successful. They also owned the Columbia Record Company and CBS Laboratories who invented vinyl discs and colour television. Over the years Paley sold off some of his stock in CBS to help expand his other interests so that when he died on 26th October 1990 he only owned nine percent of the outstanding stock. Five years later the company was bought by Westinghouse Electric Corporation and in 1999 by Viacom. Presently CBS is owned by the CBS Corporation and National Amusements is the majority owner of the company.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was born in Jamaica in the mid-1950s, and moved to the United Kingdom in the late 1950s. His father was a pastor who came to the UK to work in a factory. Wilfred along with his nine siblings, lived in a cramped house in inner city Birmingham. Living in poverty, he was the eldest boy and had the responsibility to help his father tend to their family allotment.

As a child Wilfred had a love for the outdoors and dreamed one day of owning and working a farm, the family allotment give him sanctuary as he stated, “It was a bit of an oasis away from the misery of my surroundings,” he says. “I can remember making a promise to myself around the age of 11 that one day I’d own my own farm. That dream carried me through my life.”

Leaving school after not doing well, he had a difficult time at a secondary modern school, prompting him to join the British Army. Wilfred received a discharge from the Army after a year of service due to disciplinary problems. His next opportunity took him into working in a catering business, where he eventually enrolled in a training program which led to a job with Peter Bazalgette on the BBC television series Food and Drink. This first venture into television would see him further his career by working as a producer and director for the next 15 years.

The experience he gained from television and working in the food business, eventually gave him the opportunity to set up a marketing agency in London, specializing in food brands. Some of the companies he represented included Lloyd Grossman, Kettle Chips, and Plymouth Gin. This venture made him enough profit that he finally had the opportunity to buy a farm.

He chose West Kitchen Farm in Devon, and began to learn the farming trade. The locals whom he enlisted for aid in farming referred to him as ‘the black farmer’. This name of endearment inspired him to start his own brand of products labeled ‘the black farmer’. These products include award-winning sausage, chicken, ham, and sauces.

The success of his black farmer brand of foods soon became a staple in many supermarkets. He began to promote his products as he took them to market his throughout the UK. Soon Wilfred and his black farmer brand would gain notoriety and he set up a scholarship fund to help other young black men share in his dream. He established the Young Black Farmers scholarship where he would take recipients to work and live on his farm and teach them a way of life. The scholarship eventually caught the eye of TV4, where a series of episodes, featuring nine inner city ethnic youths.

Recently, Wilfred has become involved in politics, as a potential candidate for the Conservative Party for a new seat, Chippenham in Wiltshire, in the next UK general election. Wilfred hopes to use his position to increase the awareness of helping out the rural farmers, encouraging infrastructure development in the rural areas and to help inspire youths to fulfill their dreams, as he did.

Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901 to Elias and Flora Call Disney. When Walt was four, the family moved to Marceline, Missouri, where Walt lived most of his childhood.

As a child, Walt enjoyed drawing, and when he was seven years old, he would draw and sell sketches to his neighbors. His uncle was a train engineer, and living near the train station, Walt worked a summer job with the railroad, selling newspapers, popcorn, and sodas to travelers.

In 1918, when the war broke, Walt attempted to enlist in the Army, because of his age; the Army denied his enlistment. He and a friend joined the Red Cross, and deployed to France, where Walt drove an ambulance for the Red Cross in support of allied troops. Walt decorated his ambulance with cartoons he drew.

Upon returning from France in 1919, he chose to pursue a career in art and animation.
Moving to Kansas City, he partnered with another cartoonist Ubbe Iwerks to form a company called, “Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists”. The business stagnated and the two went to work for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. While there, he found an interest in animation, and partnered with another employee, Fred Harman, to start his animation company.

The two produced short cartoons, which they called Laugh-o-grams. They secured a deal with local theatre owner Frank Newman to air their cartoons, which soon became a huge success in the Kansas City area. Soon, Walt would be able to afford a studio and hire animators and staff to produce more cartoons. Unable to successfully manage his new company, laugh-o-grams became bankrupt and Walt decided to head to Hollywood, California to establish a studio there.

He partnered with his brother Roy, and started a new studio in Roy’s garage. He sent his animated Alice Comedies to Margaret Winkler, a distributor in New York. She wrote back asking for more. From 1925 to 1927, the Alice Comedies enjoyed great success. Walt opened Disney Brother’s Studio and hired some of his old talent from Kansas City.

He soon became a recognized Hollywood figure. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, whom he had hired to color and ink celluloid for his cartoons.

In 1932, the first color cartoon ‘Flowers and Trees’ won Walt the first of his studio’s Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique. On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, considered one of the greatest feats of the motion picture industry, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. The film cost nearly $1.5 million to produce an astounding figure of that era.

Over the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.

All the while, Walt had an idea in the back of his mind to someday open an amusement park for families. A place where adults and children could enjoy a pleasant and clean environment. In 1955, this dream came true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955 in Anaheim California. Walt also became a television pioneer beginning television production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.

Walt had another dream, to create the perfect city; he called it EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Unfortunately, Walt would never live to see this dream fulfilled, as on December 15, 1966 at 9:30 a.m., ten days after his sixty-fifth birthday, Walt died of complications from lung cancer. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 and his ashes reside at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

His brother continued the Florida project, naming it Walt Disney World, which opened in October of 1971.

Born in Limassol, Cyprus on September 24, 1959, His family immigrated to England in 1965. He attended a local school in North London, where he gained an entrepreneurial interest at the age of 15, after working in the schools snack shop, selling confectionery finger-food, such as sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks.

At 16, he sought a job at Lloyds of London as a tea boy and filing clerk, which he later described as the worst job he ever had. In his search for a better job and looking to make more money he took a job at Watches of Switzerland, when he was 18. By the age of 20, he decide to move into finance and specialize in corporate turnarounds. In his quest to find a good paying job Theo remarked “no one would give me a job and I couldn’t understand how any of the half-wits that interviewed me got their jobs.”

In 1982, He formed a company with his close friend Mark Moran in the property finance business, the boom in commercial property market helped him amass a sizeable profit. Soon afterward Theo noticed a trend in the mobile phone market and bought into NAG Telecom, eventually becoming a chairman.

He used his financial position to negotiate a deal with Ryman Stationary, a company founded more than 100 years earlier, that had gone into receivership. Theo approached the accountants in 1995 and offered to buy the company. After acquiring Ryman, he paid off the suppliers and creditors and turned the company into a 350+ store chain, introduced a mail order catalog in 1996 and an online store and website in 1998. This venture has turned into a $250 Million (GBP) turnaround for Theo.

During this time, Theo spent eight years as Chairman of Millwall Football Club (The Lions), taking them out of administration and into a championship and eventually the FA Cup Final. His additional business ventures include La Senza, a lingerie company which he sold in 1996 for $148 Million (USD) , Contessa (another lingerie concern), and Partners Stationary. He also has acquired Red Letter Days, an ‘experience company’, that for a fee will give your gift recipient the thrill of driving a Lamborghini, play secret agent for a day,  skydiving, or orbing.

Theo also has starred on BBC’s Dragons Den as a celebrity judge. The reality TV show invites entrepreneurs to come on and pitch their business ideas. The judges will select a winner in which they will invest money into partnering with the entrepreneur on their business venture.

Theo Paphitis is ranked 581st in the Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of 135 Million (GBP), equivalent to about $200 million (USD). Theo attributes his success to common sense, and his favorite quote is: “KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid”. His view on business is: “There are three reasons for going to work, one to make money, two to have fun, and three don’t forget to make some money.” Theo Paphitis is also a philanthropist, giving generously to children’s charities.

Steve Leach was born in Forres, Scotland in the late 1960s. After attending local schools, he ventured into a lingerie business, called Silky Drawers at the age of 21. Steve held a job as a firefighter, and was a commercial pilot before making a permanent foray into his own internet-based business. After several other business attempts, in 1996 he looked at the possibility of an online business.

His wife Heather, a public relations professional, suggested they start a one-stop shop web design, hosting and services operations. At the time, this type of business was booming all over the internet. Heather handled the company’s marketing and public relations while Steve, concentrated on the client base for their new business.

Their primary business at this time was to build and promote websites for other businesses. As the over-saturation of the web-design business became apparent, Steve made the decision to concentrate their business on the promotion and marketing of their client’s businesses. This was the birth of the present-day Bigmouth media. Using search engine optimization, online advertising and brand protection (to protect clients brand names from misuse by others) BigMouth Media would soon become the innovator and number one media company exclusively on the Internet.

It was here, that Steve had found a home in creating the world’s largest digital marketing agency. He founded the company Bigmouth Media in his basement, beginning with three staff members. His concept was simple: Optimize a company’s visibility on the Internet using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and online advertising. His product was to convince businesses that he could make their product easier to find in the global marketplace, and offer brand protection.

The Leaches and Bigmouth Media are credited with starting the SEO phenomena that has swept every business on the internet and created thousands of  competitive businesses like Bigmouth Media. Although none are quite as successful to this multi-million pound company.

First year sales, with a client base of less than 20, generated more than £200,000. Steve, his wife, Heather, and one employee began to build their little home based enterprise into an international business and by 2007 Steve Leach achieved Entrepreneur of the Year from Real Business.

In 2006, Global Media (a German company) merged with Bigmouth Media in a deal worth more than £60 million.

Today Bigmouth Media has sales of  over £100 million this year, and the company has gone from three staff members to more than 200 employees in 13 offices worldwide

The client list is quite impressive with 350 of the world’s biggest brands including British Airways, Tesco, Starbucks, Adidas and BP.

Steve has said of his business, “It’s been a wild ride, and sometimes it’s pretty hard to believe, but we’re still so busy that it’s not something either of us really has time to dwell upon. When we launched the business in 1996, I always thought it was possible we could build it into a major international company, but if truth be told I never thought for a moment that it was very likely, “

Philanthropist and entrepreneur Sir Alan Michael Sugar started his empire selling car aerials out of a van. He has amassed a fortune of around 800 million, and ranks in the top 100 Sunday Times Rich List.

Sugar dropped out of school at 16, and worked as a Statistician in the Education Ministry. Disliking the job he left the civil service for a totally new venture: selling electrical items. At 21 he registered the name Amstrad, a company born from a van. This name was devised using the letters from his own name: Alan Michael Sugar trading.

“I had no idea I would be so rich and successful. When I first started out my priority was to be self-sufficient and independent.,” Sugar said. “I did not harbor big dreams. I simply knew that I didn’t want to work for a boss and I set myself a target to earn a salary far in excess of my working-class background.”

This fledgling company took Europe by surprise. Two years after its founding, it produced affordable hi-fi turntable covers using injection molding plastics opposed to the traditional vacuum molds. This gave his product a significantly lower price giving the company such success that it was to later be placed on the London Stock Exchange. During the 1980’s Sugar’s fledgling company doubled in share price each year and tapped into different markets.

In 2005, Sir Alan Sugar starred in the Apprentice, modeled after the American TVv-series starring Donald Trump. Sugar also controls Amsair Executive Aviation, founded in 1993 and run by his son, Daniel Sugar. As with Amstrad, Amsair’s name is taken from his initials: Alan Michael Sugar Air. Amsair is a British private aircraft charter company that provides executive and business jet charters. Sir Alan continues his work with his companies, seeing his net worth almost double in the past twelve months, and awaits to host the next season of the Apprentice.

Born on October 7, 1959 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, his father a music industry executive, and his mother, Julie Brett, is a former ballet dancer and socialite.

Simon attended Dover College, but left before graduating, and worked a few menial jobs until his father managed to get him a job in the mail room of EMI Music Publishing. Simon worked his way up to a music publishing position, until the early 1980s when he left to form his own recording label, E&S Music with former boss Ellis Rich.

E&S Music had several hit records, attaining five singles on the UK top 40. Simon stayed on a few years and left by mutual agreement to pursue other ventures.

Simon went to work for Iain Burton at Fanfare records, and over the next eight years, he found success in the music industry. Eventually, he became a partner and helped build Fanfare into a very successful pop music label. Fanfare would see numerous top ten hits and sales of more than a half million copies of several of their artists. In 1992, Fanfare’s parent company, Public Company fell into financial problems. Later that year, BMG bought Fanfare’s assets.

Simon, in debt, moved back in with his parents. Later that year, he became an A&R consultant for BMG records. He signed up a number of successful acts to his S-records label and in 2002 he formed SyCo Records, Artists such as Leona Lewis, Il Divo and contestants from The X Factor and America’s Got Talent are released on SyCo.

Simon became a judge on the first series of Pop Idol in 2001 and on the first season of American Idol in 2002. Then in 2004, Simon appeared a judge on the first series of the British talent show The X Factor’, which Simon created using his production company, SyCo. The X Factor was an instant success with the viewers and has returned four more times to its fifth series in 2008.

In 2006 he signed on to remain as a judge on American Idol, earning £20 million per season for another 5 years. In the UK, he signed a deal with ITV, worth about £6.5 million a year for 3 years, which gave ITV rights to his hit talent show, ‘The X Factor’.

On March 16, 2006, Simon’s next reality competition show, American Inventor, debuted on ABC. Entrepreneurs from across the United States would compete to present their best inventions for a marketing prize package worth more than $1 million. The 2006 winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and an offer from Evenflo for the opportunity to develop and market his idea.

He continues to develop more productions under the contract for BMG Sony and promote his label SyCo, while producing his competition/reality shows.

Simon’s 2008 salary is about $50 Million, with a net worth of more than $200 million. He owns a home in Los Angeles and the UK. Currently he is neither married nor does he have any children.

Scott Mitchell is responsible for the creation of several high profile online businesses including Think Partnership Inc, Cherish Inc and HSN.com and was the head technology officer for Tunes.com, TheSource.com, RollingStone.com, and DownBeatJazz.com. Playing a lead role in building high profile online businesses is what Scott Mitchell is best known for.

Biography

Scott Mitchell was born and raised in Chicago. Scott was an advanced student in junior high school. It was decided he would skip high school and go to college (university). By the time Scott was 21, he had reached the astonishing achievement of three masters degrees and two bachelor degrees.

Scott Mitchell occupied an important leadership role in Internet based businesses for more than a decade.

He began working at Arthur Andersen as a technology consultant and quickly was quickly promoted through the ranks until he become the youngest aged Associate Partner in Arthur Andersen’s history.

He left Arthur Andersen after completing a $25 Million dollar project for America Online (AOL) to become Chief Technology Officer of Tunes.com, helping to make it into one of the leading internet music destination networks.

After selling Tunes.com to EMusic.com for $180M in 1999, Scott Mitchell started HSN.com, the online presence for Home Shopping Network(HSN). Home Shopping Networks two previous e-commerce (web shops) initiatives failed.

Scott Mitchell in under two years built HSN.com from nothing into a $250M revenue a year business. In early 2002, Mitchell decided to focus most of his efforts on an internet dating website he created, Cherish.

In late 2004, Mitchell merged Think Partnership and Cherish, currently he is CEO and President of ThinkPartnership.

Robert Maxwell was born in Czechoslovakia and given the name Jan Ludvick Hoch. Maxwell Fled Nazi’s, and shortly after fought in World War II as a Private on the British side. Also as part of the invasion of Normandy he became a Sergeant. The last year of war he was promoted to Captain and awarded a military cross for shooting the mayor of German town. Perhaps his ambition toward the war stemmed from the loss of his family who were killed after Hungary was occupied in 1944.

After the war he settled in Britain. He first worked as a newspaper censor for the British military command. He then used various contacts to go into business, becoming the British and United States contributor for Springer Verlag, a publisher of scientific books. In 1951 he purchased Permagon Press Limited, a minor textbook publishing company, and went into business on his own. He quickly built Permagon into a major publishing house.

From 1964- 1970 Maxwell was a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. Maxwell was perceived to have an arrogant and domineering manner which made him unpopular in the Labour Party. He was also MP until he lost his seat to William Benyon, a Conservative. He lost his control over Pergamon, and his political career, from a financial scandal.

Like many successful publishers, Maxwell sought out to buy a daily newspaper. He was prevented from buying News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, who became is archrival.

In 1970, The Maxwell Foundation was established. Conditions for this type of company were that little information was publicly available. This suited Maxwell and as a result, he was able to invest and accommodate future companies. In 1974 he reacquired Permagon. Through Permagon he purchased the British Printing Corporation which eventually became Maxwell’s Communication Corporation. Again, through Permagon, he purchased Mirror Group Newspapers who were publishers of the Daily Mirror.

By the 1980’s Maxwell’s various companies owned several newspapers, Permagon Press, Nimbus Records, Collier books, Maxwell Directories, Prentice Hall Information Services, Macmillan (US) publishing, and the Berlitz language schools. He also had half-share investments.

Even his untimely death in 1991, where he is presumed to have fallen overboard from his luxury yacht, brought great controversy. A self-proclaimed Mossad officer approached a number of news organizations with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror’s foreign editor were both long time agents for the Isreali Intelligence Service. It has since been said, that perhaps he was killed by the Mossad.

Ray was an American entrepreneur.  He had been most famous for expanding the McDonald Corporation from 1955.  He did not actually find the restaurant chain himself but had bought the corporation from Dick and Mac McDonald in the year of 1940.

Ray had been born in Oak Park, Illinois.  He was the first businessman to apply principles of a mass production in an industry.  Ray was a school drop out but a master at creating everlasting brands such as McDonalds which has taught many corporations how to maintain effective and productive business.

Ray had believed that an opportunity only came once and that he took his chances as they appeared to him.  He had lied about his age around his 15th year and landed himself the job of an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, during the First World War, with Walt Disney.  He had soon finally settled down as a salesman.  He had started selling paper cups.  He eventually became a multi-mixer milkshake machine salesman who had traveled all over the country peddling his wares.

Ray Kroc had realized that one of his largest customers was a California restaurant owned by the McDonald brothers.  The salesmanship of Ray Kroc convinced the McDonald brothers to make him their exclusive agent and in 1954 Kroc had opened his own McDonald’s drive-in in Des Plaines, Illinois and later had established the McDonalds Corporation officially.  He guaranteed that the French Fries customers bought in California would taste the same as the ones purchased in New York City.  By 1960, there were over 200 McDonald’s franchises spread across the US. But low franchise fees led to minimal profits.

He had had a difficult life, and had suffered from arthritis and diabetes.  His gall bladder and thyroid gland were already surgically removed but he had the desire to succeed burnt throughout his body.  Eventually Kroc had succeeded in convincing the McDonald brothers to sell the company to him and had paid $2.7 million for it.

Kroc made two major decisions which enabled McDonalds to grow and thrive.  He began buying up land and became the landlord to eager franchisees. Kroc also introduced national advertising programs to support the rapidly growing franchise.  These two subsidiaries generated substantial profits.

Ronald McDonald made his debut in 1963 and within 6 years the clown was known to 96% of American kids. In 1965, McDonalds went public with franchises in 44 states and sales of $171 from its 710 stores.  Kroc made $3 million from the sale.

The “Big Mac” was invented in 1967 in Pittsburgh by Jim Delligatti, who was looking for ways to increase sales. In less than a year, the sandwich spread throughout the chain, becoming the chains mainstay.  In the 1970’s Kroc took the company overseas and McDonalds became a global juggernaut.

In January, 1974, Ray Kroc purchased the baseball team, the San Diego Padres.  Unfortunately for Ray, he died a few months before they won their first penant. They were the team of a true champion.