TOP COMPANIES OF THE WORLD & THEIR FOUNDERS 1. Abbott Laboratories founded by Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 (North Chicago, Illinois, USA) 2. Adidas by Adolf Adi Dassler in 1924 (Herzogenaurach, Germany) 3. Amazon.com by Jeff Bezos in 1994 (Seattle, Washington, USA) 4. American Express by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company) in 1850 (Albany, New York, USA) 5. Apple Inc. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in April 1, 1976 (Cupertino, 6. Avon Products by David H. McConnell in 1886 (New York City, New York, USA) 7. BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works) by Franz Josef Popp in 1916 (Munich, Germany) 8. Canon by by Takeshi Mitarai, Goro Yoshida, Saburo Uchida and Takeo Maeda in 1937 (Tokyo, Japan) 9. Carlsberg by J.C. (Jacob Christian) Jacobsen in 1847 (Copenhagen, Denmark) 10. Cisco Systems, Inc. by Len Bosack, Sandy Lerner and Richard Troiano in 1984 (San Francisco, USA) 11. Colgate-Palmolive by William Colgate in 1806 (New York City USA) 12. Comcast Ralph J. Roberts, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky in 1963 (Tupelo, Mississippi, USA) 13. Dell by Michael Dell in November 4, 1984 (Austin, Texas, USA) 14. Deutsche Bank by Adelbert Delbrück and a number of private bankers in 1870 (Berlin Germany) P a g e 1 5
15. ebay Inc. by Pierre Morad Omidyar in September 3, 1995 (San Jose, 16. Ericsson by Lars Magnus Ericsson in 1876 (Stockholm, Sweden) 17. Facebook by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes in 2004 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) 18. FedEx by Frederick W. Smith in 1971 (Little Rock, Arkansas) 19. Ford Motor Company by Henry Ford in June 16, 1903 ( Detroit, Michigan, USA) 20. General Electric founded by Charles Coffin, Edwin Houston, Elihu Thomson, and Thomas Edison in 1892 (Schenectady, New York, USA) 21. Google Inc. by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in September 4, 1998 (Menlo Park, 22. HP (Hewlett-Packard) Company by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 (Palo Alto, 23. HSBC (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) by Sir Thomas Sutherland in 1865 (Hongkong and Shanghai, China) 24. Hyundai Motor Company by Hyundai Motor Company in December 29, 1967 (Seoul, South Korea) 25. IBM (International Business Machines) by Thomas J. Watson in June 16, 1911 (Endicott, New York, USA) 26. Intel Corporation by Gordon E. Moore, Robert Noyce and Arthur Rock in 1968 (Mountain View, 27. Johnson & Johnson by Robert Wood Johnson I, James Wood Johnson, and Edward Mead Johnson in 1886 (New Brunswick, NJ, USA) 28. LG Corp by Koo In-Hwoi in 1947 (Seoul, South Korea) P a g e 2 5
29. L Oréal by Eugène Schueller in 1909 (France) 30. McDonald s by Richard and Maurice McDonald (McDonald s restaurant concept) in May 15, 1940 in San Bernardino, California; and Ray Kroc (McDonald s Corporation founder) in April 15, 1955 (Des Plaines, Illinois) 31. Microsoft by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in April 4, 1975 (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 32. Mitsubishi by Yataro Iwasaki in 1870 (Japan) 33. Morgan Stanley by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley in 1935 (Wall Street, New York City, USA) 34. News Corporation by Rupert Murdoch in 1979 (Adelaide, Australia) 35. Nestlé by Henri Nestlé in 1866 (Vevey, Switzerland) 36. Nike by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight in 1964 (Santa Monica, 37. Nintendo by Fusajiro Yamauchi in September 23, 1889 (Kyoto, Japan) 38. Nissan Motor Masujiro Hashimoto, Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, Meitaro Takeuchi and Yoshisuke Aikawa in December 26, 1933 (Japan) 39. Nokia by Fredrik Idestam and Leo Mechelin in 1865 (Tampere, Finland) 40. Oracle Corporation by Larry Ellison,Bob Miner, Ed Oates in 1977 ( 41. PepsiCo, Inc. by Donald M. Kendall, President /CEO of Pepsi-Cola and Herman W. Lay, Chairman/CEO of Frito-Lay in 1986 (North Carolina, USA) 42. Philips by Gerard Philips and Frederik Philips in 1891 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) P a g e 3 5
43. Porsche by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931 (Germany) 44. Procter & Gamble by William Procter and James Gamble, in 1837 (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) 45. Pfizer by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in 1849 (Brooklyn, New York, USA) 46. Samsung by Lee Byung-chull in 1938 (Daegu South Korea) 47. SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing)- Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther in 1972 (Weinheim, Germany) 48. Siemens by Werner von Siemens in 1847 (Berlin Germany) 49. Sony by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita May 7, 1946 (Tokyo, Japan) 50. Suzuki Motor Corporation by Michio Maruti Suzuki in 1909 (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan) 51. Sharp Corporation by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1912 (Tokyo, Japan) 52. Starbucks by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl in March 30, 1971 (Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, USA) 53. Tata Group Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata in 1868 (Mumbai, India) 54. The Boeing Company by William E. Boeing in 1916 (Seattle, Washington, USA) 55. The Coca-Cola Company by John Pemberton and Asa Candler in 1892 (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) 56. The Walt Disney Company by Walt and Roy Disney in October 16, 1923 (Los Angeles, 57. Toshiba Corporation Hisashige Tanaka, Ichisuke Fujioka and Shoichi Miyoshi in 1939 (Tokyo, Japan) P a g e 4 5
58. Uniliver by Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh and William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme in (London, United Kingdom,Rotterdam, The Netherlands) 59. United Parcel Service (UPS) Jim Casey and Claude Ryan in 1907 (Seattle, Washington, USA) 60. Walmart by Sam Walton in 1962 (Arkansas, USA) 61. Yahoo! by Jerry Yang and David Filo in March 1, 1995 (Santa Clara, P a g e 5 5