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Michael Kevin O'Leary is an Irish businessman and the chief executive officer of the Irish airline Ryanair. He is one of Ireland's wealthiest businessmen.

Early lifeL:

Michael O'Leary was born 20 March 1961, the second in a family of six, in Kanturk in County Cork. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare. In 1979 he began a four-year Bachelor in Economic and Social Studies programme at Trinity College Dublin. He graduated from Trinity and then worked as a trainee with Stokes Kennedy Crowley (later known as KPMG), studying the Irish tax system. He left after two years in 1985, setting up profitable newsagents in Walkinstown and Terenure, Dublin.

While at Stokes Kennedy Crowley, O'Leary met Tony Ryan, head of GPA (Guinness Peat Aviation, a leasing company). Ryan was one of the firm's clients and O'Leary advised Ryan on his personal income tax affairs. In 1987, he then hired O'Leary as his personal financial and tax advisor, where Ryan's main interest was in GPA. Ryanair was established around this time and originally followed a traditional business model, but quickly began to lose money. Subsequently O'Leary was sent to the USA to study the novel Southwest Airlines business model.

Ryanair career:

O'Leary was deputy chief executive of Ryanair between 1991 and 1994 and was promoted to chief executive of Ryanair in January 1994. Under O'Leary's management, Ryanair further developed the low-cost model originated by Southwest Airlines. O'Leary may have described the inauguration of the ancillary revenue movement during a 2001 interview in The Sunday Times.
"The other airlines are asking how they can put up fares. We are asking how we could get rid of them." The business model envisioned by O'Leary uses receipts from on board shopping, internet gaming, car hire and hotel bookings to replace the ticket revenue from selling airline seats. Savings are also made by negotiating discounts with airports for reduced landing fees. In many cases, regional airports have made no charges so as to secure flights that bring passengers and wealth into their area.

The deregulation of Ireland's major airports and a transformation of traditional full-service airlines are among his demands.

He claims he was approached to front the BBC's version of The Apprentice but declined as it was "too much of a distraction".

In August 2014, O'Leary unveiled plans to develop a Ryanair Israel to operate extensive flights to and from Israel and a large network of European cities. The plans include the establishment of a large hub in Israel.

Controversy and reputation:

O'Leary has a reputation for loose talk in the airline industry and among its regulators. Many press articles have often described him as arrogant, and prone to making comments which he later contradicts. He has been extravagantly outspoken in his public statements, sometimes resorting to personal attacks and foul language. His abrasive management style, ruthless pursuit of cost-cutting and his explicitly hostile attitude towards corporate competitors, airport authorities, governments, unions and customers has become a hallmark. He was reported to have been aggressive and hostile in dealings with a woman who was awarded free flights for life in 1988. In 2007, he was forced to retract a claim that Ryanair had cut emissions of carbon dioxide by half over the previous five years; the claim should have been that emissions 'per passenger' had been cut by half. O'Leary has been reported to have impersonated a journalist in an attempt to find information passed on to a newspaper following a safety incident on a Ryanair flight. On occasion he has apologised for personal attacks under threat of legal action.[29] He has been criticized by a judge for lying, who said he was lucky not to be found guilty of contempt of court.

In a press conference discussing Ryanair's planned intercontinental service RyanAtlantic, O'Leary jokingly described the airline's planned business class travel experience as featuring "whores and rum". In 2002 he said that his company is against any long-haul transatlantic services, stating that:

The low-cost model only really works for short-haul flights [...] If we started flying farther afield, we'd have to do something stupid like introducing what I call a 'rich class' to make it pay.

However, more than a decade later, in 2013 he said, while at the Paris Air Show, that he wanted to sell cheap flights from the U.S. to Europe for as low as 10 euros ($13) or $10, if conditions were right. He said that he needed a fleet of at least 30 twin-aisle aircraft and access to ports (e.g. major U.S. and European cities, in the airline industry there are so called slots or sometimes gates, often regulated by law, and without obtaining them it is impossible to have regular service to airports). Despite his claims in 2002, there were so called budget airliners in the past – for example Laker Airways flights from London to New York in the late 1970s or long-hauls at budget-fares on other continents like AirAsiaX in Malaysia and the Australian Jetstar Group.

Reacting to the decision to close European airspace in April 2010 over worries about the ash plume from an erupting Icelandic volcano he said "there was no ash cloud. It was mythical. It's become evident the airspace closure was completely unnecessary." One study concluded that serious structural damage to aircraft could have occurred if passenger planes had continued to fly. Scientists and the industry as a whole remain unconvinced, however.

In May 2014 O'Leary was highly critical of a 24-hour strike by Aer Lingus cabin crew, staged on 30 May 2014. Aer Lingus, whose biggest shareholder at the time was O'Leary's company Ryanair, had to cancel 200 flights and disrupt travel plans for 200,000 people. O'Leary accused Aer Lingus of "mismanagement" of its employee relations, called for the sacking of a board member, and said the striking employees should be punished by having their discount travel incentives withdrawn for a year.

According to the Bilderberg Group Michael O'Leary will be attending the secretive Bilderberg Group this year.

Registration of private car as taxi:

Michael O'Leary's personal Mercedes-Benz S500, operated by O'Leary Cabs and complete with "for hire" roof bar
In 2004 he purchased a taxi plate for his Mercedes-Benz S-Class, to enable it to be classified as a taxi so that he could legally make use of Dublin's bus lanes to speed up his car journeys around the city. A press report suggested that since he had stopped driving his own taxi, he has employed a driver with full PSV licence. In 2005 the Irish transport minister expressed concern at this abuse by O'Leary and others.

Millard "Mickey" S. Drexler (born August 17, 1944) is the current chairman and CEO of J.Crew Group and formerly the CEO of Gap Inc. He was a director at Apple Inc. from 1999 to 2015

Education and early career:

Drexler studied at the Bronx High School of Science, City College of New York, and University at Buffalo. He later received an M.B.A. from Boston University Graduate School of Management.

In the mid-1970s, Drexler was a merchandising vice-president at Abraham & Straus in Brooklyn, New York. He has also worked at Ann Taylor, Bloomingdale's, and Macy's.

Career:

Drexler is often credited with Gap's meteoric rise during the 1990s. Until then Gap had been a relatively small chain selling private and public brands. Under Drexler the company made a dramatic shift to private brand merchandise and expanded rapidly to become an iconic part of 90s pop culture. Television advertisements featuring young models and catchy music such as "Mellow Yellow" and "Dress You Up in My Love" came to epitomize the relaxed American casual look that defined the Gap brand.On May 22, 2002, however, Drexler was abruptly fired by Gap founder Donald Fisher.

The J.Crew Group, an American clothing and accessories retailer based in New York City, founded in 1983 with the launch of its catalog and expanded into brick-and-mortar retailing in 1989 with its first store at the South Street Seaport in New York City. J. Crew quickly hired Drexler after his abrupt departure from Gap. Drexler has sought in his role of CEO to reposition the J. Crew brand as a truly upscale boutique. What was once a moderately priced, American, dressy-casual brand is quickly becoming an upscale, dressy-vintage American brand with "frills included".

Mickey Drexler was on Apple’s board from 1999 until 2015.

Drexler has made a guest appearance in an episode of the AMC drama Breaking Bad called Confessions, in which he plays a car wash customer. Drexler said his scene took nine takes to film.

Michael Terry "Mike" Duke (born December 7, 1949) is an American businessman. He served as the fourth chief executive officer of Walmart from 2009 to 2013.

Biography:

Duke joined Wal-Mart in 1995, serving as the executive in charge of the company's international operations. He became the CEO of Wal-Mart in February 2009.

Duke also serves on the board of directors for the Retail Industry Leaders Association and Arvest Bank's community advisory board. He formerly held positions with a number of retailers, including Federated Department Stores, May Department Stores, and Venture Stores. Duke earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1971, where he joined the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, and now serves as a member of the institution's advisory board. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Consumer Goods Forum.

In 2010 he set goals to make Wal-Mart enery efficient as possible and to open Wal-Mart's in countries like Russia.

In 2012, his salary was $18.2 million. In 2013, press reports indicated that the total value of Duke's pension, deferred compensation and other retirement accounts totalled over $113 million.

Duke ranked No. 10 on Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People in 2013. That same year, Wal-Mart ranked No. 15 on Forbes list of Most Patriotic Brands—and the only retailer on the list—as voted by U.S. consumers. As of November 25th, 2013, Duke's tenure as CEO ended with his sudden replacement by the board of Walmart.

Winifred Mitchell Baker, better known simply as Mitchell Baker, is the Executive Chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation and of Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client.

Baker was trained as a lawyer. She coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. In 2005, Time magazine included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and she has been affectionately given the title of "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at the Mozilla Corporation.

Education and early employment:

Baker received a BA in Chinese studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 1979, achieving a Certificate of Distinction. She received her JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley in 1987 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in the same year. From January 1990 until October 1993, she worked as a Corporate and Intellectual Property Associate at Fenwick & West LLP, a law practice that specialises in providing legal services to high technology companies. She then worked for Sun Microsystems as an Associate General Counsel from November 1993 until October 1994.

Netscape Communications Corporation and mozilla.org:

In November 1994, Baker was hired as one of the first employees of the legal department of Netscape Communications Corporation.Reporting directly to CEO Jim Barksdale, she jointly set up the initial department. She was responsible for intellectual property protection and legal issues relating to product development, reporting to the General Counsel. She also created and managed the Technology Group of the Legal Department. She was involved with the Mozilla project from the outset, writing both the Netscape Public License and the Mozilla Public License. In February 1999, Baker became the Chief Lizard Wrangler (general manager) of mozilla.org, the division of Netscape that coordinated the Mozilla open source project. In 2001, she was fired during a round of layoffs at America Online, by then the parent of Netscape. Despite this, she continued to serve as the Chief Lizard Wrangler of mozilla.org on a volunteer basis.

Open Source Applications Foundation:

In November 2002, Baker was employed by the Open Source Applications Foundation, helping to guide the group's community relations and taking a seat on OSAF's Board of Directors.From the outset, she also had part of her time assigned to working on mozilla.org issues. However, the division of her hours gradually became more and more weighted towards her Mozilla work at the expense of her OSAF duties, leading to her decision to return to Mozilla full-time in January 2005. She retained her seat on OSAF's board.

Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation:
Baker in 2008
Baker was instrumental in the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, an independent non-profit that was launched on July 15, 2003 as America Online shut down the Netscape browser division and drastically scaled back its involvement with the Mozilla project. Baker became the President of the Mozilla Foundation and was appointed to the five-person Board of Directors.

When the Mozilla Corporation was launched as a taxable subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation on August 3, 2005, Baker was named the CEO of the new entity. In addition, she joined the Mozilla Corporation's Board of Directors, though she also kept her seat on the Mozilla Foundation's board, as well as her role as Chairperson.

On January 8, 2008, Mozilla announced that Baker, while retaining her role as Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation, would no longer serve as CEO of the Corporation, and that MoCo's Chief Operating Officer John Lilly would take over this role.The reasons cited for this change was Mozilla's rapid growth, which made it difficult for executives to continue to wear many hats.

In 2014 she received a total of $1,035,114 in compensation from Mozilla.

Awards and recognition:

Mitchell Baker was listed among the 2005 Top 100 by TIME Magazine, in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section.

In 2009, Mitchell Baker received the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Social Impact.

In 2012, Baker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.

Ahmet Muhtar Kent (born 1952) is a Turkish-American business executive. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company. He was appointed to the position of chief executive officer of the company in 2008 and became chairman of the board in 2009.

Early life:

Muhtar Kent was born in 1952 in New York City, where his father, Necdet Kent, was the consul-general of Turkey. After completing high school at Tarsus American College in Mersin, Turkey in 1971, Muhtar Kent went to the United Kingdom to study at the University of Hull. Subsequently, he earned his MBA degree at Cass Business School, London.

Professional career:

Kent at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2010.

1978–1999

Muhtar Kent found a job at The Coca-Cola Company in Turkey through a newspaper ad in 1978. He toured the country in trucks to sell Coca-Cola, and thereby learned its distribution, marketing and logistics systems.

In 1985, he was promoted to the general manager position of Coca-Cola Turkey and Central Asia, and transferred the headquarters of the company from Izmir to Istanbul. Three years later, he was appointed president of the Company’s East Central Europe Division, responsible for 23 countries in a region from the Alps to the Himalayas. Living in Vienna, Austria, he served at this post until 1995.

Promoted further, Muhtar Kent became in 1995 managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil-Europe. In two years, he increased the turnover of the company about 50%, which covered bottling operations in 12 European countries.

1999–2005

In 1999, Kent left the Coca-Cola Company after 20 years of service. Returning to Turkey, Muhtar Kent became CEO of Efes Beverage Group at Anadolu Group, the largest local shareholder of the Coca-Cola franchise in Turkey and one of Europe's largest international beverage businesses. He extended the company's territory from the Adriatic to China.

2005–present

In May 2005, Kent rejoined Coca-Cola after almost 6 years and was appointed president and chief operating officer of the company’s North Asia, Eurasia and Middle East Group, a position reporting directly to chairman and chief executive officer Neville Isdell. Muhtar Kent's rise continued and he was promoted in January 2006, to the newly created position of president of International Operations. In this capacity, he was responsible for all operations outside of North America, and all group presidents outside of North America reported to him.

Kent's successful career took him finally to the summit of The Coca-Cola Company, which named him chief executive officer, effective July 1, 2008. He became chairman of the board and chief executive officer, effective April 23, 2009. By 2015 he is paid over US$ 25MM a year by Coca-Cola.

Muhtar Kent is active in the global business community and currently is co-chair of the Consumer Goods Forum, a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, a member of the Business Roundtable, a past Chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council and current chairman emeritus of the US-ASEAN Business Council. He also was recently appointed as a member of the Eminent Persons Group for ASEAN by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. He serves on the boards of Special Olympics International, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Catalyst and Emory University. He received an honorary degree in Doctor of Laws from Oglethorpe University in 2008.

He currently serves on the board of directors of The American Turkish Society and the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

He is also an invitee of the Bilderberg Group and attended the Greece 2009 Bilderberg conference at the Astir Palace resort in Vouliagmeni, Greece.

On May 3, 2014, Muhtar Kent was awarded an honorary degree by the Georgia Institute of Technology during the morning graduation ceremony (at which he gave the commencement address).